Judy Clarke is in private practice in San Diego, California. She served as the first full-time Capital Resource Counsel for the Federal Public and Community Defender Program from 2002-2009. She has also served as the Executive Director of two Federal Defender Programs, Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington & Idaho (1992-2002) and Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. (1983-1991). She has represented a number of high profile clients accused of capital offenses, including Susan Smith in Union, South Carolina, Theodore Kaczynski, charged as the "Unabomber” in Sacramento, California, Eric Rudolph in Birmingham, Alabama, Jared Loughner, in the Tucson shootings that killed a federal judge, and seriously wounded Congresswoman Giffords, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged in the Boston Marathon bombings.
Ms. Clarke is a 1974 graduate of Furman University, and a 1977 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law. She is a Past President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, and received the John Frank award from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as well as the Griffin Bell award for Courageous Advocacy from the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Ms. Clarke has had an active role in the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project since 2002, and served as Director of the Project through May, 2024.
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