Solo Practitioner
CurrentI represent clients in state and federal criminal proceedings including 5 clients -- Raymond Oyler, Erran West, Mark Reilly, James Thompson and Richard McWhorter -- on death row. I recently filed the reply brief in Mr. Oyler's appeal in the California Supreme Court. He was the first person in the U.S. to be sentenced to death in a wild-land arson case. I previously represented Jerry Kennedy in state capital habeas proceedings. He is now represented in federal proceedings in the Eastern District.I also represent Watson Allison ("Al"). In 2010, Mr. Allison's death sentence and capital conviction were reversed, and in early 2012 he was resentenced to 25 years to life with 30 years time served. After being denied parole, he was selected to participate in a CDCR program to train inmates to work as mentors and counselors. After completing that program, he worked as a mentor/counselor at CSP Solano and was recently transferred back to San Quentin to work as a mentor/ counselor. Needless to say this is a remarkable achievement. We expect him to be paroled in the not to distant future. I only take a small number of non-death penalty cases. I currently represent clients in non-capital habeas proceedings and a small number of trial proceedings in federal and state court. I have primarily represented defendants in cases involving murder, gang allegations, misappropriation/fraud, criminal threats, and marijuana. In 2015, Attorney Jai Gohel and I represented Brett Richards, the former manager of the Ross Valley Sanitation District in Marin Superior. After spending two years in custody and a highly publicized trial resulting in a hung jury, all charges against Mr. Richards were dismissed. Before becoming an attorney, I worked for 20 years on U.S. foreign policy and Africa in a variety of capacities including as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
