 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Eleanor Susan Garsh [1] (born 18 May 1947) is a Justice of the Superior Court in Bristol Massachusetts. Garsh was appointed to her current position in 1993 by Governor William Weld. [2] In early 2015, she began presiding over the high-profile murder case involving former professional football player Aaron Hernandez.
Judge E. Susan Garsh was born to immigrant parents Henry and Rita Speier on May 18, 1947, in the Massachusetts town of Fall River. Both a daughter and granddaughter of Russian Jewish Immigrants, her father fled Nazi storm troopers during World War II and settled in Fall River, Massachusetts, finding work in a textile factory. Her grandfather several decades before that had escaped from pogroms in Russia, coming to America and finding work as a peddler. Susan's husband is also an immigrant who left the apartheid regime of the Republic of South Africa and came to Boston, where he found work with a weekly newspaper. Susan Garsh stands as an advocate of immigrant rights and legal process. In speaking about her husband and family, she is quoted as saying "These immigrants all arrived in this commonwealth with great hope and with great faith in our system of justice – hope and faith that proved to be well-placed."
Garsh attended Durfee High School where she graduated in 1965. Upon graduation of high school, Garsh went on with her education at Barnard College in New York City where she graduated in 1969. Following completion of her degree, Garsh attended Harvard Law School where she earned her J.D. in 1973. Following her time at Harvard University, Garsh served as a law clerk for Honorable Judge Levin Campbell of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, Massachusetts. Following her service under Judge Campbell, Garsh joined the international law firm of Bingham, Dana and Gould (later Bingham McCutchen). [3] Her partnership at this institution focused on litigation and lasted from 1975 to 1993. Garsh ended her time as an attorney in the private sector when she became a judge in 1993.
The Judicial Career of E. Susan Garsh began in 1993 when she was appointed by Governor William Weld to her current position of Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court. [4] As a Superior Court Judge in Massachusetts, Garsh remains in her position until the age of 70.
In 2010, Judge Susan Garsh presided over a murder case involving the shooting of a 15-year-old boy named Edwin Medina. [5] The trial took place in New Bedford Superior Court and was the last criminal case to be tried in the historical courthouse. This was the same courtroom where the famous trial of Lizzie Borden was held in 1893. The offender, George Duarte, was accused of killing the boy at a New Year's Eve party. During the trial, Judge Garsh and State prosecutor William McCauley repeatedly clashed. [5] McCauley accused Garsh of being antagonistic towards the Commonwealth's case. Following the jury's guilty verdict, McCauley was described as shocked.[ citation needed ] Throughout the course of the trial, McCauley believed[ citation needed ] that Garsh did not have the experience necessary to preside over serious murder trials such as that of Duarte. McCauley stated after the trial, "We expect and demand more from the witnesses and the judges who hear these most serious cases."[ citation needed ] Judge Garsh did not comment on the remarks of McCauley. [5]
The defendant in the case is former NFL professional football player, Aaron Hernandez, who is accused of shooting to death former amateur football player Odin Lloyd. The trial began in January 2015 in Bristol County, Massachusetts where Hernandez is being held in a segregated unit in the Bristol County jail. The case has drawn a deluge of national news networks covering the case. [6] [7]
In June 2013 the defendant, Aaron Hernandez was taken from his home in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, after he was arrested in connection with the murder of Odin Lloyd, who had been found shot to death just six days prior. Hernandez employed the Boston-based law firm of Ropes and Gray to defend him in court. The prosecution in the case is spearheaded by William McCauley, the same prosecutor who in 2010 had butted heads with Judge Garsh. When Judge Susan Garsh was named presiding judge over the Hernandez case, Prosecutor William McCauley asked that she recuse herself due to their prior conflict in the Edwin Medina murder trial where McCauley had attacked her lack of experience. McCauley's motion for recusal from the Hernandez trial was unsuccessful; though Judge Garsh gave consideration to the motion, she ultimately stated:[ citation needed ] "I do not fear or favor the Commonwealth or the defendant." [8] [9] [10] Since taking over the Hernandez case, Judge Garsh and McCauley have again butted heads, this time over Garsh's suppression of certain key prosecution evidence. Some of the items suppressed include .45 caliber bullets of the variety used in the slaying of Lloyd, an iPad, cell phone and towel, all of which were deemed improperly seized from the SUV and home of Hernandez. [6] [11] However, Judge Garsh has allowed the Hernandez home surveillance video to be used.
Judge Garsh is a member of the American Bar Association, Boston Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Association, Women's Bar Association and The National Association of Woman Judges. [4]
Judge Garsh penned an article for the Massachusetts Law Review entitled "White Doves in 2010". [12] The article discusses briefly the immigration history of Garsh's parents and her husband. In the article, Garsh elaborates on the naturalization ceremonies over which she presides. At her request, the superior court interpreters translated the phrase "My fellow Americans, Welcome" into 19 different languages so that she might begin the welcome process with just a snippet of each immigrants' own language.
Lance Allan Ito is an American retired judge, best known for presiding over the criminal trial for the O. J. Simpson murder case, held in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1995.
Joseph Francis Quinn (1857–1929) was the first Irish American to become a judge in Massachusetts for any significant period of time. He served on the bench of the Essex County Superior Court after being appointed by Governor Eugene Foss in 1911 until his death in 1929. He lived in Salem and was the son of an immigrant from the days of the Great Famine. He attended the University of Ottawa in Canada due to discrimination against the Irish in the U.S. at the time, graduating in 1881, and went on to be admitted to the bar in Massachusetts in 1884 after attending Boston University School of Law and apprenticing under a local attorney. After working for the local U.S. Attorney, Joseph Quinn started his own thriving practice.
Woo Bih Li is a Singaporean lawyer who has been serving as a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore since 2003.
Gary Lee Sampson was an American bank robber and later spree killer who killed three people and was sentenced to death by a federal jury in Massachusetts.
Cynthia Becker Mello is a former Georgia Superior Court Judge on the DeKalb Superior Court, Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit, from 2000 until March 1, 2015. She presided over several high-profile cases, including the criminal trial of former Sheriff Sidney Dorsey and the release of exonerated Clarence Harrison.
Webster Thayer was a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, best known as the trial judge in the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
Nancy Gertner is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She assumed senior status on May 22, 2011, and retired outright from the federal bench on September 1, 2011. She is now a professor of practice at Harvard Law School.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court of Massachusetts. It was created in 1972 as a court of general appellate jurisdiction. The court is located at the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, the same building which houses the Supreme Judicial Court and the Social Law Library.
Lawrence Fobes King, also known as Latisha King, was a 15-year-old student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, who was shot twice by a fellow student, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, and kept on life support for two days afterwards.
Pliny T. Merrick was an American attorney and politician from Massachusetts. He served as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Sybil Rappaport Moses was an American lawyer and judge. She was the prosecutor for the "Dr. X" murder trial of Mario Jascalevich, only four years after she graduated from law school. Moses later was a judge of the New Jersey Superior Court.
Aaron Josef Hernandez was an American professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played three seasons with the New England Patriots until his arrest and conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd.
Jose Angel Baez is an American criminal defense lawyer and author. He is known for representing high-profile defendants such as Casey Anthony, Aaron Hernandez, Mark Nordlicht, and Harvey Weinstein.
Carmen Milagros Ortiz is an attorney, college instructor, and former United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
Odin Leonardo John Lloyd was a semi-professional American football player who was murdered by Aaron Hernandez, a former tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, on June 17, 2013. Lloyd's death made international headlines following Hernandez's association with the investigation as a suspect. Lloyd had been a linebacker for a New England Football League (NEFL) semi-professional football team, the Boston Bandits, since 2007.
Marian T. Ryan is the District Attorney (DA) of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. She was the Commonwealth's only female District Attorney from 2013 to 2018. As of 2012, she is one of two, including Andrea Harrington, Berkshire County DA. She is a Democrat.
Allison Dale Burroughs is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Darcel Denise Clark is an American attorney and prosecutor who has served as the Bronx County District Attorney since 2016. Clark is the first woman to hold that office, and the first woman of color to serve as a district attorney in the history of the State of New York.
Conrad Henri Roy III was an American marine salvage captain who died by suicide at the age of 18. His girlfriend, 17-year-old Michelle Carter, had encouraged him in text messages to kill himself.
George Augustus Sanderson was an American jurist who was an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1924 until his death in 1932.
