Judy Clarke: Marathon Bomber's High-Profile Lawyer

The marathon bombing trial is now in the sentencing stage. The 12 jurors will decide whether or not Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will get the death penalty. If the lawyer representing Tsarnaev has her way, the 21-year-old will spend his life in prison and not be put to death.

That lawyer is Judy Clarke, a tireless anti-death penalty advocate, who has represented notorious criminals such as Susan Smith, who drowned her children in 1994; the “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski; and Jared Loughner, who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. From the public radio program Reveal, Al Letson has this profile of Judy Clarke.

This segment, based on Mark Bowden’s investigative report in Vanity Fair comes to us from the “Law and Disorder” episode of Reveal, from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

Reporter

• Al Letson, host of Reveal. He tweets @Al_Letson.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.