Stuart Hanlon

Stuart Hanlon
Alma mater	Columbia University, Hastings College of the Law
Occupation	Lawyer

Stuart Hanlon is a criminal defense lawyer based in San Francisco, California. He has gone to trial over 150 times and handled thousands of cases. He is most well known for defending Geronimo Pratt and members of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Early life

Hanlon graduated from Columbia University in 1970, where he became involved with the radical politics of the ‘60s. In 1975, Hanlon graduated from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. He was well-known at Hastings for wearing flowing Moroccan robes and distributing politically militant leaflets.

Geronimo Pratt

In 1968, the murder of Caroline Olsen by two black men on a Santa Monica tennis court was front page news. The Los Angeles Police Department had no leads until late 1970 when former Black Panther Julio Butler wrote to the L.A.P.D. that Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt had once bragged to him about the tennis court killing. Pratt maintained that he was innocent, because the F.B.I. had him under surveillance in Oakland when the slaying was committed in Santa Monica. In 1972, the court convicted Pratt of first-degree murder. As soon as the verdict was read, Pratt exploded, saying "Guilty! You’re wrong. I didn’t kill that woman, you racist dogs."

Stuart Hanlon as a college student

In 1975, as a third-year law student at Hastings, Hanlon volunteered to work as a paralegal on prisoner rights cases at San Quentin State Prison. It was there that he met Geronimo Pratt (also known as Geronimo Ji Jaga); the year before Pratt had been denied a hearing by both the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Their first meeting was cut short when one of the prisoners on the other side of the glass barrier slashed a guard with a homemade blade, causing a squad of riot guards to rush in and beat all the prisoners with their batons. On their second visit, Hanlon found a steel-tipped Afro comb on his chair. After asking Pratt what it was, Pratt responded with “Don’t touch it man. It’s a setup. They’ll say you’re passing me a weapon. Call a guard quick.” Despite these initial roadblocks and misgivings about law as a career, Hanlon concluded that he would become a lawyer, and that his first case would be Pratt’s.

Over the ensuing 25 years, Pratt was turned down for parole 16 times and every appeal for a reversal of the guilty verdict was denied. Hanlon stated "I've been a lawyer for almost 20 years, and I win almost every trial I do... I win federal drug cases and murder trials. It just boggles my mind that we have continued to lose Pratt's case. There could be 10 reversals on the evidence we have." Hanlon developed a close relationship with Pratt, calling Pratt one of his 2 or 3 closest friends in the world.

In June 1997, Pratt was released from prison when an Orange County Superior Court judge reversed his murder conviction, on the basis that a key prosecution witness, Julius Butler was a felon and an F.B.I. informant. Regarding the verdict, Hanlon said "It doesn’t prove that justice works... To me, if it takes 27 years and this kind of legal struggle to get someone out, it doesn’t prove anything about justice. But on the other hand, it’s a resolution that makes sense and lets everybody move on with their life." In April 2000, Hanlon won a $4.5 million verdict for Pratt in his civil action suit against the city of Los Angeles and the F.B.I. It was the first time the F.B.I. paid out money in a verdict when it was not involved in the prosecution. In describing the verdict, Hanlon said “they still deny culpability for what happened to Pratt. But you don’t pay that amount of money if you didn’t do anything wrong." Johnnie Cochran, who worked on the case with Hanlon from the beginning, has called Pratt’s case the most important of his career.

Career

Hanlon represented Emily Harris and her ex-husband William Harris, two members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, for the 1975 murder of a Sacramento woman during a bank robbery. He also represented and won the acquittal of another member of the SLA, Russell Little, for his role in the murder of an Oakland School Superintendent. The trials were worldwide news.

Hanlon was one of the attorneys who won the acquittal of Chol Soo Lee, who was wrongfully convicted of murdering San Francisco Chinatown gang member Yip Yee Tak. The case was profiled on ABC’s 20/20, and parts of Hanlon’s opening statement were used in the movie True Believer, which was based on the trial.

In 2003, Hanlon defended San Francisco Deputy Police Chief Greg Suhr against charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. The charge stemmed from the investigation into a street fight in which three rookie officers were charged with felony assault, with those officers in turn accusing Suhr and ten other officers of obstructing justice. Defending a police chief was a first for Hanlon, and the charges were eventually dropped by the judge.

Hanlon won the acquittal of Renato Hughes, who was charged with the inadvertent murder of two of his childhood friends, and defended Herman Bell, who was part of the San Francisco 8.

Reception

The San Francisco Chronicle called Hanlon “one of the best lawyers in San Francisco,” noting that “he is a tenacious fighter who lulls courtroom adversaries into a false sense of security with his friendly manner and then goes for the jugular. As of 2002, of the 41 clients he's represented who were charged with first-degree murder, only two have been convicted as charged.

Super Lawyers named Hanlon to their list in 1997 and 2000. 1997 he was named the California Lawyer of the Year by California Lawyer Magazine. In 1998, he received the National Lawyers Guild Award.

External links

• Stuart Hanlon's Official Website