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Curriculum Vitae of Attorney Robert R. Bryan San Francisco attorney Robert R. Bryan has appeared as chief counsel in numerous murder cases and specializes in death-penalty litigation. He is a member of the bars of California, New York, Alabama, United States Supreme Court and various federal courts, and a Fellow in the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. He is the former Chairperson of the Washington-based National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (1987-90), was Vice-Chair (1991-93), and served 10 years on its Board of Directors. In 2003 Robert became the lead attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal federally. Mumia first asked Robert to consider taking his case in 1991, but the attorney had to decline at that time due to other capital case commitments. Robert is counsel in capital cases at the federal and state level, and has defended many people against whom the death penalty was sought. His first murder case at the age of 26 resulted in the acquittal in the Ammons case in Birmingham, Alabama. The lawyer represented Jerry D. Bigelow, who had spent years on California's death row before being granted a new trial. Even though the evidence included the client's 10 confessions to an execution-style murder, in 1988 a Monterey County jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Another client was Larry Layton, the only person ever charged in the Peoples Temple case which concerned the death of Congressman Leo Ryan and over 900 people in Jonestown, Guyana, at the direction of Rev. Jim Jones. Robert has also been counsel to members of the American Indian Movement. He won a dismissal of all murder charges again Jimmy Eagle, who had been indicted for the June 26, 1975 killing of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. Leonard Peltier, represented by other attorneys, was later convicted even though also innocent of the charges. Robert represented federally Gladys Bissonette, who was one of the leaders during the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee. He was also the attorney for the Menominee Warrior Society during its 1975 armed occupation of the abandoned Alexian Brothers' Novitiate near Gresham, Wisconsin. He successfully demanded that the 65-room mansion, other buildings, and its 232 acres be returned to the Native Americans who once owned the land. For 15 years Robert represented Anna Hauptmann, who died at the age of 95 in 1994 in Pennsylvania. She was the widow of Richard Hauptmann, the German immigrant man executed in 1936 in New Jersey for the kidnap-murder of Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr. The attorney uncovered evidence from government files establishing that the authorities knowingly prosecuted an innocent person and that the Trial of the Century was the greatest fraud in US legal history. He pursued litigation in New Jersey against the FBI and those who prosecuted the case attempting to officially right the wrong. His findings are the subject of The Airman and The Carpenter by Ludovic Kennedy (Viking 1985, Penguin 1986), other books, documentaries and a movie. A section of Murders Die by Denis Brian (St. Martin's Press 1986) is an interview with the attorney on the Hauptmann case and the death penalty. Robert is working on a book concerning the case. Since 1994 Robert has been the legal commentator for ABC television in San Francisco. He has debated and lectured on the death penalty at various universities, e.g., Harvard, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, S.M.U., Loyola (Chicago & New Orleans), Texas Southern University, and has appeared on many television and radio programs regarding human rights issues. A chapter entitled "The Defender" in the book A Punishment In Search Of A Crime by Ian Gray and Moira Stanley (Avon 1989) describes Robert's work in fighting capital punishment. His work is featured in Modern Trials by Melvin Belli (West 1982). The attorney has testified as an expert witness regarding the minimum standards of lawyer competence in capital cases. Robert has written articles on the death penalty and human rights, e.g., Taking A Stand, Verdict (Jan. 1998); What Price Justice?, Parliamentary Review (England, Oct. 1997); Waco: Inferno of Rights, San Francisco Attorney (S.F. Bar Assoc., Sept., 1993), Death Penalty Trials: The Innocence of Jerry Bigelow and Defense Creativity, Champion (Nat. Assoc. of Crim. Def. Law., Dec. 1993), Death Penalty Trials: Lawyers Need Help, Forum (Calif. Attys. for Crim. Justice, May-June, 1989), Champion (Aug., 1988); In Trial By Fury: The Lindbergh Case, SF Examiner (Apr. 3, 1996), he discussed the wrongfulness of the death penalty on the 60th anniversary of the execution of Richard Hauptmann in New Jersey for the Lindbergh kidnap-murder. A longer version of the article appears in the book Frontiers of Justice, Volume 1: The Death Penalty (Biddle 1997). He demonstrated that innocent people are unavoidably put to death in any capital punishment system regardless of precautions to ensure fairness, in The Execution of the Innocent: The Tragedy of the Hauptmann-Lindbergh and Bigelow Cases, 18 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 831 (1991). Dedicated Defender, Verdict (July 1998) also contains an interview with the attorney. The activities and memberships of Robert have included: Nat. Lawyers Guild; Bd. of Dir., Nat. Coalition Concerned Legal Prof. (2000-present); Bd. of Dir., Lycée Français La Pérouse (1997-98); Bd. of Dir. and Chair, No. Cal. Coal. to Abol. the Death Pen., S.F. (1985-1992); N.Y. State Def. Assn.; N.Y. State Assn. of Crim. Def. Lawyers; Adv. Council, Amer. Indians and the Death Pen. (1985-92); Adv. Bd., Fla. Assn. for Prof. Hyp.; Legal Adv. Bd., Internat. Soc'ty for Prof. Hyp.; Crim. Trial Law. Assn.; ACLU; NAACP; AFTRA; Int'l Churchill Soc'ty; Amnesty International.; Chopin Fdn.; Glenn Gould Fdn. Robert is married to Nicole, a French citizen, who is working on behalf Mumia Abu-Jamal and other death-row clients. Their young daughter, Auda Mai, is an outstanding pianist. They live in San Francisco, and also spend time at the family home in France. Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan |