Prominent Chicago defense lawyer Thomas Durkin, a zealous advocate for clients, has died at 78

WASHINGTON AP Thomas Anthony Durkin a nationally prominent criminal defense attorney who for five decades was a fixture in Chicago s courthouses and who was known for his relentless advocacy for a roster of notorious clients has died He was years old Durkin died Monday after a brief battle with cancer commented a daughter Alanna Durkin Richer an Associated Press journalist in Washington Durkin participated in specific of Chicago s highest-profile court cases but his influence spanned beyond the city through his representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees lectures at law schools across the country and legal essays and news media interviews in which he sounded the alarm about the perils of unchecked administration power His career was driven by a conviction that all defendants no matter their alleged crime or society s perception of them were entitled to a rigorous defense and to the protection of their constitutionally afforded civil rights So committed was he to the defense of the unpopular that the headline of a Wall Street Journal article described him as a terror suspect s best hope in court I don t do this because I think my clients are wonderful people who should be exonerated he was quoted in the story as saying I do it because I think I have a role in the system Durkin was born on the South Side of Chicago to a steel mill worker who saved enough money to put his son through the University of Notre Dame where he graduated in and whose home football games he rarely missed He later received a law degree from the University of San Francisco where he was exposed to criminal defense by serving as a pupil adviser at a local constituents defender s office Returning to Chicago he clerked for Judge James Parsons of the U S District Court for the Northern District of Illinois before entering private practice with a specialty in federal criminal cases From through he served as a federal prosecutor in Chicago Over more than years in private practice he cultivated a reputation as one of the country s foremost advocates of defendants other attorneys would pass on representing He took on the majority challenging controversial and complex cases that other lawyers would run away from disclosed Joshua Herman an attorney who worked on national shield matters with Durkin Above all he valued the rule of law the preponderance and raised his strongest objections to what he saw as abuses of power Durkin s clients included Adel Daoud who was accused in a plot to bomb a Chicago bar and Mohammed Hamzah Khan who as a teenager was arrested on charges of conspiring to provide advocacy to the Islamic State He won an acquittal on terrorism charges for Jared Chase one of the so-called NATO defendants accused of plotting to bomb the NATO summit in Chicago And he represented Matthew Hale a white supremacist leader accused of domestic terrorism offenses for soliciting the murder of a federal judge in Chicago I used to tell him he was my favorite cause lawyer revealed Dan Webb a former U S Attorney in Chicago who explained he had known Durkin for more than years and spoke to him just a week ago for a event they were working on together When he got committed to a cause he would not stop until he accomplished his goal He also was a go-to lawyer for numerous local elected functionaries who located themselves in legal trouble The work Durkin commented appealed not only to his commitment to civil liberties but stimulated him intellectually and spiritually as well I think these are the cases of our day They point out all the problems that terrorism has spawned with the reaction on our side both good and bad I find them fascinating he commented in a Chicago Reader piece There are a few days I find it hard to believe that people are paying me to be involved in what I m involved in There s a tremendous amount of history you have to learn which I enjoy There s a lot of theology you have to understand which I enjoy Beyond Chicago he did legal work for detainees at Guantanamo Bay including helping represent Ramzi bin al-Shibh an accused facilitator of the Sept terror attacks and representing others who have since been returned to their home countries His experiences there he revealed helped show him the dark side of American intelligence I think I ve been involved in a few pretty wild stuff around here but I ve never been involved in anything as wild as this he announced in a Chicago television interview Since he operated a law practice Durkin Roberts with his wife Janis Roberts whose own legal career he was proud to pay tribute to Without Roberts he has noted there is no Durkin Besides his wife and his daughter Alanna he is survived by five other children Erin Pieplow Krista Mussa Catherine Durkin Stewart James Durkin and Matthew Durkin and grandchildren Source