Race, Rape, and Injustice: Documenting and Challenging Death Penalty Cases in the Civil Rights Era

Epilogue: Where Are They Now?

Epilogue Where Are They Now? After the tumultuous summer of 1965, the twenty-eight law students, most toughened and touched by the experience, returned to law school to complete their educations and launch careers in the law. In the intervening decades, they took on all manner of roles. Some gravitated to family law, others to corporate law, while others became legal advocates for the poor. They were a talented lot with several winning honors and awards, and one even having a building named after him. This epilogue includes a brief look at the later lives of some of those law student researchers, as well as those of the legal advocates who directed the project and the criminologist who made sense of the data recovered. They generously contributed to the author’s memories of the research project, though, of course, this book’s interpretation of what sprang from those efforts is his alone. The Law Students Thomas C. “Tim” Brayton Brayton completed his studies at the UCLA School of Law, graduating in 1967 and earning admission to the California State Bar the following year. He became a research attorney with the appellate department of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County where he worked for a couple of years before moving on to private practice specializing in family law. He became—and still remains—a partner in the law firm of Jones and Brayton in Claremont, California, and is certified as a family law specialist by the state bar’s Board of Legal Specialization. 158 Epilogue: Where Are They Now? Philip Brown Brownalsograduatedin1967fromUCLALawSchool,wherehefounded the UCLA chapter of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council. After law school, Brown began law practice as an associate at a law firm but opened his own practice in Los Angeles in 1969. He is now a partner in Egerman & Brown, LLP, with his brother-in-law Mark Egerman, and specializes in civil litigation, both trial and appellate. He has handled a wide range of matters ranging from securities fraud, general contract/ business tort litigation, and institutional lender litigation to will contests , health insurance law matters, financial elder abuse, medical and legal malpractice, and products liability. Brown served for seven years as a judge pro tem for the Los Angeles Municipal Court, for eight years as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, for ten years as an arbitrator for attorney/client disputes for the Beverly Hills Bar Association, for nine years as a probation monitor for the State Bar Court, and for five years as a director of the Beverly Hills Education Foundation. He and his wife, Terry, have run the New York Marathon four times. They have two adult daughters, one of whom is also a lawyer. Bennett Brummer Brummer graduated from the University of Miami Law School in 1965 and has spent much of his career as a public defender, winning election as Dade County public defender for eight consecutive terms. His service career began early, as he spent two years with the Peace Corps in Venezuela, where he became fluent in Spanish. Later, a fellowship brought him to the Legal Services of Greater Miami, where he attended to the legal needs of low-income, multiracial, and multiethnic persons in Dade and Monroe counties. In 1971 he joined the Dade County Public Defender’s Office as an assistant public defender and by 1976 was elected to head the agency, which includes two hundred attorneys who handle about 100,000 cases per year. In 2002 the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida and the Florida Bar’s Criminal Justice Section bestowed their highest awards upon him. Most recently, Brummer was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Retarded Citizens of South Florida.AndfromFlorida’sChildrenFirst!hewashonoredwithanaward for being one of Miami–Dade County’s outstanding child advocates. Epilogue: Where Are They Now? 159 The Miami Herald described him as an “intelligent, cultivated and thoughtful public servant,” who “stick[s] up for those who can’t stick up for themselves.” He was recently honored with the dedication of the sixstory Bennett H. Brummer Building by Miami-Dade County. Brummer now serves as senior advisor to his successor, Carlos Martinez, and as a consultant on public defender and court management. Richard Burns One of the law students who researched Florida’s rape cases, Burns worked under the direction of Tobias Simon, a well-known civil rights attorney in the Miami area and...