Barry Scheck

About

Best known as one of the criminal defense attorneys for football star-turned-murder suspect O.J. Simpson, this American lawyer also helped found The Innocence Project, an organization devoted to using DNA evidence to free people imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.

Before Fame

After graduating from Yale University in the early 1970s, he earned both a law degree and a master's degree in urban planning from the University of California-Berkeley.

Trivia

He represented such famous clients as murder suspects/nannies Hedda Nussbaum and Louise Woodward; Duke University lacrosse player and accused rapist Reade Seligmann; and Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz (both wrongly convicted of murder).

Family Life

He was born and raised in the Queens and Bronx neighborhoods of New York City.

Associated With

He accepted a faculty appointment at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law (named for the former United States Supreme Court Justice).