Please join Dorsey & Whitney LLP and

Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights’ Death Penalty Project

for our bi-monthly lunchtime speaker series:

State v. Gunsby: An Examination of the Many Ways the Death Penalty System Can Go Wrong

presented by

Judge Bruce A. Peterson

Tuesday, November 15, 2005
12:00-1:00 P.M.

at

Dorsey & Whitney

Seattle Room, 15th Floor

50 South 6th Street

 Minneapolis, MN 55402

Hennepin County Judge Bruce A. Peterson will discuss his team’s four years of pro bono work on behalf of Donald Gunsby, who was convicted of a murder and sentenced to death after a two-day trial. Gunsby, who suffers from mental retardation, was represented by a court-appointed lawyer with less than one year of experience. In 1996, the Florida Supreme Court granted Gunsby a new trial based on the combined effect of prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel and newly discovered evidence. Application will be made for one CLE credit. 

This presentation is a brown bag lunch.  Beverages will be provided.

Judge Bruce A. Peterson has an extensive background in public and private law. He graduated from Cornell University and Yale Law School. From 1978 to 1979, Judge Peterson served as a judicial clerk for Chief Justice Robert Sheran of the Minnesota Supreme Court. From 1979 to 1986, Judge Peterson worked in Washington, D.C. as an assistant U.S. attorney and a special assistant to the deputy assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice. In 1987, Judge Peterson returned to Minnesota and joined the law firm of Popham Haik Schnobrich & Kaufman, which in 1997 merged with the law firm of Hinshaw & Culbertson. In private practice, Judge Peterson specialized in white-collar criminal defense, commercial litigation, and governmental law. He has been selected as a "Minnesota Leading Attorney" and "Super Lawyer" in these three practice areas by local publications.  In 1999, Judge Peterson was appointed by Governor Ventura to the Hennepin County Bench. 

Please R.S.V.P. to Aaron Van Alstine at Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights

by Monday, November 14, 2005.

Phone: (612) 341-3302 ext. 127 • Email: avanalstine@mnadvocates.org