Judicial Profile Hon. Kevin Thomas Duffy U.S. District Judge, Southern District of New York by Kevin N. Ainsworth udge Duffy has impressed litigants, lawyers, jurors and his colleagues as a jurist of rare legal acumen who gets right to the core of a case, a human being of unusual common Jsense, humor, and humility.”1 Hon. John F. Keenan wrote those words of praise 24 years ago, on the 20th anniversary of Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy as a U.S. district judge. Judge Duffy is now in his 44th year on Kevin N. Ainsworth (Clerk No. 31 to Hon. the bench, and Judge Keenan’s description remains Kevin Thomas Duffy as apt as it did in 1992. (KTD)) is a member of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris The “Early Years” Glovsky and Popeo PC The first 20 years of Judge Duffy’s judicial career were and represents clients in complex commercial famously marked by large, complex, criminal trials litigation and intellec- involving organized crime, narcotics, murder, extor- tual property litigation. tion, and RICO charges, as well as crimes arising from He thanks Faraj Bader domestic terrorism by the Black Liberation Army.2 (KTD Clerk No. 63) and Upon his appointment, he was the youngest member Francesca Brody (KTD Clerk No. 64) for provid- of the federal judiciary. And in his first year on the jurors’ attention, and the other defendants sought a ing copies of speeches, bench, he was assigned “one of the most complicated mistrial. Judge Duffy, after a careful voir dire of the jury instructions, and difficult organized crime narcotics cases ever jurors, proceeded with the trial. The Court of Appeals photographs, and other tried in Manhattan federal court” (i.e., United States agreed that the trial was fair and affirmed the resulting valuable information v. Tramunti, which had 31 defendants).3 All of the convictions. and assistance. © 2016 Kevin N. Ainsworth. convictions were affirmed. He also had some exceptionally interesting civil All rights reserved. Ten years later, he conducted a five-month trial cases, including the “Iranian assets litigation,” which of six defendants in connection with a racketeering required him to “decide whether [President Jimmy enterprise involving a 1981 Brinks armored-truck Carter] was acting within his constitutional and statu- robbery, other armored-truck robberies, two murders, tory powers when he entered into an agreement with and the prison escape of the Black Liberation Army Iran and issued executive orders [requiring courts to leader. The defendants sought to take advantage of nullify orders of attachment over Iranian assets] in the trial publicity to advance their political views. The order to effect the release of the American hostages.”5 conduct of one defense attorney was so outrageous In an unusual copyright case early in his career, he that Judge Duffy twice cited him for criminal con- granted a preliminary injunction in favor of Walt Dis- tempt, holding: “[Counsel’s] contumacious behavior ney Productions to stop the use of the “Mickey Mouse was not part and parcel of a vigorous defense of his March” music in The Life and Times of the Happy client but instead was intended to cause significant Hooker. He rejected a parody defense, stating that disruption of the proceedings.”4 That conviction was “[w]hile defendants may have been seeking in their affirmed, as were the convictions at trial. display of bestiality to parody life, they did not parody In 1985, he handled another large organized crime the Mickey Mouse March.”6 case, United States v. Castellano. Two and a half That was 20 years before I clerked for him, but we months into that trial, defendant Paul Castellano still found it amusing when he called to offer me a job was gunned down outside of Sparks Steakhouse in as his clerk—and I returned his call while in Walt Dis- Manhattan. The publicity of that murder caught the ney World. He asked me, no doubt while grinning: “How 20 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • March 2016 would you like to work for a real Mickey Mouse outfit?” the convictions of al Qaeda terrorists Wadih El-Hage The second 20 years of his judicial career were quite and Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-’Owhali for their roles a wild ride. They began with cases of even greater notori- in bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.11 ety—and an unfortunate focus on international terrorism. The Second Circuit praised his conduct of those difficult post-trial motions involving issues of first impression: An Era of Terrorist Trials On Feb. 26, 1993, the World Trade Center (WTC) was The post-conviction proceedings, including bombed. Six people were killed, and hundreds were extended evidentiary hearings, were conducted injured. Four of the perpetrators were quickly captured, with equal thoroughness by Judge Kevin Thomas and the case was assigned to Judge Duffy. That series Duffy. Our review of this complex and difficult of events, and the subsequent terrorism cases, would case leaves us confident that defendants re- eclipse much of his prior career. ceived a fair trial, and we commend the two dis- Very quickly after the WTC bombing, Judge Duffy trict judges who presided over these proceedings turned his attention to that trial, which lasted six for their learned and thorough rulings on the nu- months. The jury returned a guilty verdict on March merous issues—some of first impression—raised 4, 1994, one year after the bombing. But the master- in this complicated case. We mind of that bombing, Ramzi Yousef, had not yet been also recognize their consci- On Feb. 26, 1993, the caught. He would later be caught and tried before entious efforts to ensure that Judge Duffy for the WTC bombing and another terror- the rights of defendants and World Trade Center (WTC) ism conspiracy. the needs of national security was bombed. Six people In the period between the two WTC bombing trials, were equally met during were killed, and hundreds I had the great pleasure and honor of being his clerk, these proceedings.12 were injured. Four of or as he says, “assistant judge.” During that short era, Judge Duffy conducted a hearing to determine whether A Sense of Duty the perpetrators were the United States could grant Israel’s request to extra- Death threats have not deterred quickly captured, and dite Abu Marzook (a leader of the Islamic resistance Judge Duffy. In 1993, the U.S. the case was assigned movement, Hamas) to stand trial for murder and other Marshals Service determined that charges related to acts of terrorism there. Judge Duffy there was a credible threat to his to Judge Duffy. That held that Abu Marzook could be extradited.7 (Israel, life and began providing round- series of events, and the however, later dropped the extradition request.8) the-clock security for him and his subsequent terrorism Then followed the first trial of Ramzi Yousef. After wife, Judge Irene J. Duffy (née six months of testimony, the jury convicted him and two Krumeich). The Judges Duffy cases, would eclipse others of the Manila bombing conspiracy (also known as lived with that imposition—the much of his prior career. the Bojinka plot), in which they had planned to bomb 11 ever-present guard detail and 747 airliners over the Pacific Ocean. (Evidence also sug- lack of personal privacy—for 10 gested that Yousef had planned to assassinate Pope John years. Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy, however, was noncha- Paul II, though that conspiracy was not charged.9) In the lant. When Yousef used the death threats as a basis for middle of that trial, TWA Flight 800—a 747—exploded asking him to recuse himself, Judge Duffy denied that over the Long Island Sound in New York while en route motion, stating: to Paris from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. Some members of the media speculated that the explosion was It is of particular note that Yousef’s threats made related to, or in retaliation for, the trial of Yousef. As with absolutely no change in my life. I have received Castellano’s murder, Judge Duffy conducted a mid-trial death threats for the last quarter century. Such voir dire of the jury, concluded that the trial would be are well known to trial judges. Like most of fair, and continued with the trial. my colleagues, such threats do not inhibit the In 1997, Judge Duffy conducted a trial for Yousef fulfillment of our oath of office to “faithfully and and another defendant for their involvement in the 1993 impartially discharge” the duties of our office.13 WTC bombing. Again, the jury convicted. Appeals followed, and the convictions were affirmed, Judge Duffy’s 43 years (and counting) on the bench, with the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit com- and his dedication in the face of death threats, say plenty menting, “Judge Duffy carefully, impartially, and com- about his character. But there is much more to say. He mendably conducted the two lengthy and extraordinarily has dedicated more than 53 years in public service: first complex trials from which these appeals were taken. The as a bailiff and then law clerk for Hon. J. Edward Lum- fairness of the proceedings over which he presided is bard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit beyond doubt.”10 (1955–58); then as an assistant U.S. attorney and assis- Even after assuming senior status in 1998, Judge tant chief attorney for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Duffy continued to handle terrorism cases. As recently Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as 2010, he expertly handled post-trial motions after (1958–61); then as regional administrator of the New March 2016 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • 21 York office of the Securities and Exchange Commission bread to feed his family.