Post by CCADP on Apr 6, 2006 6:45:15 GMT -5
Defense attorney explains use of story-telling
Belzer was theater major at Knox
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
GALESBURG - Keith Belzer, a Knox College graduate and noted criminal defense attorney, will give a talk, "The Use of Narrative in Criminal Defense," at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Alumni Room of Old Main.
Belzer, who graduated from Knox in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in theater, worked as an actor, director and playwright in Chicago while completing his law degree at Loyola University. He has applied techniques derived from literature and theater, including the use of narrative and story-telling, in criminal defense work. Belzer has given presentations to defense attorneys and public defenders throughout the United States and in Israel and China.
Belzer also has been involved in several high-profile trials, including a 1999 case that featured the largest damage award in U.S. history for a jail neglecting to provide mental health treatment, and a 2005 murder case that will be featured in the June 6 episode of the A and E television program "American Justice."
In the 2005 case, Belzer joined with the Wisconsin Innocence Project to defend Evan Zimmerman, who had been convicted of murdering his former girlfriend, Kathleen Thompson, in 2000. During a re-trial in 2005, the defense argued that DNA and forensic crime scene evidence exonerated Zimmerman. Before the second trial was completed, the state dropped the charges and released Zimmerman. Both A and E and Court TV covered the trial.
In the 1999 case, Belzer collaborated with Knox College theater professor Craig Choma to construct in the courtroom a life-size replica of a jail cell, to show the conditions under which a mentally ill inmate had been held. The inmate, who was awarded a precedent-setting $5 million judgment, argued that his mental condition had deteriorated during the two months he was held in solitary confinement.
While at Knox, Belzer also is serving as an outside examiner for a senior research project in theater. Knox student Heather Courtney is directing performances Thursday through Saturday in Knox's Studio Theatre of "The Exonerated," a documentary about people who spent time on death row but were later released.
Belzer was theater major at Knox
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
GALESBURG - Keith Belzer, a Knox College graduate and noted criminal defense attorney, will give a talk, "The Use of Narrative in Criminal Defense," at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Alumni Room of Old Main.
Belzer, who graduated from Knox in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in theater, worked as an actor, director and playwright in Chicago while completing his law degree at Loyola University. He has applied techniques derived from literature and theater, including the use of narrative and story-telling, in criminal defense work. Belzer has given presentations to defense attorneys and public defenders throughout the United States and in Israel and China.
Belzer also has been involved in several high-profile trials, including a 1999 case that featured the largest damage award in U.S. history for a jail neglecting to provide mental health treatment, and a 2005 murder case that will be featured in the June 6 episode of the A and E television program "American Justice."
In the 2005 case, Belzer joined with the Wisconsin Innocence Project to defend Evan Zimmerman, who had been convicted of murdering his former girlfriend, Kathleen Thompson, in 2000. During a re-trial in 2005, the defense argued that DNA and forensic crime scene evidence exonerated Zimmerman. Before the second trial was completed, the state dropped the charges and released Zimmerman. Both A and E and Court TV covered the trial.
In the 1999 case, Belzer collaborated with Knox College theater professor Craig Choma to construct in the courtroom a life-size replica of a jail cell, to show the conditions under which a mentally ill inmate had been held. The inmate, who was awarded a precedent-setting $5 million judgment, argued that his mental condition had deteriorated during the two months he was held in solitary confinement.
While at Knox, Belzer also is serving as an outside examiner for a senior research project in theater. Knox student Heather Courtney is directing performances Thursday through Saturday in Knox's Studio Theatre of "The Exonerated," a documentary about people who spent time on death row but were later released.