Johnnie W. Mask and Gregory P. Isaacs spoke to
Newsweek about what it was like to defend an accused serial killer and gave their perspectives on alleged Gilgo killer
Rex Heuermann's case.
"It was basically seven, eight years out of my life and practice, but it was not a bad experience," Mask said.
Mask represented Charles Cullen, who admitted to murdering 40 people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and some believe he could have hundreds of victims. Through his job as a nurse, Cullen gave patients a fatal dose of medication in their IVs.
He pleaded guilty to killing 13 patients and to attempting to kill two others in New Jersey in April 2004. He pleaded guilty to murdering three more the following month. In November 2004, he pleaded guilty to murdering six patients and trying to kill three others in Pennsylvania. He is currently serving 18 consecutive life sentences at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.
Isaacs represented Thomas Huskey, who was accused of murdering four women in Tennessee in 1992, during two trials. Both resulted in a hung jury for the murder charges and the case was ultimately dismissed. Prior to the murder trial, Huskey was convicted on several rape charges and sentenced to 64 years in prison.
"The dynamic that I had with four capital homicides, it's a tremendous amount of work because if they're being tried together, which in my case they were, you're basically doing four capital cases at the same time," Isaac said
"I have done and do a lot of high-profile cases, but when you have the specter of a serial killer, this may sound cliche, but it almost adds a chill to the courtroom," Isaacs said. "So it's a very different dynamic and electricity that until you've been there, literally it's hard to describe."
"There's the media frenzy. The public, for whatever reason, good or bad, appears to be captivated by the fact that there was a serial killer in their community," Isaacs said.
"I think it gets attention because of the rarity of the situation," Mask said. "There's not that many serial killers around, and people are curious about what would make a person commit these crimes and they want to see what's going on in the heads of individuals that [do] these things."
The defense in Huskey's case included dissociative identity disorder, which Isaacs said increased public interest in the proceedings.
Rex Heuermann, the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer, made a list of notes. The evidence was found in March. Court documents
Defense attorneys shared what it's like to represent an accused serial killer and reacted to Rex Heuermann's case
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