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Charles Ogletree | |
|---|---|
 Ogletree in 2014 | |
| Born | Charles James Ogletree Jr. (1952-12-31)December 31, 1952 Merced, California, U.S. |
| Died | August 4, 2023(2023-08-04) (aged 70) Odenton, Maryland, U.S. |
| Education | Stanford University (BA,MA) Harvard University (JD) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | University website |
Charles James Ogletree Jr. (December 31, 1952 – August 4, 2023) was an American legal scholar who served as the Jesse Climenko Professor atHarvard Law School, where he was the founder of the school'sCharles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.[1] He was also the author of books on legal topics.[2][3]
Ogletree was born on December 31, 1952, inMerced, California, to parents who were farm workers.[4] They later divorced.[4] He earned both hisBA (1974, with distinction) andMA (1975) inpolitical science fromStanford University and hisJD fromHarvard Law School in 1978.[4] While in law school he became president of the Black American Law Students Association (later known as theNational Black Law Students Association).[4]
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After graduating from law school, Ogletree worked for theDistrict of ColumbiaPublic Defender Service until 1985, first as a staff attorney, then as training director, trial chief, and deputy director. As an attorney, he represented such notable figures asTupac Shakur andAnita Hill.[5][6]
In 1985, Harvard Law School hired Ogletree as a visiting professor, promoting him in 1989 to assistant professor. His area of specialization was clinical legal practice, including "the role of public defenders in society."[7]
In 1990 he founded the Criminal Justice Institute, according toThe Harvard Crimson "a clinic program through which law students represent indigent Boston-area clients in criminal court."[8]
In 1992, he became the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and vice dean for clinical programs.[4] In 1993,
Moderator of television programs, includingState of the Black Union; Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community; (with others)Ethics in America;[9] Hard Drugs, Hard Choices, Liberty and Limits: Whose Law, Whose Order?;[9] Credibility in the Newsroom, Race to Execution, 2006; Beyond Black and White;[9] Liberty & Limits: Whose Law, Whose Order?;[9] That Delicate Balance II: Our Bill of Rights;[9] and otherPublic Broadcasting Service broadcasts.[9]
Television programs he was a guest on includeNightline,[9]This Week with David Brinkley,McNeil-Lehrer News Hour,Crossfire,Today Show,Good Morning America,Larry King Live,Cochran and Company :Burden of Proof,Tavis Smiley,Frontline,America's Black Forum, andMeet the Press.[9]
He was a consultant toNBC news on theO. J. Simpson murder case, which he predicted would end in a "hung jury or an acquittal."[10] Interviewed about the case ten years later, Ogletree described it as one in which "the system worked," saying "At every significant point in this case, the government presented evidence, and the defense rebutted it with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When you have that, even though there is an assumption of guilt, even though there is a suspicion of guilt, even though there is a deep-seated feeling of guilt, the system says if you don't have an abiding conviction that the person is guilty, you have to find them not guilty."[11]
Ogletree contributed to periodicals such asNew Crisis,Public Utilities Fortnightly, andHarvard Law Review.[citation needed]
In February 2011, he gave a three-part lecture atHarvard Law School entitled "Understanding Obama", which provides an inside look at President Barack Obama's journey from boyhood in Hawaii to the White House.[12]
Ogletree appeared in the 2013 documentary film,Justice is a Black Woman: The Life and Works of Constance Baker Motley and in the 2014 documentary,Hate Crimes in the Heartland, providing an analysis of theTulsa Race Riots.[citation needed]
Ogletree was a member of theboard of trustees atStanford University. He founded theMerced, California scholarships. He was the chairman of the board of trustees ofUniversity of the District of Columbia.[citation needed] While a student at Harvard Law School, he was elected national president of the Black Law Students Association.[4]
Ogletree taught bothBarack andMichelle Obama at Harvard; he remained close to Barack Obama throughout his political career.[13]
Ogletree wrote opinion pieces on the state ofrace in the United States for major publications.[14] Ogletree also served as the moderator for a panel discussion on civil rights in baseball on March 28, 2008, that accompanied the second annualMajor League Baseballcivil rights exhibition game the following day between theNew York Mets and theChicago White Sox.[15]
On July 21, 2009, Ogletree issued a statement in response to the arrest of his Harvard colleague and client, ProfessorHenry Louis Gates, Jr., whose arrest at his own home became a major news story about the nexus of politics, police power, and race that summer.[16] Professor Ogletree later wrote a book about the events titledThe Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America.
Ogletree was a founder of the Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School and served on the school's foundation board. The school library is named in his honor.[citation needed]
In 2004, Harvard disciplined Ogletree for theplagiarism of six paragraphs fromYale scholarJack Balkin's book,What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said in his own book,All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education.[17] Ogletree apologized, saying that he "made a serious mistake during the editorial process of completing this book, and delegated too much responsibility to others during the final editing process." Former Harvard PresidentDerek C. Bok concluded, "There was no deliberate wrongdoing at all ... He marshaled his assistants and parceled out the work and in the process some quotation marks got lost."[18][19]
In 2014, Ogletree's wife started noticing health issues when he was 60 years old. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at age 62 in May 2015.[20] On July 13, 2016, Ogletree announced he had been diagnosed with early-stageAlzheimer's disease.[21] In 2019, Ogletree went missing and was found safe by the police after an extensive missing persons search.[22][23]
Ogletree died on August 4, 2023, at the age of 70.[4][24]
Ogletree received the National Conference on Black Lawyers People's Lawyer of the Year Award, the Man of Vision Award, Museum of Afro-American History (Boston), the Albert Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence, Harvard Law School in 1993, theEllis Island Medal of Honor, 1995, the Ruffin-Fenwick Trailblazer Award, and the 21st Century Achievement Award,Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.[citation needed]
In 2017, the Charles J. Ogletree Jr. Chair in Race and Criminal Justice was established at Harvard Law School in his honor.[1][25]
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Ogletree was hired by the Law School in 1989 as an assistant professor--specializing in clinical legal practice--after four years as a visiting professor. His scholarship focuses on the role of public defenders in society, and he has been concerned more with the practice of law than with legal theory.
In 1985, Ogletree returned as a lecturer to Harvard Law School, where he became a tenured professor in 1993. While at Harvard, he became a leading authority on civil rights and the study of race and the law. Ogletree remained deeply committed to social justice and, in 1990, founded the Law School's Criminal Justice Institute, a clinic program through which law students represent indigent Boston-area clients in criminal court.
Charles J. Ogletree, a former public defender, is the Jesse Climenko Professor at Harvard Law School. He has appeared as a commentator on such programs asNightline andMeet the Press. A prominent legal theorist, he has made a reputation in taking a hard look at complex constitutional issues of law and in criminal justice issues. He has worked with the Fred Friendly Seminars for many years and was the moderator for Beyond Black and White: Affirmative Action in America; Liberty & Limits: Whose Law, Whose Order?; Ethics in America; Hard Drugs, Hard Choices; and That Delicate Balance II: Our Bill of Rights.
Ogletree, who is serving as a consultant on the case for NBC News, said the press and the brouhaha surrounding the case have corrupted the sanctity of the courtroom...Ogletree predicted that the case will likely end in a "hung jury or an acquittal," but he rejected the assertion by some commentators that it will be a result of racial polarization.
I've tried so many murder cases and rape cases and drug cases and other cases in my life as a public defender and a criminal defense lawyer, and it always amazes me that people misunderstand what the criminal justice system is all about. It's not truly a search for the truth. We can't do that in the system. If it was a search for the truth, we'd bring in everything about a person's background. We'd let all their past records come in. It's a search for justice, and justice means that it's fair.
Ogletree said he will be subject to disciplinary action from Harvard, but refused to say what the discipline would be ... it is not the policy of the school to comment on disciplinary action.
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| External videos | |
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 Ogletree onThe Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America, June 30, 2010,Democracy Now! |
