Leslie Abramson Biography

Leslie Abramson was among the most recognized criminal defense attorneys in the United States during the 1990s. She was best known for representing Erik Menendez, who was accused, with his brother Lyle, of killing his wealthy parents in their Beverly Hills home. Abramson has represented clients in many high profile cases. Her list of clients included Khalid Parwez, a gynecologist accused of murdering his son; Peter Chan, who was charged with the death of a police officer during a robbery; Ricky Sanders, one of the killers in the Bob's Big Boy Massacre; and Jeremy Strohmeyer, a 19-year-old charged with the sexual assault and murder of a seven-year-old girl in a Las Vegas casino bathroom.

The second of three children, Abramson was born in 1943 in New York City and was raised in Queens, a borough of New York City. She attended a local four-year college and graduated in 1964. After graduation, she married and moved to California. She started law school at the University of California in Los Angeles in 1965, immediately after she gave birth to her daughter, Laine, and graduated in 1969. That year, she divorced her husband and started her first job at the Los Angeles Public Defender's office.

Abramson remained at the public defender's officer for seven years. Conducting her own jury trials, Abramson used a domineering style to control the courtroom. She was the defense attorney in felony cases including burglaries, kidnappings, and murders. In her last year as a public defender she learned to respect her clients, something she took with her into private practice.

In 1977, Abramson left the public defender's office to work in private practice. In that year, she also married Tim Rutten, a writer for the Los Angeles Times. In many cases, Abramson worked to save guilty clients from facing the death penalty. In 1981, she represented Ricky Sanders, one of two men who robbed Bob's Big Boy in West L.A. and randomly killed patrons and employees. Abramson lost the defense, and her client received the death penalty. But prior to representing Erik Menendez, in fourteen death penalty cases, he was the only client who was sentenced to death.

In preparation for trial, Abramson got to know her clients, their families, and those circumstances which contributed to their criminal behavior. In representing Erik Menendez, Abramson argued that the he and his brother were psychologically abused and thus not responsible for how they developed. The first trial lasted for over six months and resulted in hung juries for both brothers. Abramson was appointed by the State of California to represent Erik Menendez in a second trial which began in March 1995. On March 20, 1996 the Menendez brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Abramson was named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Association on two different occasions. She served as a commentator for ABC news show Nightline during the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and she was the first women president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice. In 1997 her book, The Defense is Ready: Life in the Trenches of Criminal Law, was published.