Elizabeth Fink
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Elizabeth Marsha Fink (June 7, 1945 – September 22, 2015) was an American
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
and criminal defense attorney. She is most prominently associated with lawsuits concerning the
Attica Prison riots The Attica Prison riot took place at the state prison in Attica, New York; it started on September 9, 1971, and ended on September 13 with the highest number of fatalities in the history of United States prison uprisings. Of the 43 men who d ...
. A class action suit she filed in 1974, against prison guards for torture and abuse during the riot, was settled in 2000, awarding $12 million to inmates.


Education

Fink was born in Brooklyn to Bernard Fink, a lawyer, and Sylvia Caplan Fink, an anti-nuclear weapon activist and an elder rights activist for the
Gray Panthers The Gray Panthers are a series of multi-generational local advocacy networks in the United States which confront ageism and many other social justice issues. The organization was formed by Maggie Kuhn in response to her forced retirement from the ...
. She was named after
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was an American labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Libe ...
, one of the founders of the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...
. Her older brother,
Larry Fink Laurence Douglas Fink (born November 2, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman. He is a co-founder, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm ...
, is a photographer. She graduated from
Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...
in 1967 and
Brooklyn Law School Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a Private university, private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and adjunct faculty. ...
in 1973.


Legal work

Fink was a founder and senior partner at the Law Office of Elizabeth M. Fink, a civil rights, prisoner rights and criminal defense firm in Brooklyn, New York. The Attica lawsuit consumed much of her time until 2000, when prisoners won a $12 million judgment from the state of New York but received neither an apology nor admission of responsibility from the state. Fink has also represented other prisoners and political radicals. In 1989, she and others secured acquittals for members of the Ohio 7, political radicals who were charged under a federal seditious conspiracy statute. Along with attorneys Sarah Kunstler (Kunstler's father,
William Kunstler William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 – September 4, 1995) was an American attorney and civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Ci ...
, had long been a mentor of Fink) and Jesse Berman, Fink represented Osama Awadallah, a
Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
college student studying in the United States, who was arrested as a
material witness In American criminal law, a material witness is a person with information alleged to be material concerning a criminal proceeding. The authority to detain material witnesses dates to the First Judiciary Act of 1789, but the Bail Reform Act of ...
in the days following the
September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
and prosecuted for alleged
perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...
before the
grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...
investigating the terrorist attacks. Awadallah was acquitted in November 2006. Also in 2006, Fink represented
Lynne Stewart Lynne Irene Stewart (October 8, 1939 – March 7, 2017) was an American defense attorney who was known for representing controversial, famous defendants. She herself was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terro ...
during sentencing after Stewart's conviction for violating special communication measures involving client Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.The Sentencing of Lynne Stewart
/ref> Fink secured a sentence of 28 months, but that was later increased to ten years. Fink represented
Jeremy Hammond Jeremy Alexander Hammond (born January 8, 1985), also known by his online moniker sup_g, is an American anarchist activist and former computer hacker from Chicago. He founded the computer security training website HackThisSiteLuman, Stuart. ''Chi ...
, who was convicted in 2013 for the
Stratfor email leak WikiLeaks began publishing emails leaked from strategic intelligence company Stratfor on 27 February 2012 under the title Global Intelligence Files. By July 2014, WikiLeaks had published 5,543,061 Stratfor emails. Wikileaks partnered with more tha ...
. Fink was a member of a team of attorneys who represented Ahmed Ferhani, who was accused of plotting to blow up synagogues and churches in
Manhattan, New York Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
. Fink argued that Ferhani had been entrapped by law enforcement authorities, but Ferhani in 2012 pleaded guilty to terrorism conspiracy and weapons possession charges. Fink died of a heart attack on September 22, 2015 in New York City, at the age of 70.


''Ghosts of Attica''

Fink and her paralegal Frank Smith, an inmate leader at the time of the riots, were featured in the 2001
Court TV Court TV is an American digital broadcast network and former pay-television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal analysis talk shows, and live news cover ...
documentary ''Ghosts of Attica'', which tells the story of the Attica uprising and subsequent lawsuits by Attica inmates. ''Ghosts'' received a 2002 Dupont-Columbia University Award for Journalistic Excellence.


References


External links


Law Office of Elizabeth M. Fink



The Attica Prison Uprising: Forty Years Later
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fink, Elizabeth M. 1945 births 2015 deaths American civil rights lawyers 20th-century American women lawyers New York (state) lawyers Reed College alumni Brooklyn Law School alumni 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women