Mark P. Denbeaux (born July 30, 1943 in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, which had a population of 339,247 in ...

) is an American attorney, professor, and author. He is a law professor at

Seton Hall University School of Law Seton Hall University School of Law is the law school of Seton Hall University, and is located in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Seton Hall Law is the only private law school in New Jersey, and, according to the ''U.S. News & World Report'' rankin ...

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...

and the Director of its Center for Policy and Research. He is best known for his reports on the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and its operations. Denbeaux has testified to Congress about the findings of the Center's reports. He and his son, Joshua Denbeaux, are the legal representatives of two Tunisian detainees at Guantanamo. He is also the lead Civilian Military Commission Counsel for two detainees who were tortured by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

black site In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with ...

s prior to their detainment. Denbeaux is an expert in forensics and has testified as an expert witness in cases across the country. Denbeaux also is a practicing attorney in the family law firm of Denbeaux & Denbeaux in Westwood, New Jersey.

Early life and education

Mark Denbeaux was born on July 30, 1943, in

. He attended local schools before going to the Commonwealth School. Denbeaux received his B.A. from

College of Wooster The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Chur ...

in 1965. An active supporter of civil rights in the 1960s, Denbeaux participated in the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Denbeaux later founded a

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

chapter in Wooster. The Wooster NAACP eventually became the Wooster Orville NAACP because it was too large to be run by students. He was later honored and asked to speak at the 50th anniversary Freedom Dinner in 2015. He participated in the

Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three Demonstration (protest), protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery. The marches were organized ...

for voting rights in 1965.Di Ionno, mark
"The Selma march and the fascinating story behind an iconic photo"
''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to '' The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the ''Staten Island Advance'', all of w ...

'', March 4, 2015. Accessed November 23, 2017. "The historic photo is a little grainy, produced in black-and-white. That was not by choice, as some artistic metaphor; color photography in 1965 was expensive to print. The picture was part of Ebony magazine's coverage of the third Alabama voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, which began on March 21, 1965.... 'My father was a combat chaplain with (Gen. George) Patton's 3rd Army,' Denbeaux said during an interview at his home in Woodcliff Lake." He attended

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in Ne ...

, where he received his J.D. in 1968.

Career

Early career

After graduating from NYU Law School in 1968, Denbeaux became a founding member of the South Bronx Legal Services. He served as the citywide coordinator for the Community Action for Legal Services, New York's organization of antipoverty lawyers, from 1970 to 1972. During this time he also filed complaints against judges for hostility towards poor people. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Denbeaux represented

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Cali ...

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

and Manhattan with Jeffrey Brand, now the Dean of the

University of San Francisco School of Law The University of San Francisco School of Law (USF Law) is the law school of the private University of San Francisco. Established in 1912, it received American Bar Association accreditation in 1935 and joined the Association of American Law S ...

. He represented the

Young Lords The Young Lords, also known as the Young Lords Organization (YLO) or Young Lords Party (YLP), was a Chicago-based street gang that became a civil and human rights organization. The group aims to fight for neighborhood empowerment and self-det ...

in the Bronx during their takeover of Lincoln Hospital. In the early 1970s, Denbeaux represented a number of U.S. soldiers charged with disobeying orders during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and the

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

movement. He defended some in courts martial.

Seton Hall University School of Law

In 1972, Denbeaux joined the Seton Hall Law School Faculty. He has taught courses including Evidence, Remedies, Uniform Commercial Code, Contracts, Professional Responsibility, Federal Civil Procedure, Torts, and Constitutional Law. He has been an elected member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs ...

since 1980. In 2006, Denbeaux founded the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall University Law School. This work was originally inspired by Denbeaux's '' pro bono'' representation of two Guantanamo detainees. He and his son are among more than 100 attorneys who have represented detainees there. The Center produces analytic reports in three key areas: interrogations and intelligence, national security, and forensics. Under Denbeaux's supervision, students working as research fellows in teams develop skills in pattern recognition, factual evaluation, and data analysis; Seton Hall University has published their original reports on issues concerning law and public policy. Denbeaux is well known for the Center's Guantanamo Reports, studies of United States operations and policies at the

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

; by late 2009, fifteen studies had been published in this series. The law research fellows have systematically analyzed data published by the Department of Defense; they have reviewed more than 100,000 pages of government documents procured through the Freedom of Information Act. The first report was a statistical analysis of characteristics of the 517 detainees held in 2005. The Guantanamo Reports have been widely cited and published globally.

Guantanamo Bay

In 2005, Denbeaux began representing two Tunisian detainees, Rafiq Bin Bashir Bin Jalud Al Hami and

Lufti Bin Ali Lotfi Bin Ali was a Tunisian whom the United States held in extrajudicial detention for over thirteen years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was one of five men transferred to Kazakhstan in 2014. He was extensively quoted foll ...

. In 2009, al Hami was released to Slovakia. In 2011, bin Ali was released to Kazakhstan. In 2009, he began his pro bono representation of two more detainees,

Abu Zubaydah Abu Zubaydah ( ; , ''Abū Zubaydah''; born March 12, 1971, as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn) is a Saudi Arabian currently held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He is held under the authority of Authorization for Use ...

and

Mohamad Farik Amin Mohammed Farik Bin Amin (born February 16, 1975), alias Zubair Zaid, is a Malaysian who is alleged to be a senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah and al Qaeda. He is currently in American custody in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He is one of the ...

. Denbeaux represented them in their habeas corpus petitions and remains the lead civilian defense counsel for both detainees. He has testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as a variety of House and Senate subcommittees, regarding Guantanamo Bay and national security issues.

Forensics

Denbeaux is an expert in forensic testimony. He teaches an upper-level seminar at Seton Hall Law on forensic evidence. The course evaluates the reliability of experts who testify as to handwriting identification, fingerprint identification, ballistics, tool marks, blood spatter, bite marks, and other crime scene forensic evidence and witnesses. The analysis of these areas includes an evaluation of the reliability and validity of each area's conclusions, the value of each area's proficiency testing, and the methodology upon which the conclusions are reached. In order to fully evaluate forensic evidence, the Center has established a crime laboratory, certified by the requisite proficiency tests. Its representatives have given expert opinions about the methodology used by specific forensic fields in court. Its written reports have been used in court proceedings. A significant part of the seminar includes participating in these projects. Denbeaux has spoken on the subject of forensic science at dozens of academic gatherings and has testified as an expert witness on the limitations of forensic evidence more than fifty times in state and federal courts as well as in administrative proceedings. His testimony has been cited in published cases in addition to the Third and Eleventh Circuits (''U.S. v. Yagman'' and ''U.S. v. Pettus''). ;''U.S. v. Yagman'' Denbeaux offered testimony questioning the reliability of handwriting analysis in this 2007 trial. His testimony was limited to his observations about the limitations and/or flaws in handwriting analysis generally, not as specifically applicable to the facts in ''Yagman''. ;U.S. v. Hines Denbeaux served as an expert witness in ''U.S. v. Hines'', in which the government's motion to exclude Denbeaux's testimony was deemed moot. The government argued that Denbeaux's testimony did not meet the standards of ''Daubert'' and ''Kumho'', while Denbeaux concluded that there is no need for expert testimony on handwriting analysis as it has never been proven reliable. ;U.S. v. Ruth In ''U.S. v. Ruth'', the issue in question was whether the military judge abused his discretion by denying production of Denbeaux, who was slated to testify as an expert critic of handwriting analysis.

High-profile cases

Denbeaux defended Sydney Biddle Barrows, the " Mayflower Madam," in 1984. Barrows ran Cachet, an escort service in New York City, from 1979 until 1984, when the service was shut down. She was charged with promoting prostitution by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She eventually pleaded guilty. In 1997, Denbeaux served as a forensic expert for the trial of

Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third ...

, charged with bombing the Oklahoma Federal Building.

Private practice

Denbeaux serves as Attorney of Counsel for the family law firm Denbeaux and Denbeaux.

Personal life

The son of a combat chaplain who served with the

Third United States Army Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hi ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Denbeaux has been a resident of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Publications

Books

*''Trial Evidence'', (I.C.L.E.), (with Michael Risinger), 1978 *''New Jersey Evidentiary Foundations'', Denbeaux, Arseneault and Imwinkelried, The Michie Company, 1995. *''The Guantánamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison, Outside the Law,'' edited with

Jonathan Hafetz Jonathan Hafetz is an American lawyer and writer. Career Hafetz is Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School. He formerly worked as a senior attorney for the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is notable for vol ...

, 2010Richard Bernstein, Letter from America: "Guantánamo Lawyers Showed Their Moral Fiber"
''New York Times'', 8 October 2010, accessed 10 February 2013

Center for Policy and Research, Guantanamo Reports

''Report on Guantanamo Detainees: A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data''
February 8, 2006 (with Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, and Helen Skinner).
''Second Report on the Guantanamo Detainees: Inter- and Intra-Departmental Disagreements About Who Is Our Enemy''
March 20, 2006 (with Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, and Helen Skinner).
''The Guantanamo Detainees During Detention: Data From Department of Defense Records''
July 10, 2006 (with Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, Megan Sassaman, and Helen Skinner). *
June 10 Suicides at Guantanamo
'' August 21, 2006 (with Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, Megan Sassaman, and Helen Skinner).
''No-Hearing Hearings CSRT: The Modern Habeas Corpus? An Analysis of the Proceeding of the Government's Combatant Status Review Tribunals at Guantanamo''
November 17, 2006 (with Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, Megan Sassaman, and Helen Skinner).
''The Meaning of "Battlefield": An Analysis of the Government’s Representations of "Battlefield Capture" and "Recidivism" of the Guantánamo Detainees''
December 10, 2007 (with Joshua Denbeaux, Grace Brown, Jillian Camarote, Douglas Eadie, Jennifer Ellick, Daniel Lorenzo, Mark Muoio, Courtney Ray, and Nebroisa Zlatanovic).
''Captured on Tape: Interrogation and Videotaping of Detainees in Guantánamo''
February 7, 2008 (with Joshua Denbeaux, Jennifer Ellick, Michael Ricciardelli, Matthew Darby).
''Justice Scalia, the Department of Defense, and the Perpetuation of an Urban Legend: The Truth About the Alleged Recidivism of Released Guantánamo Detainees''
June 16, 2008 (with Joshua Denbeaux, Daniel Lorenzo, Mark Muoio, Grace Brown, Jennifer Ellick, Jillian Camarote, Douglas Eadie, and Paul Taylor).
''Released Guantánamo Detainees and the Department of Defense: Propaganda by the Numbers?''
January 15, 2009 (with Joshua Denbeaux, R. David Gratz, Daniel Lorenzo, Mark Muoio, Grace Brown, Jullian Camarote, Douglas Eadie, Jennifer Ellick, Paul Taylor, Adam Deutsch, Michael Patterson, Gabrielle Hughes, and Michelle Fish).
''Profile of Released Guantánamo Detainees: The Government's Story Then and Now''
August 4, 2008 (with Joshua Denbeaux, Adam Deutsch, James Hlavenka, Gabrielle Hughes, Brianna Kostecka, Michael Patterson, Paul Taylor, and Anthony Torntore).
''Torture: Who Knew? An Analysis of the FBI and Department of Defense Reactions to Harsh Interrogation Methods at Guantanamo''
April 1, 2009 (with Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, Megan Sassaman, Daniel Mann, Mathew Darby, Michael Ricciardelli, Jennifer Ellick, Grace Brown, Jillian Camarote, Douglas Eadie, Daniel Lorenzo, Mark Muoio, and Courtney Ray).
''Revisionist Recidivism: A New Analysis of the Government's Representations of Alleged "Recidivism
" of the Guantánamo Detainees''">Recidivism">''Revisionist Recidivism: A New Analysis of the Government's Representations of Alleged "Recidivism
" of the Guantánamo Detainees'' June 5, 2009 (with Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, Sean Camoni, Adam Deutsch, Michael McDonough, Michael Patterson, Michelle Fish, Gabrielle Hughes, Paul Taylor, Brian Beroth, Scott Buerkle, Megan Chrisner, Jesse Dresser, Shannon Sterritt, and Kelli Stout).
''Death in Camp Delta''
December 7, 2009 (with Brian Beroth, Scott Buerkle, Sean Camoni, Meghan Chrisner, Adam Deutsch, Jesse Dresser, Doug Eadie, Michelle Fish, Marissa Litwin, Michael McDonough, Michael Patterson, Shannon Sterrit, Kelli Stout, and Paul Taylor).
''DOD Contradicts DOD: An Analysis of the Response to Death in Camp Delta''
, February 3, 2010 (with Brian Beroth, Scott Buerkle, Sean Camoni, Meghan Chrisner, Adam Deutsch, Jesse Dresser, Michelle Fish, Marissa Litwin, Michael McDonough, Michael Patterson, Shannon Sterritt, Kelli Stout, and Paul Taylor).
''Guantanamo: America's Battle Lab''
January 12, 2015 (with Jonathan Hafetz, Joshua Denbeaux, Erin Hendrix, Chelsea Perdue, Kelly Ross, Lauren Winchester, and Joseph Hickman).
''Drug Abuse: An Exploration of the Government's Use of Mefloquine
at Guantanamo''], February 12, 2011 (with Sean Camoni, Brian Beroth, Meghan Chrisner, Chrystal Loyer, Kelli Stout, and Paul Taylor).
''Rumsfeld Knew: DoD's "Worst of the Worst" and Recidivism Claims Refuted by Recently Declassified Memo''
March 3, 2011 (with Sean Camoni, Paul Taylor, and Philip Taylor).
''The Guantanamo Diet: Actual Facts About Detainee Weight Changes''
May 24, 2011 (with Paul Taylor, Sean Kennedy, Sean CAmoni, Kelly Ann Taddonio, Meghan Chrisner, Brian Beroth, Kelli Stout, Chrystal Loyer, Nick Stratton, Lauren Winchester, and Phillip Taylor).

Center for Policy and Research, Other Reports

''Global War on Terror Timeline: September 11, 2001 to January 20, 2009''
January 5, 2017 (with Brian Beroth, Adam Deutsch, Nicholas Stratton, and Phillip Taylor).
''Racial Profiling report: Bloomfield Police and Bloomfield Municipal Court''
April 7, 2016 (with Kelley Kearns and Michael J. Ricciardelli). *''The Government's Hostage: The Conviction and Execution of Ethel Rosenberg'', December 15, 2016 (with Shannon Dolan, Robert Graber, Elizabeth Mancuso, and Theodore Tanzer). * ''Costs and Consequences of Arming America's Law Enforcement with Combat Equipment'', September 7, 2014 (with Jeremy Dack, Dakota Gallivan, Lucas Morgan, Jared Stepp, and Joshua Wirtshafter). *''Lehman Brothers: A License to Fail with Other People's Money'', September 7, 2012 (with Edward Dabek, John Gregorek, Sean A. Kennedy, and Eric Miller).

Articles

*"Trust, Cynicism, and Machiavellianism Among First Year Law Students, 53 ''Journal of Urban Law'' 397" (1976). *"Restitution and Mass Actions: A Solution to the Problems of Class Actions," 10 ''Seton Hall L. Rev.'' 273 (1979). *"Questioning Questions: Problems of Form in the Interrogation of Witness," 33 ''Arkansas L. Rev. 439'' (1980) (with Risinger). *"The First Word of the First Amendment," ''Northwestern University L. Rev.'' (1988). *"Exorcism of Ignorance as a Proxy for Rational Knowledge: The Lessons of Handwriting Identification 'Expertise'," ''U. of Pa. L. Rev.'' (1989) (with Risinger & Saks). *"Brave New 'Post- Daubert World'--A Reply to Professor Moenssens," 29 ''Seton Hall L. Rev.'' 405 (1998) (with Risinger and Saks).

Book review

*"Resignation in Protest: Political and Ethical Choices Between Loyalty to Team and Loyalty to Conscience in American Public Life," 4 ''Hofstra L. Rev.'' (1976).

References

External links

Law School Faculty Profile for Mark Denbeaux on Martindale.com
Seton Hall University Law School
Curriculum vitae: Mark P. Denbeaux
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denbeaux, Mark 1943 births Living people People from Gainesville, Florida People from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey Guantanamo Bay attorneys American legal scholars American lawyers New York University School of Law alumni Seton Hall University School of Law faculty College of Wooster alumni Commonwealth School alumni