EL PASO, Texas — Denver attorney David Lane – who has represented multiple people facing the death penalty and a host of controversial clients in Colorado – has been appointed as a defense attorney for a man accused of gunning down 22 people at an El Paso Walmart, 9Wants to Know has learned.
Lane confirmed to 9Wants to Know that the federal court in El Paso had requested that he represent Patrick Crusius, 21, in anticipation of federal domestic terrorism charges being filed in the wake of the Aug. 3 attack.
“All I can say is that under the Sixth Amendment of the United State[s] Constitution, every human being in America is entitled to the best defense they can get,” Lane said Tuesday.
He declined further comment.
Crusius was arrested after surrendering to officers shortly after the attack, which also left more than 20 people wounded. He was initially charged with capital murder in state court, but John Bash, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, has suggested that Crusius could face domestic terrorism charges, which carry the death penalty as a potential sentence.
It was not clear Tuesday when federal charges could be filed.
Lane, a Denver native, has been recognized in federal court as “learned” in federal death penalty laws and is well known for high-profile clients. Among them was former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, who drew the ire of many with an essay arguing that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were the logical consequence of U.S. foreign policy.
Churchill ultimately was fired by CU for research misconduct, including plagiarism. Lane also defended a Colorado high school teacher who was suspended after comparing then-President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler.
Lane has previously defended clients facing the death penalty, including two people who murdered prison officials and a Texas man who killed a cop:
- Edward Montour Jr. beat corrections officer Eric Autobee to death in 2005 with a kitchen ladle. Lane successfully negotiated a plea deal that took the death penalty off the table. Montour was sentenced to life in prison.
- Miguel Contreras-Perez knifed Colorado Department of Corrections Sgt. Mary Ricard in 2012, killing her, and seriously injured another officer. Again, Lane successfully negotiated a plea deal that spared Contreras-Perez’s life. He, too, was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.
- Juan Quintero shot and killed a Houston police officer, and Lane and Quintero’s other lawyers ultimately convinced the jury he was insane, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Lane earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado in 1977 and a law degree at the University of California in 1980.
A former public defender in New York, he has practiced in Colorado for more than 30 years.
In a 2009 Denver Post profile, Lane said that he saw redeeming value in every person – a belief formed during that time in New York.
“When you’re working as a public defender, and you see the things that your clients do, you can’t help but understand – not necessarily excuse what they do – but understand how they got to where they got, and that’s a life-changing insight,” Lane told The Post. “When you see the problems of poverty and race and just the despair in the ghettos of Brooklyn for seven years, you come away with different insights into the world that people who are not exposed to those things.”
Lane also has a less serious side: He appeared in the Guinness World Records book in 1976 after he and another man stayed aloft in a hang glider for 10 hours, 18 minutes.
Contact 9NEWS reporter Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.
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