Barry Scheck

Barry Scheck
Barry Scheck at the LBJ Presidential Library
Born	Barry Charles Scheck (1949-09-19) September 19, 1949 (age 67) Queens, New York, U.S.

Barry Charles Scheck (born September 19, 1949) is an American lawyer. He received national media attention while serving on O.J. Simpson's defense team, helping to win an acquittal in the highly publicized murder case. Scheck is the director of the Innocence Project and a professor at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City.

Scheck was born in Queens, New York, and grew up in Port Washington, New York. He graduated from the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York in 1967. He went on to receive a B.A. from Yale University in 1971, majoring in Economics and American Studies, and a J.D. and Master of City Planning (MCP) from UC Berkeley's School of Law in 1974.

Before becoming nationally known, Scheck became the personal lawyer for the Hedda Nussbaum case, in 1987. He both defended her and assisted in getting the charges against her dropped, while also assisting in ensuring Joel Steinberg's arrest and suing him in the civil case, Nussbaum vs. Steinberg. Scheck was part of the team that defended O. J. Simpson in his 1995 trial. He was associated with the clearing in 1999 of Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson who had spent 11 years in prison of wrongful murder convictions. He was lead lawyer who defended British au pair Louise Woodward in her 1997 murder trial.