Women Criminal Defense Attorneys: Boston Attorney Janice Bassil Representing Fiancée in Aaron Hernandez Case

Janice Bassil, a criminal defense lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts is representing the fiancée of Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez is a former New England Patriots football player charged with first-degree murder, and his fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, was herself charged with perjury this week.  Jenkins has one child with Hernandez and has been dating him since high school. She was charged relating to testimony she gave over a two-day period before a Bristol County Grand Jury.  Bassil insists that nothing that Jenkins said during that testimony supports a perjury charge in a capital murder case. She spoke openly to the Boston Globe about her outrage over the Indictment.

Bassil asserted that the Government’s Indictment of her client was basically a bullying tactic, stating that “[t]he government actions in this case are abusive and overreaching.” She continued “I believe they are just simply trying to add pressure. They are trying to pressure her, but perhaps they are also trying to pressure him [Hernandez] through her.”

Jenkins is not the only person charged in connection with the Hernandez investigation. Currently there are four individuals in addition to Hernandez facing criminal charges.  Prosecutors in the Hernandez case are clearly casting a wider net and it certainly isn’t a unique strategy for a prosecutor to use the threat or the reality of a prosecution to bring a witness to their knees.

Janice Bassil is well prepared for the challenge. She graduated from Boston University Law School in 1978 and was a public defender for six years, before founding her own firm in 1989 with J. W. Carney. Bassil is a former president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and she concentrates her practice on criminal and family law.

Below is an interview conducted by Boston University in which Bassil discusses the emotional ups and downs of seeking justice as a criminal defense attorney. It’s a struggle I think we can all identify with.