Denise Casper

Nomination Tracker
Nominee Information
	Name: Denise Casper
	Court: District of Massachusetts
Progress
	Confirmed 233 days after nomination.
	Nominated: April 28, 2010
	ABA Rating: Unanimously Well Qualified
	Questionnaire: Questionnaire
	Hearing: July 15, 2010
	QFRs: QFRs (Hover over QFRs to read more)
	Reported: August 5, 2010
	Confirmed: December 17, 2010
	Vote: Voice vote

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Denise Jefferson Casper (b. 1968) is an Article III federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She was nominated to the court by Barack Obama and received her commission on December 20, 2010. At the time of appointment, she was the Deputy District Attorney for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[1]

Early life and education

Casper earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1990 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1994.^[2]^[1]

Professional career

2007-2010: Deputy district attorney, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
2005-2007: Instructor, Boston University School of Law
1999-2005: Assistant U.S. attorney, District of Massachusetts
1995-1998: Private practice, Boston, Massachusetts
1994-1995: Law clerk, Massachusetts Appeals Court^[2]^[1]

Judicial career

District of Massachusetts

President Obama nominated Casper to a seat on the District of Massachusetts on April 28, 2010, to fill the seat vacated by Reginald Lindsay.^[3] She was recommended to the President by U.S. Senators John Kerry and Paul Kirk in January of 2010.^[4]^[2]

Casper was unanimously rated Well Qualified by the American Bar Association. Casper's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee was on July 14, 2010. You can find her Committee Questionnaire available here and her Questions for the Record available here.^[5]

Casper's nomination was reported by committee on August 5, 2010 and she was confirmed by the Senate on December 17, 2010.^[6]^[5]^[1]

Noteworthy cases

Former Boston mob boss convicted after years in hiding (2013)

See also: United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (U.S. v. James J. Bulger, US 99-10371-DJC)

After nearly two decades spent in hiding, James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger, Jr., the 83-year-old former boss of the Boston mob, was charged in a 32-count indictment including racketeering, money laundering, and murder.^[7] Before the case was presented to a jury, Bulger attempted to present an immunity defense to Judge Denise Casper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, claiming that the late federal prosecutor Jeremiah T. O’Sullivan verbally promised him lifetime immunity for all of his crimes, including murder.^[8] Casper, who was described as “cool, calm, and collected,”rejected Bulger's defense in a 31-page ruling.^[9]^[10]

Bulger's federal trial before Judge Casper began on June 12, 2013, with the prosecution led by the office of Carmen Ortiz, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. After deliberating for about five days, a jury found Bulger guilty of 31 of the charges lodged against him, including two racketeering charges, one extortion charge, 23 money laundering charges, and five weapons charges. Bulger was also found to have been complicit in 11 murders.^[11]^[12]^[13] Through June 2013, Bulger's defense cost more than $2.6 million.^[14]

Sentencing:
In November 2013, Bulger was sentence to two life terms plus five years in prison, the amount requested by the prosecution.^[15] During the sentencing, Judge Capser said:

“

Your conduct merits the most severe penalty. The scope, the callousness, the depravity of your crimes, are almost unfathomable.^[16]^[17]

”