In his article, Liberty Betrayed, Allen reports that Jerome Brentar and the late Edward OConnor, two principal supporters of Demjanjuk, were participants in top-secret post-war U.S. government programs that helped fascist war criminals escape Europe and enter this country. The Supreme Court's denial of review meant that the order of removal was final; no other appeal was possible. Disclaimer | Matter of Demjanjuk, 603 F. Supp. 1468 (N.D. Ohio 1985) - Justia Law Attorney Mark O'connor Who Defended John Demjanjuk We determine unequivocally and without the slightest hesitation or doubt that the accused, Ivan John Demjanjuk, standing trial before us, is Ivan who was called Ivan Grozny [the Terrible] announced the presiding judge Dov Levin on April 18th, 1988. John Demjanjuk The Devil Next Door; . American Attorney Mark O'connor with his client, alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk. But the Buffalo attorney requested a court hearing to ensure that his client fully understood what he was doing. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. Perhaps because of his great cruelty he seems much larger than he truly was. By submitting the above I agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of JTA.org, Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923. Attorney Yoram Sheftel was drawn to high profile cases, also representing Meyer Lanksy and Elor Azaria, July, 1987. He even referred to the Israeli attorney as a manipulative family enforcer.. They were joined by Israeli attorney Yoram Sheftel. John Demjanjuks American lawyer, Mark OConnor, said Sunday he would continue to serve as chief defense counsel for the suspected war criminal despite his dismissal by the Demjanjuk family last month. Wagenaar, Willem Albert (1988). At his naturalization, he changed his first name from Ivan to John. Most significantly, Sheftel called Dr. Julius Grant, who had proven that the Hitler diaries were forged. Writer Lawrence Douglas has called the case "the most highly publicized denaturalization proceeding in American history.". Photo by Yossi Aloni, the Dan Hadani Collection, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel, Throughout the trial, Sheftel continuously insisted that the photo spread used to identify Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible was insufficient for a conviction. So what exactly happened to Sheftel, a man who decided to do something his fellow countrymen thought of as a betrayal? New evidence emerged in 1991, in the form of Soviet documents containing statements from numerous former guards at Treblinka. 16 years later, Demjanjuk would be extradited once more, this time to Germany, in May 2009. One of the judges supposedly blasted Sheftel privately in their chambers. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. 'The Devil Next Door': Why Did John Demjanjuk Fire Mark O'Connor And we reached the conclusion that OConnor is not living up to our expectation. All Rights Reserved. David Rubinger/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty. Demjanjuk, who had been accused of participating in the killing of roughly 900,000 Jewish prisoners at Treblinka, an extermination camp in German-occupied Poland, faced the death penalty, according to the Los AngelesTimes. I was never once in that place, that everybody telling me, Treblinka, Demjanjuk at an early hearing, August, 1986. On 18 April 1988, the Jerusalem District Court found Demjanjuk "unhesitatingly and with utter conviction" guilty of all charges and being Ivan the Terrible. OConnor contended that neither Sheftel nor a third defense lawyer, Cleveland attorney John Gill, are adequately prepared to proceed with the case, but he said that under the circumstances there is nothing more that I am capable of doing., Speaking to reporters on behalf of the family, the defendants son, John Demjanjuk Jr., called the charges in OConnors letter completely unjustified. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. It added another attorney, John Broadley of Washington, D.C., to the defense team. Israeli lawyer Yoram Sheftel, who represented accused Nazi war criminal and Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk during his trial in the '80s, has long-been a polarizing figure in the countrys criminal justice system. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. They register anonymous statistical data on for example how many times the video is displayed and what settings are used for playback.No sensitive data is collected unless you log in to your google account, in that case your choices are linked with your account, for example if you click like on a video.