An era ends at public defender's office | Di Ionno | NJ.com

John McMahon was Chief Trial Attorney at the Newark office of the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. P.D.s have a wholly undeserved bad name. I tried cases part-time for the P.D. in Newark for four years. Lawyers like McMahon, his father, Dale Jones, Cathy Waldor, Jerry Soffer, Ollis Douglas, Michael Marucci, Verna Leath, and Denise Cobham  were among the best lawyers I met in my thirty year career practicing law in the county.
The Public Defender's office participated in every capital case in new Jersey from restoration in 1982 to repeal in 2017. 225 trials, 60 death sentences, no executions.
All this work by dedicated public servants who are not lionized on TV, but who see the humanity in their clients and uphold the highest standards of our profession. - gwc

Public Defender John McMahon compares a photo of the defendant Tariq Kyam, left, from 2009 and a police sketch of the robber during his closing statement. Tariq Kyam of Newark, formally known as Raymond Perry appears in Superior Court in Essex County for his robbery trial. Kyam, charged in an alleged 2009 crime spree appears before Judge Michael A. Petrolle on Wednesday. February 1, 2017

Newark Public Defender John McMahon is retiring after 27 years
An era ends at public defender's office | Di Ionno | NJ.com