Paul G. Cassell

Paul George Cassell (born 1959) is a former United States federal judge, who is a professor at the law school of the University of Utah. He is best known as an expert in, and proponent of, victims' rights.

Born in Orange, California in 1959, Cassell received a B.A. from Stanford University in 1979. He later received a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1984 and served as President of the Stanford Law Review. He was also a law clerk for Antonin Scalia, then a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, from 1984 to 1985. He was a law clerk for Chief Justice Warren E. Burger from 1985 to 1986. He was then an associate deputy attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1986 to 1988, and an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from 1988 to 1991. He was a professor of law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah from 1992 to 2002 and since 2007.

On September 4, 2001, Cassell was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Utah vacated by David Sam. Cassell was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 13, 2002, and received his commission on May 15, 2002, and served in that capacity until his resignation on November 5, 2007. Cassell then returned to teaching at the S.J. Quinney College of Law.

Cassell is a proponent of capital punishment.

Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2 v. United States

Cassell is part of the legal team in an ongoing lawsuit against the United States by several alleged victims of registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in violation of their rights under the Crime Victims' Rights Act.

A December 30, 2014 filing in a federal civil suit in Florida against the United States for violations of the Crime Victims' Rights Act says that the United States, in giving Epstein a plea bargain in 2008, violated his victims' rights under the Crime Victims' Rights Act. The filing accuses Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer who represented Epstein in his 2008 plea deal, of sexually abusing a minor provided by Epstein. The United Kingdom's Prince Andrew is also alleged to have had sex with underage girls provided by Epstein. Both have denied the charges. On January 3, 2015, Epstein's lawyer Alan Dershowitz said he would initiate disbarment proceedings against Cassell and another lawyer on the alleged victims' legal team, claiming they lied deliberately in some of their accusations. Cassell has countered: "We have been informed of Mr. Dershowitz's threats based on the factual allegations we have made in our recent filing. We carefully investigate all of the allegations in our pleadings before presenting them. We have also tried to depose Mr. Dershowitz on these subjects, although he has avoided those deposition requests."

• Freeing the Guilty Without Protecting the Innocent: Some Skeptical Observations on Proposed New “Innocence” Procedures by Paul G. Cassell, Dec. 2011, Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.