Sharon Fray-Witzer
M.A. Student
Sharon Fray-Witzer
Contact
Email: fraywitz@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., Middlebury College
- J.D., Northeastern University
Research Interests
Legal and Political Philosophy
Theories of Justice
Equality
Punishment
Responsibility
Privacy
Gender
Environmental Justice
Aesthetics
Department
Biography
For many years, I have lectured in Philosophy of Law and Legal Studies -- at Brandeis University, Northeastern University, and Harvard University Summer School -- while practicing law as a post-conviction (appellate) criminal defense attorney, before state and federal courts, and filing petitions for writs of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, as part of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the First Circuit, the Massachusetts U.S. District Court’s Habeas Corpus panel, and Massachusetts' Committee for Public Counsel Services' appellate murder list. In addition to my teaching, I am particularly proud of my work in arguing Commonwealth v. McNulty, which reversed a murder conviction, and established that police in Massachusetts must immediately communicate an attorney’s telephoned advice to their client not to talk to police. Before specializing in criminal defense, I served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in Boston, an Assistant Attorney General at the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, and a trial practitioner on the Middlesex- and Suffolk-County Bar Advocate panels in Massachusetts. Before law school, I served as a legislative aide to Leon Panetta (then a California congressman), drafting (among other things) a universal health care bill. I graduated from Northeastern University School of Law, and Middlebury College. My academic interests include: theories of Justice, Punishment, Responsibility, Privacy, Gender, Equality, Environmental Justice, Aesthetics, and (more generally) Legal and Political Philosophy. My personal interests include my husband and my kids, crossword puzzles, art, hiking, bike-commuting, and skiing.