After graduating from Stanford Law School, Professor Paul Cassell clerked for the late Judge Antonin Scalia (then head of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit) and the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. Because the judges handled many criminal law issues, Cassell became more interested in this field of law and soon worked at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a federal prosecutor in Virginia.
“I came to recognize that our criminal justice system has skilled attorneys representing the state, prosecutors and skilled attorneys representing the defendant—but the crime victims who have significant interests in the process are often not represented, and their interests aren’t often heard by judges,” Cassell recalls.
Advocating for crime victims’ rights
An Idaho native, Cassell decided to return to the West in 1992 and began teaching at Utah Law, where he quickly became involved in crime victims’ rights issues.
“Beginning in 1993, I was the coordinator for the Utah Council on Victims of Crime and worked with legislators to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Then in the 1994 election, the voters of Utah approved the Utah Victims’ Rights Amendment, which has a list of rights for crime victims,” he says.
That same year, Cassell worked with Idaho Attorney General Larry EchoHawk (JD ’73) on Idaho’s victims’ rights amendment and wrote “Balancing the Scales of Justice: The Case for and the Effects of Utah’s Victims’ Rights Amendment” for the Utah Law Review. He later became involved in the effort to add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, working closely with Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl and the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein to draft it.
Cassell then served as a federal district court judge in Utah from 2002-2007, resigning to return to the College of Law and work on criminal justice reform and crime victims’ rights.
“A judge famously ‘calls balls and strikes,’ and I wanted to be in more of an advocacy role. There aren’t many attorneys who are familiar with crime victims’ rights,” he explains. “Having served as a prosecutor, defense attorney, judge, and law professor, I felt there was a void in the movement for legal advocacy that I could, along with others, help to fill. I wanted to make victims’ rights more prominent in the American criminal justice system.”
Since returning to Utah Law, Cassell has continued to focus on scholarship within the field and recently published an article detailing the past, present, and future of crime victims’ rights. He also discussed the article at a December Utah Law event.
“A lot of people have mischaracterized the crime victims’ rights movement as a punitive movement designed to lock criminals up or to get them the death penalty, but the crime victims’ rights movement’s goal is to ensure that victims have the right to participate in the process,” Cassell says. “Obviously, there will be cases where victims are arguing for harsh sentences. But interestingly—and often overlooked—there are cases where victims may be arguing for restitution rather than a prison term.”
The new article, Cassell hopes, will set the foundation for a better understanding of the movement.
“The goal is not to dictate criminal justice outcome but to ensure that victims are heard in the process. Then the judge or sentencer can make an appropriate decision about how to move forward,” he says. “Critics have sometimes said the criminal justice movement is an American exceptionalism designed to support conservative law and order policies. That is untrue when you look at the worldwide picture. Victims’ rights are now being increasingly recognized in Europe, Latin America and Asia in transnational institutions like the International Criminal Court. I’m hoping that illustrating the way America has overcome some of the challenges enforcing victims’ rights will be useful in other countries as well.”
Providing pro bono representation
Another of Cassell’s primary focuses is pro bono litigation for crime victims. He served with Brad Edwards for 12 years as lead attorney representing victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking organization.
“In the news lately, there’s been a lot of interest in emails and documents. Brad and I obtained many of the documents while representing Epstein’s victims in federal litigation in Florida, challenging the non-prosecution agreement, where the judge gave us access to many emails necessary to prove our case,” Cassell says. “I think it’s fair to say that the two of us kept the Epstein case alive for many years, which ultimately led to Epstein’s arrest and Ghislaine Maxwell’s prosecution in New York.”
More recently, Cassell has represented the families of victims in Boeing 737 MAX crashes in the case United States v. Boeing, which involves Boeing’s deception of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about safety problems that led to two crashes, killing 346 people.
“I feel that without my knowledge and ability to assemble, lead large legal teams and press the litigation in front of federal judges, those cases would never have been brought forward,” Cassell says. “Hopefully through these cases and others we are starting to institutionalize victims’ rights in the federal criminal justice process and more broadly in the American criminal justice process.”
A few amicus briefs Cassell has filed for crime victims and their families have been cited in Supreme Court justice opinions as well.
“Sometimes law professors will sign a brief along with 100 other professors to express an academic point of view on a case, and those are important. However, I think my briefs are even more important than that because they try to present interests of victims in a U.S. Supreme Court case,” he explains. “I’ve argued now in seven or eight federal courts of appeals and several state courts on behalf of crime victims. Whenever I argue in a criminal case, I always do that on a pro-bono basis. It doesn’t seem right to me that victims should have to pay for being represented in criminal cases.”
Teaching by example
Many of Cassell’s court case experiences make it to the classroom as well. He frequently presents oral arguments to his classes so they can see the strategy and tactics for developing effective court arguments.
“I also teach a crime victims’ rights seminar and have students sign a confidentiality agreement so we can talk candidly about the strengths and weaknesses of various arguments,” he says. “Utah Law has always been very supportive of my work and gives me the ability to write, litigate, and teach on these issues, including creating the seminar. It isn’t offered at every law school, but I’ve been able to offer it here for a number of years.”
One of Cassell’s friends, Professor Emeritus Doug Beloof, co-authored a casebook with Cassell on crime victims’ rights and reminds him of the importance of their work when it is challenging.
“Doug said, ‘Paul, we win by losing, because when we lose we highlight an impediment that needs to be eliminated or reformed.’ A lot of times the obstacles I’ve run into have been later fixed by legislative action,” Cassell says. “I feel passionate about the work and feel I’m making arguments that otherwise would not be made in the criminal justice system. I look forward to teaching, writing, and litigating in the area, though the issues are complicated and require specialized or unique briefing.”
Continuing to write about crime victims’ rights
In 2024, Cassell began writing a hornbook on crime victims’ rights that lays a legal framework for use by victims’ rights advocates, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges trying to understand the field.
“It’s a massive undertaking, because unlike some other fields like contract law or tort law that are well-developed with outlines or frameworks for looking at the issues, I’m trying to put together that framework for the first time,” he explains. “Part of that 2025 article will serve as the first part of the book, laying out the history of the victims’ rights movement. I’m hoping in the next couple of years I can finish that treatise and offer a useful framework for people who are interested in the legal rights of crime victims.”
Learn more about Professor Cassell’s work in this Res Gestae profile.