John D. Bessler - Minneapolis, MN

• Of Counsel

• Business Litigation

• Minnesota, 1991
• U.S. District Court District of Minnesota
• U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit
• U.S. Supreme Court, 2009

• First Prize, Scribes Book Award (2015)
• First Prize, American Association for Italian Studies Book Award (2015)
• Gold Winner, 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Award (2015)
• Silver, 2012 Independent Publisher Book Award (U.S. History Category, 2013)
• Finalist, 2012 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award (History Category, 2013)
• Winner, 2007 Independent Publisher Book Award (2008)
• Silver, 2007 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award (2008)
• 2007 Midwest Book Awards Finalist (2008)
• Minnesota Book Award Finalist (2004)
• Minnesota Book Award Finalist (1998)

• University of Baltimore School of Law, Associate Professor, 2009-Present
• Georgetown University Law Center, Adjunct Professor, 2010-Present
• Rutgers School of Law, Summer Instructor, 2015
• The George Washington University Law School, Visiting Associate Professor, 2007 - 2009
• University of Minnesota Law School, Adjunct Professor, 1998 - 2006
• Kelly & Berens, P.A., Associate/Partner, 1998 - 2007
• U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Mason, United States District Court, District of Minnesota, Law Clerk, 1996 - 1998
• Faegre & Benson, LLP, Associate, 1991 - 1996

• Indiana University at Bloomington School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana, 1991
  J.D.
  Honors: cum laude
  Law Journal: Indiana Law Journal, Senior Managing Editor, 1990 - 1991
• University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1988
  B.A.
  Major: Political Science
• University of Oxford, Oxford, England, M. St., International Human Rights Law, 2008 (High Pass)
• Hamline University, St. Paul, MN, M.F.A., 2005

• Justice Stephen Breyer, Against the Death Penalty (book editor), forthcoming from Brookings Institution Press, August 2016
• The Death Penalty as Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition, forthcoming from Carolina Academic Press, August 2016
• The Birth of American Law: An Italian Philosopher and the American Revolution, Carolina Academic Press, 2014
• Cruel and Unusual: The American Death Penalty and the Founders’ Eighth Amendment, Northeastern University Press, 2012
• Writing for Life: The Craft of Writing for Everyday Living, Bottlecap Books, 2007
• Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press, 2003
• Kiss of Death: America’s Love Affair with the Death Penalty, Northeastern University Press, 2003
• Death in the Dark: Midnight Executions in America, Northeastern University Press, 1997
• “Beccaria in America: How the Italian Enlightenment Shaped American Law,” in Lorenzo Picotti, ed., Alle radici del diritto penale moderno: l’illuminismo giuridico di Cesare Beccaria di fronte al potere di punire (Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2015)
• “Cesare Beccaria et les débuts de la réforme pénale américaine,” in Michel Porret & Elisabeth Salvi, eds., Cesare Beccaria, la controverse pénale, XVIIIème-XXIème siècles (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2015) (Pascal Bastien, trans.)
• “The American Enlightenment: Eliminating Capital Punishment in the United States,” in Lill Scherdin, ed., Capital Punishment: A Hazard to a Sustainable Criminal Justice System? (Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate, 2014).
• “Capital Punishment Law and Practices: History, Trends, and Developments,” in James R. Acker, Robert M. Bohm and Charles S. Lanier, eds., America’s Experiment with Capital
• Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 3d ed. 2014)
• The Death Penalty in Decline: From Colonial America to the Present, 50 CRIM. L. BULL. 245 (2014)
• The Anomaly of Executions: The Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause in the 21st Century, 2 BRIT. J. AM. LEG. STUDIES 297 (2013)
• Tinkering Around the Edges: The Supreme Court’s Death Penalty Jurisprudence, 49 AM. CRIM. L. REV. 1913 (2012)
• Revisiting Beccaria’s Vision: The Enlightenment, America’s Death Penalty and the Abolition Movement, 4 NW. J. L. & SOC. POL’Y 195 (2009)
• In the Spirit of Ubuntu: Enforcing the Rights of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa, 31 HAST. INT’L & COMP. L. REV. 33 (2008)
• The “Midnight Assassination Law” and Minnesota’s Anti-Death Penalty Movement, 1849-1911, 22 WM. MITCHELL L. REV. 577 (1996)
• The Public Interest and the Unconstitutionality of Private Prosecutors, 47 ARK. L. REV. 511 (1994)
• Televised Executions and the Constitution: Recognizing a First Amendment Right of Access to State Executions, 45 FED. COMM. L.J. 355 (1993)
• Defining “Co-Party” Within Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 13(g): Are Cross-Claims Between Original Defendants and Third-Party Defendants Allowable?, 66 IND. L.J. 549 (1991)

3720 IDS Center80 South Eighth StreetMinneapolis, MN 55402- 2219

• 612-392-7054

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