Brett Kimberlin

Brett Kimberlin (born 1954) is an American political activist who was convicted in 1980 on drug charges and of perpetrating the 1978 Speedway bombings. Since his release from prison, Kimberlin has co-founded the non-profit Justice Through Music Project and the activist organization Velvet Revolution. He has also been involved in various legal disputes, including those associated with a claim that he supplied marijuana to Dan Quayle.

Criminal convictions

Shortly after graduating from high school, Kimberlin was convicted in 1973 of felony perjury for lying to a grand jury investigating drug trafficking. He invested his drug money profit in such businesses as an Earth shoe franchise. The police believed that Kimberlin had conducted the Speedway bombings to divert attention from the murder investigation. Between one and two weeks later, he was released although the charges were not dismissed. Kimberlin appealed his convictions in 2021, alleging the misuse of microscopic hair evidence, the loss of biological evidence, and jury tampering by the government. The Seventh Circuit rejected his appeal in 2022.

After Kimberlin's parole the next year, he signed a contract with New Yorker staff writer Mark Singer, who had written a positive profile of Kimberlin in 1992, to publish a book about his claims regarding both his conviction and his relationship with Quayle.

Political activism and nonprofit work While in prison, Kimberlin became known as an "exceptionally adroit jailhouse lawyer." He became involved in the cause of an emigre from the former Soviet Union who was convicted of heroin possession and trapped in INS detention limbo since he could not be released in the U.S. and also could not be returned to Russia because of his drug conviction. including a lawsuit against Senator Orrin Hatch in 1999. The case against Hatch was dismissed by the federal district court in the District of Columbia.

In May 2012 Slate reported that conservative bloggers were criticizing Kimberlin in an event called "Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day," apparently based on litigation brought by Kimberlin against the bloggers.