John Henry Browne

John Henry Browne (born August 11, 1946) is an American criminal defense attorney practicing in Seattle, Washington. Browne is known for his zeal in defending his clients, his flair for garnering media attention, and for being known as the “plead guilty to avoid the death penalty” lawyer. He has represented defendants in a number of high-profile cases, including serial killer Ted Bundy, Colton Harris-Moore (also known as "The Barefoot Bandit"), Benjamin Ng and Martin Pang. He has tried over 250 criminal cases to verdict. Browne and his actions have been the subject of some controversy, and he has sometimes been criticized for his peculiar and combative style both in and out of the courtroom. As part of a plea bargain, Wilson pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

On March 14, 2012, Browne took the case of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 16 Afghan citizens (mostly women and children) in an incident known as the Kandahar massacre. Browne defended Bales alongside military lawyers. Browne described Bales as "mild-mannered", and claimed his client was upset after seeing a friend's leg blown off the day before the killings, but held no animosity toward Muslims. Browne said "I think the message for the public in general is that he's one of our boys and they need to treat him fairly."

Browne's client Colton Harris-Moore was accused of at least 67 crimes in a long-running crime spree spanning several U.S. states, Canada, and the Bahamas.

In 2011, when representing a client Dominic Briceno against drug dealing charges, Browne got into a significant dispute with the judge in the case and made various accusations against the judge. After winning Kunze a new trial, he discredited a key witness and convinced prosecutors to drop all charges and set Kunze free in 2001. He was reportedly upset that the site had rated him "average" via a rating system that considered disciplinary actions that had been taken against attorneys. He claimed that the rating system was deceptive, not based on any valid criteria, and not reliable. The suit against Avvo was dismissed on pre-trial motion, on grounds that the ratings were expressions of opinion protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In 2006, the Washington State Bar admonished Browne as part of a settlement of ethics charges stemming from compensation issues, saying that he charged more than what had been arranged in a written agreement. Such an admonition was the lowest form of Bar disciplinary action.

Browne was less successful in representing his client Darrell Cloud, who was accused in 1994 of murdering his former middle-school teacher with a firearm after years of sexual abuse. and that it was inconclusive whether he was the shooter.

Browne defended the professional American football player Duke Fergerson of the Seattle Seahawks against a charge of rape, obtaining an acquittal in 1980.