David M. Waksman, J.D., is a nationally known homicide
prosecutor with vast experience in trying violent offenders. He is a very popular
speaker, not only at professional meetings, but before business and civic groups as well.
Waksman brings a witty and pointed humor to this oftentimes dry and sensitive area.
He has been invited several times to address the Mystery Writers of America, giving them the reality they need for
their novels.
Mr. Waksman is well published in police publications.
He has had two criminal justice related Op-Ed articles published in the Miami Herald, and has been featured numerous times
on TV shows such as Inside Story, Inside Edition, COPS, Hard Copy, 48 Hours and Dateline NBC.
The local TV networks call upon him to comment on current cases in the news.
On the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, Mr. Waksman appeared with Justice Antonin Scalia, Judge Robert Bork,
and several other distinguished judges and lawyers in a nationally televised PBS segment of Fred Friendly's The Constitution
- That Delicate Balance. The show featured a hypothetical case highlighting the constitutional problems encountered in investigating
and prosecuting a capital case.
Waksman has toiled 32 years in the criminal courts
of Miami, Florida, after working the mean streets of The South Bronx for six years as a police officer and rising to the rank
of sergeant in the New York Police Department. He may have tried more first-degree
murder cases than any other American prosecutor.
Mr. Waksman's career as a prosecutor began under
the legendary Richard Gerstein. He also worked eighteen years as an assistant
to America's most popular, and longest serving Attorney General, Janet Reno, when she served as Miami's top prosecutor. During that time period he tried over eighty-five homicide cases to juries, including
twenty in which the death penalty was sought.
Prosecutor Waksman's trial experience spans well
over 180 jury trials, primarily for such crimes as homicide, rape, child abuse, armed robbery, home invasion robbery, and
public corruption. In federal court, five years before the world heard of Rodney King, Mr. Waksman was sworn in as a Special
Assistant United States Attorney to prosecute a Hialeah police officer for Conspiracy to Violate the Civil Rights of two people,
by killing them, after that officer was acquitted in state court of homicide charges, resulting from an off-duty drug robbery
gone bad.
David Waksman, not content to fight his battles
in Miami-Dade County, has been teaching the cops of America the law and procedures they need to combat violent crimes in their
communities. Since 1988 he has taught a monthly seminar on homicide investigation
for the Southern Police Institute (University of Louisville) in various locations (22 states, 34 cities) across the country. He also teaches new detectives, crime scene technicians, medical examiners and forensic
investigators at the nationally renowned Dade County Medical Examiner's Police-Medical Investigation of Death seminar. He has taught classes (one a Fourth Amendment seminar) at the University of Miami
School of Law and at several colleges in the South Florida area. Local police
departments continually call upon Mr. Waksman to teach refresher courses and in-service training to their investigators.
Waksman is also on the staff of the National College
of District Attorneys, at their training facility in Columbia, South Carolina. He
teaches newer prosecutors how to be effective advocates in jury trials at the National Advocacy Center.
In September of 2001, Mr. Waksman was invited by
the U.S. Departments of State and Justice to participate in a training seminar in Yerevan, Armenia. With two FBI agents, and a medical examiner, a five-day class was taught (during the week of September
11th) entitled Major Case/Homicide Investigation. The seminar was an advanced
level course designed for Armenian investigators, prosecutors and medical examiners currently participating in homicide investigations. The class was presented in rather austere conditions, in a former Soviet military
installation. As the investigators spoke no English, the class was taught with
simultaneous translations, as well as his collection of rather graphic slides.
His unique experiences and engaging style make him
a compelling storyteller, one who can cut through the confusing legal issues that have befallen our modern American justice
system. He tells it as he sees it, yet protects himself from the carnage,
as most cops do, with humor, albeit it away from the grieving families.
The compliment he appreciates most came from a Metro
homicide detective:
Waksman, you're nothing more than a cop in a lawyer's uniform.