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- Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:06 pm #212 J. Kirk Osborn, a Lawyer in the Duke Lacrosse Case, Dies at 64
He was a graduate of NC67 Leadership.


J. Kirk Osborn, a lawyer who gained national prominence defending one of three Duke University lacrosse players against a dancer‚s accusations of sexual assault last year, died Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 64. The cause was a heart attack, his wife, Tania, said.

Mr. Osborn was a noted defense lawyer before he gained national prominence in the Duke case. One well-known case involved getting the killer of two people acquitted on an insanity plea. In more than a dozen capital cases, none of his clients were executed.

Mr. Osborn represented Reade W. Seligmann, from Essex Fells, N.J., one of three Duke players charged in the case. The dancer said that she had been sexually assaulted at a team party March 13, 2006. The players were originally indicted on charges of rape, sexual offense and kidnapping, but the rape charge was dropped in December.

Less than 48 hours after Mr. Seligmann turned himself in to the police, Mr. Osborn produced evidence that he said indicated that it would have been almost impossible for Mr. Seligmann to have committed a crime. Using phone and A.T.M. records, timed photography and witness testimony, Mr. Osborn claimed to show that his client, to be guilty, would have had to commit the sex crime in two minutes or while he was on the telephone.

When he asked to speak to Michael B. Nifong, the Durham County district attorney who had brought the charges, in order to present his client‚s alibi, he said that Nifong refused to meet with him.
The state bar later accused Mr. Nifong of ethics violations, and special prosecutors will decide whether and how to continue the case.

Mr. Osborn was born on July 4, 1942, in Havre, Mont., and spent his youth in Flint, Mich., and Golden, Colo.

He attended the University of Colorado, earned a master‚s degree in statistics from Colorado State University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law. In 1983, he was appointed as the first public defender in a judicial district that encompassed Orange and Chatham Counties.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his teenage daughters, Michela Jantzen Osborn and Jenna Kirk Osborn; his sister, Lynn Osborn Simons of Cheyenne, Wyo.; and his brother, R. Blair Osborn of Seattle.

Last edited by ruby on Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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- Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:56 am #213 J. Kirk Osborn (NC67)

Chapel Hill attorney J. Kirk Osborn died March 25 at UNC Hospitals. He was 64.
Perhaps most recently recognized for his representation of Reade Seligman in the Duke lacrosse case, Osborn handled countless criminal cases in the state and federal court systems. For those who knew him best, though, Osborn was first and foremost a devoted husband, a loving father, and an amazing friend.

He was born on July 4, 1942, in Havre, Mont., to Dorothy Briggs and Robert Blair Osborn. He spent his early years in Flint, Mich., and his grade school years in Golden, Colo., at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, where he graduated from high school in 1960. He entered the University of Colorado in Boulder on an athletic scholarship with his twin brother, where he was a four-year veteran and three-year letterman on the University of Colorado football team. In 1964, he played in the Orange Bowl before graduating in 1965.

He received a master's degree in mathematical statistics from Colorado State University in 1967, after which he moved to Chapel Hill in 1968 in pursuit of an advanced degree in statistics. However, he decided instead to enroll in UNC Law School, where he earned his degree in 1974. He practiced law in a private practice for nine years until Gov. Jim Hunt appointed him to the newly created position of public defender for the judicial district that encompassed Orange and Chatham counties.

Representing clients with criminal charges was to become his life's calling. In 1990 he left the public defender's office to open a solo practice, where he continued to defend criminal clients for the most part.

On Aug. 18, 1987, he married Tania Sue Williams. They had two children, Michela Jantzen Osborn, 18, and Jenna Kirk Osborn, 15.

Osborn was a member of the North Carolina, Orange County, and 15-B Judicial District Bar Associations; the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers; the American Bar Association, and the Fair Trial Initiative. As a member of the Fair Trial Initiative, he served as a member of the board of directors and, at the time of his passing, had been elected chairman of that organization.

Osborn was widely known for his honor, both in his professional and personal lives. His example has touched the lives of countless attorneys in the courts around the state and the nation. No one who met him could come away without having been deeply touched by his respect for the law and for the justice system, and by his compassion, his competitiveness and his loyalty.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his twin brother, Stephen Briggs Osborn. Survivors include his wife, Tania; his daughters; his sister, Lynn Osborn Simons of Cheyenne Wyo.; his brother, R. Blair Osborn of Seattle, Wash.; and countless close friends and colleagues.

Services will be held at the University United Methodist Church on 150 East Franklin Street March 28 at 3 p.m. The family will briefly receive visitation from 1:30 until 2:30 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests support of the Fair Trial Initiative (www.fairtrial.org), 201 West Main Street, Suite 300, Durham 27707 or The Hill Center, 3200 Picket Road, Durham 27705.

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