Washington, DC (August 14, 2015) – Saint George, UT, attorney Aric Cramer was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association's 58th annual meeting in Denver, CO, on July 26. Mr. Cramer joined NACDL and the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (UACDL) in 1998. He became a Life Member of NACDL in 2000 and was elected to the Board of Directors of UACDL the same year. Since 2012, he has served as Chairman of NACDL's Council of Affiliates, and he also co-chairs the Indigent Defense Committee and serves on several other committees.
Mr. Cramer is a graduate of North Carolina Central University School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctorate in 1988. He migrated west to Utah and was admitted to the Utah State Bar in 1989 and simultaneously admitted to the District of Utah, United States Federal Court. Shortly thereafter he was admitted to the bar of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990. In 2008, Mr. Cramer was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.
After practicing as an associate in several firms specializing in family law and bankruptcy, he took a sabbatical to obtain advanced training and was awarded from Denver University College of Law a Masters of Taxation degree in 1994.
He then re-entered the practice as a solo general practitioner eventually growing his practice into a focus on only criminal law. In 2004 he became a certified death-penalty contract attorney with the Capital Indigent Defense Fund of Utah and has been involved in multiple capital cases since that time. He also became certified to handle capital case appellate work in 2005, and has also done State Habeas petition work on capital cases as well.
In 2010 he was the first attorney outside of the Salt Lake/Provo metropolitan area to be elected as President of UACDL, and during his year as president grew the organization by sixteen percent. He has done over 100 jury trials and has a large number of not guilty verdicts in one of the most conservative states in America.
He is also a fourth Degree Black Belt certified by the International Tae Kwon Do Federation since 1998, is a Master Mason having served as Master of Bonneville Lodge #31 Free & Accepted Masons of Utah in 2000, and founded the Scott M. Matheson Chapter, Charter 388 of the American Inns of Courts in 2004 and served as its Counselor from 2006-07.
Contacts
Ezra Dunkle-Polier, NACDL Public Affairs & Communications Assistant, (202) 465-7656 or edunkle-polier@nacdl.org for more information.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal justice system.
