Bruck eventually returned to South Carolina to represent clients facing the death penalty because he did not believe these defendants were receiving adequate representation . Bruck was also disturbed that the death row population consisted mostly of poor black men . One fellow law school classmates said of Bruck : " He wanted to assist people who were defenseless . Many of us felt that way in school , but David was one of the few who devoted his career to it . " From 1976-1980 , Bruck worked as a public defender in South Carolina . From 1980-1988 , Bruck worked in private practice . From 1989-92 , Bruck was the Chief Attorney of the South Carolina Office of Appellate Defense . From 1992-2004 , Bruck returned to private practice . Since 1992 , Bruck served as Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel to the federal defender program . Bruck represented Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Masud al-Safarini who received a life sentence for his role in the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Pakistan in which 22 people were killed . David Bruck handled as many death penalty cases as he could in South Carolina . Bruck represented dozens of people charged with capital murder before juries or on post-conviction . Before his representation of Susan Smith in 1995 , Bruck had only lost three to death sentences . Bruck saved many of his clients by winning new trials that resulted in life sentences and in one case , an acquittal . Bruck has argued several cases before the United States Supreme Court , prevailing in six of them : Kelly v. South Carolina ( 2002 ) , Shafer v. South Carolina ( 2001 ) , Ramdass v. Angelone ( 2000 ) , Simmons v. South Carolina ( 1994 ) , Yates v. Evatt ( 1991 ) , Yates v. Aiken ( 1988 ) , Skipper v. South Carolina ( 1986 )
Pan Am Flight 73
Pan Am Flight 73
David Bruck