Steve Potolsky

Steve Potolsky

Steve Potolsky graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1982 and began his legal career in the Miami-Dade County, Florida Public Defender’s Office. He is a past President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Miami Chapter and has served on its Board of Directors since 1992. Since entering private practice in 1990, he has specialized in death penalty defense, and has been selected by Federal District Court Judges in Miami, Jacksonville, San Juan and St. Croix, USVI to serve as counsel in potential Federal death penalty cases.

Steve has been involved in a number of multi-defendant capital cases and is a strong advocate of the many benefits of the “team” approach to such cases. He was involved in the first modern Federal death penalty case tried in Florida, which resulted in acquittal on both murder counts for all capital defendants. He was involved in the first modern Federal death penalty case tried in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which also resulted in acquittal for both defendants. He was also involved in an earlier Puerto Rico trial where the District Court struck the death penalty shortly before trial, and all five defendants were ultimately acquitted. Steve was part of the team that represented religious leader Yahweh Ben Yahweh and three of his followers in a State capital trial. All four defendants were acquitted.

Steve has spoken on the Federal death penalty and other topics at a number of capital training seminars throughout the Country.