KIRSCHNER
Glenn

• 1. Career

Glenn L. Kirschner is an American attorney, a former U.S. Army prosecutor, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and an NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst.

Career

Upon entering active duty as a Judge Advocate General officer, Kirschner completed his first tour as an Army prosecutor at Fort Richardson in Alaska. In that capacity, he investigated and prosecuted court-martial cases and served as legal advisor to the post's many commanding officers. After three years in that assignment, Kirschner was transferred to the U.S. Army's Legal Services Agency in Falls Church, Virginia, where he served as a government appellate attorney handling criminal appeals of court-martial convictions. These included espionage and death penalty cases.

Following more than six years of active duty service, Kirschner was honorably discharged from the Army at the rank of captain. In June 1994, he joined the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia office as an assistant U.S. Attorney.

After a few early rotational assignments, Kirschner joined the U.S. Attorney Office (USAO) Homicide Section, led at the time by Robert Mueller. Kirschner spent 24 years at the DC USAO, prosecuting lengthy RICO trials in DC Federal Court and murder/conspiracy/obstruction of justice cases in DC Superior Court. In addition to prosecuting more than 50 murder trials, Kirschner was Chief of the Homicide Section from 2004 to 2010. He retired from the US Attorney's office on June 1, 2018.

Kirschner received the Harold J. Sullivan Award for Fairness, Ethics and Trial Excellence in 2017 and the John F. Evans Award for Trial Excellence in 2001, both from the Assistant U.S. Attorney's Association; the John F. Evans Award for Trial Excellence, the Chief of Police Medal of Honor in 2009 and 2010 from the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department, and was inducted as a fellow into the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2018.[citation needed] Notable cases include:

U.S. v. London Ford - A landmark gang case involving the District of Columbia's first urban warfare theory of homicide liability.

U.S. v. Andre Burno - Motivated by a desire to steal a police officer's Glock firearm, the defendant ambushed an on-duty police officer, shooting him in the neck. The case/defendant is the subject of an Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary Thug Life in DC.

U.S. v. Jose Rodriguez-Cruz - In 2009, EPA employee Pam Butler disappeared. In 2016, the cold case was revived, and enough evidence was developed to charge Butler's boyfriend with her murder. Although Butler's body was never found, the defendant pleaded guilty in 2017. The case is the subject of a Dateline NBC documentary that aired in November 2018.

U.S. v. Albrecht Muth - A controversial case involving a highly skilled conman in elite DC political circles who murdered his elderly, socialite wife. Kirschner tried the defendant in absentia from his hospital bed after he had starved himself into physical incapacitation. The case is the subject of a major motion picture directed by and starring Christoph Waltz titled Georgetown and released in April 2019.