Chesa Boudin

Chesa Boudin (born August 21, 1980) is an American lawyer, writer, and lecturer specializing in the U.S. criminal justice system and Latin American policy.

Early life and family history

Boudin was born in New York City. His parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were Weather Underground members.

When Boudin was 14 months old, his parents were arrested for their role as getaway car drivers in the Brink's robbery of 1981 in Rockland County, New York. His mother was sentenced to 20 years to life and his father to 75 years to life for the felony murders of two police officers and a security guard. After his parents were incarcerated, Boudin was raised by "adoptive parents" Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who, like his parents, were one-time members of the Weather Underground. Kathy Boudin was released under parole supervision in 2003.

Boudin descends from a long left-wing lineage. His great-great-uncle, Louis B. Boudin, was a Marxist theoretician and author of a two-volume history of the Supreme Court's influence on American government, and his grandfather, Leonard Boudin, was an attorney who represented controversial clients such as Fidel Castro and Paul Robeson. Boudin is also related to Michael Boudin, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and I.F. Stone, an independent journalist.