Alex Charns is a Durham, NC criminal defense attorney. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Commonweal Magazine, among other publications. He is author of a series of Star Gwiazda legal novels set in Durham. His nonfiction book Cloak and Gavel: FBI Wiretaps, Bugs, Informers and the Supreme.... more
Alex Charns is a Durham, NC criminal defense attorney. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Commonweal Magazine, among other publications. He is author of a series of Star Gwiazda legal novels set in Durham. His nonfiction book Cloak and Gavel: FBI Wiretaps, Bugs, Informers and the Supreme Court was reviewed favorably in the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Law Review. The book was the product of over a decade of FOIA litigation against the FBI.
Alex Charns's Projects
Bones of Black Saints
What happens in a Southern town when a white cop tries to kill a young Black man and there is no vid... more
Bull City in Wonderland
On March 13, 2006, the tulips in Durham grew upside down. Then, White Duke Republicans became Black ... more
Bull City in Wonderland (*The Infamous Duke University Stripper Scandal. The Prosecution of Three Innocent Black Student-Athlete
The 2006 framing of the Duke Three for sex crimes they did not commit. If Lewis Carroll had written ... more
FBI Snitches, Blackmail, and Obscene Ethics at the Supreme Court
It took over thirteen years and three Freedom of Information lawsuits to get proof that the FBI sexu... more
FBI Snitches, Blackmail, and Obscene Ethics at the Supreme Court. Plus: How it took thirteen years and Three FOIA lawsuits to g
It took over thirteen years and three Freedom of Information lawsuits to get proof that the FBI sexu... more
How Hockey Saved My World. An off-beat family memoir.
Poignant, philosophical, humorous, and wise. Part handbook on hockey and part memoir. The story is ... more
How Women's Hockey Saved the World* (and defeated Donald Trump, but not necessarily in that order)
"Poignant, philosophical, humorous, and wise… A part handbook on hockey and a part po... more
Ka-Boom?: (*The Occasionally True Story about how a Catholic Nun, Deacon and Priest Saved the World from Total Nuclear Devastati
Three Catholic activists, a nun, deacon and priest, break into the MegaMuerte Corporation plant and ... more
Listening to Chopin While Fighting Nazis
"A deeply revealing, intimate account of a family’s Polish history… As a six-ye... more
The Black Madonna
On August 3, 1994, members of the Durham CATT drug unit body slammed the pregnant Mahlia Queen to th... more
The Girl Who Wore A Hockey Helmet
Before the second day of a cop car bombing trial, Assistant Public Defender Star Gwiazda and her Lum... more
