Professional Biography Cynthia (“Cyndy”) Short graduated from law school in 1987 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was toiling away in a small labor law firm when she was appointed to represent a young woman accused by the federal government of attempting to assassinate Jesse Jackson during his 1988 presidential campaign. This experience changed the course of her practice, and she dedicated most of the next 15 years of her career to the representation of poor people as a public defender in Kansas City (first in the trial division, then in the capital litigation division where she served as head of that office for nearly a decade). Cyndy’s achievements for her clients are too numerous to mention. But one highlight occurred very early in her career, when a jury angered by the treatment of her client acquitted him and demanded an apology from the police and prosecutors for their wrongdoing. Once she devoted her practice to death penalty cases, she achieved wonderful results for her clients including dismissals, acquittals, and an exoneration. Cyndy received the Lon O. Hocker Memorial Trial Lawyer Award in 1997, given annually by the Missouri Bar in recognition of outstanding trial work. She also received the Defender of Distinction Award in 1998 for her dedication to representing poor people charged with serious crimes. The Western Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty recognized her work on the Dick Dexter case with their Courageous Litigator Award and in 2010 the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers awarded Cyndy the Atticus Finch Award. Cyndy has been named Best of the Bar for the last 5 years and is listed as a Super Lawyer. Cyndy Short graduated from The Trial Lawyers’ College in 1994 and for many years she designed and ran the Death Penalty Program at TLC.