Jack Atwood has defended many high-profile cases on the South Bank.

PLYMOUTH — A lawyer appointed to represent a Plymouth man has filed charges ranging from a man convicted of raping and killing his 13-year-old Kingston neighbor to a Carver mother who was found not guilty by reason of insanity of killing her 3-year-old son. with murder has a long list of high-profile clients spanning several decades.

Plymouth lawyer Jack Atwood has been practicing since 1972 and has acted as counsel in a number of high-profile cases. Atwood often takes on such cases as a court-appointed attorney.

In 1991, he represented Henry Meinholz, who was convicted of raping and murdering his 13-year-old Kingston neighbor. In 2003, he defended Pamela Murphy, the drunk driver who struck and killed 13-year-old Melanie Powell of Marshfield, the namesake of “Melanie’s Law.”

He defended Helen Kirk, the Carver mom who killed her 3-year-old son in 2005 and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. He is currently David Jerome’s lawyer.

Atwood represents David Jerome, who was driving his Toyota Rav4 with his 18-month-old son in a car seat shortly before 6pm on October 25 when he was involved in a crash with 41-year-old Brent Berkeley, who was driving his Jeep. Berkeley, who was shot several times during the ensuing altercation, died.

Jerome was prosecuted Plymouth District Court on Monday. He is charged with one count of murder, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, reckless endangerment of a child, improper storage of a firearm, careless operation of a motor vehicle, improper storage of ammunition and possession of a large weapon. feeder

Atwood was the court-appointed lawyer for Marcelo Almeida, an undocumented immigrant from Brazil who was charged with the 2011 murder of his 24-year-old girlfriend, Patricia Frua, at her Marshfield apartment complex. Atwood said at the time that Almeida’s actions were not calculated and were more akin to manslaughter.

Almeida was convicted of first-degree murder in 2015. On appeal, Almeida argued that he deserves a new trial because the judge who oversaw his first trial gave poor instructions to the jury and failed to direct prosecutors when they presented evidence about Almeida’s murder. a history of fights with Froy, which he said turned the jury against him. In 2018, the state Supreme Judicial Court upheld the first-degree murder conviction.

Atwood represented Michael Beaudry, who stood trial on charges of manslaughter and assault and battery in the death of his father in Weymouth.

Beaudry was arrested in February 2013 after police found him outside their home, pressing his shirt to his father’s bloody head and pleading for help. His father, 58-year-old Ronald Beaudry, was taken to South Shore Hospital and died a short time later.

Prosecutors said Beaudry hit his father in the head with a plastic pipe and knocked him to the ground after an argument over a BB gun. In 2014, a jury acquitted Beaudry of manslaughter and assault and battery.

Atwood represented Helen Kirk, who later changed her legal name to Helen McLaughlin, a Carver woman who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the death of her 3-year-old son.

Helen Kirk told police she believed her son Justin was “the devil” after she strangled the boy in March 2005.

Kirk waived her right to a jury trial, and the judge found her not guilty by reason of insanity. She was admitted to Taunton State Hospital.

Atwood represented Mark O’Brien, a South Boston man who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of murder in the gruesome 2015 death of a Marshfield man.

O’Brien and two other men, Michael Moscaritolo of Quincy and James W. Ferguson of Stoneham, planned the burglary that ended in the death of Robert McKenna, who was found dead in a pool of blood in his Marshfield kitchen in September. 2015.

When the robbery went wrong, McKenna was pushed through a window, severing an artery in her arm, and hit in the head with a frying pan.