Michael Wiseman is a criminal practitioner practicing in all phases of criminal defense: at trial, appeal and post-conviction, with particular experience in successfully defending capital cases. Michael’s practice is statewide, and while focused on Pennsylvania, he has handled cases around the Country. He has represented hundreds of prisoners in capital post-conviction and trial litigation. Michael has been qualified by judges and testified as an expert witness in varying aspects of criminal defense. He is frequently called upon to lecture criminal defense practitioners on various topics.

Michael’s forty-plus years of legal experience include sixteen years as the Chief of the Capital Habeas Corpus Unit of the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for sixteen years. Michael was a senior staff attorney for the Pennsylvania Post-Conviction Defender Organization (1994-1995), also representing capital prisoners. He served as the popularly elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (the Union representing lawyers employed by New York City’s Legal Aid Society), as a staff attorney for the Prisoners’ Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society of the City of New York, and as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County. Michael graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Law in 1981.