Stu recently joined Poyner Spruill after a distinguished 22-year career in the United States Marine Corps as a pilot, a prosecutor, and an appellate judge. He now practices in the areas of professional liability defense, white collar criminal defense, government and corporate investigations, and appellate law.
In 1998, Stu served as one of three criminal prosecutors in general courts-martial at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, involving the collision of a military jet with an Italian ski gondola system that caused the deaths of twenty European tourists. Following practice in a civilian law firm and as a state prosecutor, he returned to the Marines on active duty after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States.
From 2003 to 2006, Stu served as a senior prosecutor in the Office of Military Commissions to conduct criminal proceedings against selected detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He was lead counsel in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, and liaison to the Department of Justice and Solicitor General in support of the U.S. Supreme Court litigation of
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a landmark case involving separation of powers and Presidential authority during wartime. He was later featured in The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek about his decision not to prosecute a Guantánamo detainee because of his concerns that the man had been subject to torture, and was awarded the American Bar Association’s 2007 Norm Maleng “Minister of Justice” Award.
Prior to joining Poyner Spruill, Stu served for three years as a Senior Appellate Judge on the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington, DC.