:David Schutter

Schutter was born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin, the son of successful insurance salesman Karl Schuetter and his wife Pearl Balliet Schuetter. He attended Appleton High School, serving in the student council and as senior class president. He was also a top athlete who lettered in basketball, track, and baseball and served as a Badger Boys State delegate.

Schutter attended Marquette University in 1958 and graduated cum laude less than four years later. He then attended University of Wisconsin's law school, graduating at the top of his class and also obtaining a Master's of Arts (MA) from Arizona State University.

His brief career at the law firm of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie (then just 'Lewis & Roca LLP') in Phoenix, Arizona was interrupted when he was enlisted in the Arizona National Guard (the 277th Military Intelligence Detachment) and was deployed to Hawaii as a corporal. Schutter was then deployed to Vietnam, where he served at the Tây Ninh Combat Base, after an unsuccessful federal lawsuit that he filed to prevent his unit from being sent overseas.{{cite news |last=Jones |first=Bobby |date=July 27, 2005 |title= The Real Story of David Schutter |url=http://archives.midweek.com/content/columns/justthoughts_article/the_real_story_of_david_schutter/ |work=Midweek Magazine |location=online |access-date= October 5, 2019 }} He was originally billeted to serve as a combat infantryman but was reclassified as a prison interrogator after the intervention of Patsy Mink and Morris Udall. His service only lasted a few months, and he was released in Oakland, California in August 1969.{{cite news |last=Bone |first=Robert |date=September 12, 1972 |title=Schutter: Defender of 'the poor mothah' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38973164/poor_mothah/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114024032/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38973164/poor_mothah/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 14, 2019 |work=The Honolulu Advertiser |location=archived |access-date=November 13, 2019 }}

Following his return to Hawaii in the same year, he left the Guard to start his own law firm.

Schutter began his career in the 1970s, representing underworld figures, victims of police misconduct, and some of Hawaii's most prominent criminal defendants. His early career focused on civil litigation. Throughout his decades-long career, he worked with many prominent civil attorneys, including future-governor Ben Cayetano, criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey (late of the O. J. Simpson trial's "dream team"), and Miranda v. Arizona lead counsels John P. Frank and John Flynn. He also mentored attorney Steven Levinson, who would later become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.

Schutter's first big case while at Lewis & Roca was defending the eccentric San Francisco millionaire William Thoresen and his wife who were facing federal firearms charges. This case arose following an ATF raid on the Thoresen mansion in San Francisco, which revealed a wide array of weapons including handguns, machine guns, bayonets, and even anti-aircraft weapons.

Schutter represented Randall Saito, a 21-year-old man who was charged with murdering a 29-year-old woman in front of Ala Moana Center parking lot in July 1979. After a hearing in 1981 (two years after the murder), Schutter successfully secured a verdict of not guilty by mental disease or defect for Saito. Saito had been diagnosed with sexual sadism and necrophilia (a sexual attraction to corpses).{{cite news |last=Pritha |first=Paul |date=November 11, 2017 |title= Who Is Randall Saito? $500,000 Bench Warrant Issued For Hawaii Hospital Escapee |url=https://www.ibtimes.com/who-randall-saito-500000-bench-warrant-issued-hawaii-hospital-escapee-2614848 |work=International Business Times |location=online |access-date= November 11, 2019 }} Upon Saito's sentencing, Schutter remarked:

{{Blockquote

|text=I think Randall Saito will be in the state mental hospital or whatever facility they assign him for a long, long time, and by long, long time I’m referring to long after my death.

}}

In 2017, over ten years after Schutter's death, Saito escaped from the Hawaii State Hospital where he was being held for treatment. Saito was rearrested in California three days later and found competent to stand trial on a charge of escape. According to a report by the Hawaii State Attorney General, the escape was attributable to lax oversight.{{cite news |last=Kelleher |first=Jenny |date=December 13, 2018 |title=Hawaii trial set for psychiatric patient charged in escape| url=https://apnews.com/105bedf6fec24215b526b959e931d45e |location=online |access-date= November 12, 2019}}

In the mid 2010s, Saito's case was featured in the My Favorite Murder podcast.

Schutter was the lead plaintiffs' attorney in the lawsuit against notorious grifter Sante Kimes after she was accused and convicted of keeping a large series of undocumented immigrants from Mexico as slaves in the 1980s. He succeeded in winning a large judgment against her and her insurance company following her conviction on federal criminal charges{{cite web|url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/98/07/10/news/satnews.html|title=Woman convicted in isle slavery held in N.Y. missing-person case|last=|first=|date=1998-07-11|website=|publisher=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|accessdate=2011-04-10}} arising out of the same incidents.{{cite book|author=Adrian Havill|title=The Mother, The Son, And The Socialite: The True Story Of A Mother-Son Crime Spree|url=https://archive.org/details/mothersonsociali00havi|url-access=registration|date=April 15, 1999|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-97069-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mothersonsociali00havi/page/147 147]–}}

Schutter represented student athlete Terry Whitaker, who was suspended from the University of Hawaii football team without due process after an off-campus altercation. Whitaker was suspended without any hearing or other formal disciplinary proceeding, a decision which Schutter claimed violated Whitaker's right to due process as well as the university's internal procedures{{cite news|author=Terry Arnett|title=Whitaker takes on UH in court today |newspaper=The Honolulu Star Bulletin |date=October 31, 1991 |page=167 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36925296/clipping_of_schutter_representing_terry/ |via=newspapers.com| access-date=September 12, 2019 | url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009011737/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36925296/clipping_of_schutter_representing_terry/| archive-date=October 9, 2019 }} In a landmark decision, a state court judge ordered the university to reinstate Whitaker, a decision that sent shock waves throughout the state which was at the time grappling with racial discrimination against African Americans during the 1980s and 1990s.{{cite book|author=Michael Haas|title=Multicultural Hawaiʻi: The Fabric of a Multiethnic Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VdaKfKy37mgC&pg=PA243|year=1998|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8153-2377-8|pages=243–}}

Schutter represented Larry Mehau, a Hawaiian businessman who was long suspected of being connected to organized crime in Hawaii. Mehau had filed a libel suit against a newspaper editor, Rick Reed, who had published an article suggesting that Mehau was the "godfather" of organized crime in Hawaii and linked to two murders.{{cite news |last=Turner |first=Wally |date=August 28, 1984 |title=INQUIRY ON MURDERS IN HAWAII BRINGS GOVERNOR AND PROSECUTOR INTO CONFLICT |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/28/us/inquiry-on-murders-in-hawaii-brings-governor-and-prosecutor-into-conflict.html |work=The New York Times |location=online |access-date=August 28, 2019 }} The suit also named several mainstream media outlets as well as Hawaii State House Minority Leader. Kamalii obtained a court order forcing the State of Hawaii to pay for her defense. She was then represented by David Turk who had previously worked for and been trained by Schutter. While the case continued for years Schutter finally dropped the case against Kamalii.

Schutter also accused Honolulu prosecutor Charles Marsland of waging an "orchestrated campaign" and a "political vendetta" against Mehau and his associate, then-Governor of Hawaii Ryoichi Ariyoshi in the form of criminal charges against some of Mehau's employees and associates. Schutter also defended Mehau in a campaign finance case related to his contributions to Ariyoshi's gubernatorial campaign.

Schutter founded a not-for-profit entity called the Schutter Foundation in 1981. The Foundation received its initial funding via a $25,000 gift from Schutter. Its ten-member board included Wallace Fujiyama, a member of the University of Hawaii Board of Regents; Mufi Hanneman, a special assistant to then-Hawaii Governor George Ariyoshi; Dr. Gregory Mark, chairman of Chaminade University's criminal justice department; Ah Quon McElrath, a labor activist; Wayne Matsuo, an educational specialist; Tom Naki, a member of the prosecutors' office; Marc Oley, a criminal justice planner and retired Honolulu police officer; Julianne Puzon, a staffer in the Governor's office; Rev. Jory Watland, a pastor; and Mike Keller, a former Honolulu Advertiser reporter, who also serves as executive director.{{cite news |last=Kaser |first=Tom |date=July 5, 1981 |title=Schutter Foundation opens |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36925798/clipping_of_schutter_foundation/ |work=The Honolulu Star-Bulletin |location=archived |access-date=November 11, 2019}}

The stated goal of the Foundation was to advocate for criminal justice reform and to encourage the Hawaii legislature to ban handguns. Mike Keller, the executive director of the Schutter Foundation, criticized the Hawaii police and prosecution services, claiming that their 94% conviction rate was misleading and asserted that reforms were needed of the prosecutors' office to improve outcomes for crime victims.{{cite news |last=McCoy |first=James |date=November 3, 1981 |title=Schutter Foundation Raps Police, Prosecutors |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36925518/clipping_of_schutter_criticizing_hawaii/ |work=The Honolulu Star-Bulletin |location=archived |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009012051/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36925518/clipping_of_schutter_criticizing_hawaii/ |archive-date=2019-10-09 }}

The Schutter Foundation was prominently involved in a 1980s political battle to pass a handgun ban in Hawaii. It sponsored a rally of about 200 gun control in February 1982 supporters to protest; the protest was attended by gun control artist and musician Harry Nilsson, and was in support of a bill that would prohibit the private possession of a handgun, with exceptions for authorized military and law enforcement personnel. Handgun owners could keep their guns stored at a gun range, and inoperable or antique guns would not be covered by the ban.

{{cite news|author=Sandra Oshiro|title=Capitol rallies are peaceful, but legislative battles loom |newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |date=February 13, 1982 |page=167 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36924619/clip_of_schutter_foundations_advocacy |via=newspapers.com| access-date=July 12, 2019 | url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009010317/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36924619/clip_of_schutter_foundations_advocacy| archive-date=October 9, 2019 }}

Schutter died on July 10, 2005, a month after suffering a massive stroke. He was survived by his stepdaughter and his four sons. In 2015, his 18,000 sq. foot beachfront mansion on Kahala Avenue (Honolulu) was sold to a new owner, who planned to demolish it, thus ending the legacy of David C. Schutter.{{cite news|last=Shimogawa|first=Duane|title=Beachfront Kahala mansion sold, to be demolished

|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2015/02/18/beachfront-kahala-mansion-sold-to-be-be-demolished.html|date=February 18, 2015|publisher=Pacific Business News|access-date=January 10, 2020}}

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