San Diego Criminal Justice Memorial
Honorees
A memorial directory honoring deceased judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys who advanced criminal justice in San Diego County.
William Braniff
1941-2015
Bill Braniff was born in New York on July 8, 1941. He was raised in New Jersey. In 1960 he was in an automobile accident that resulted him him being a paraplegic. He continued with his education, and graduated from Seton Hall University in 1966, and then from Rutgers University Law School in 1969. He was sworn in as an assistant US Attorney (AUSA) for the Newark office in 1970 and became the chief of the criminal division of the Newark office.
In 1980, he transferred to the San Diego office of the US Attorney. During his time as an AUSA in those two offices, Bill developed expertise in prosecuting many crimes, including military procurement fraud, healthcare fraud, environmental crimes, and major narcotics trafficking. He was very good at analyzing and prosecuting complex criminal cases.
In 1988 he was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California, a position that he held until1993. During Bill’s tenure in that position, that office grew to 90 attorneys, and became one of the leading prosecutorial offices in the nation. He was dedicated to leading that office in the effective and ethical prosecution of federal offenses. He taught Assistant US Attorneys to take great care in writing the statement of facts in an appellate brief. He told them “if you do a good job on the statement of facts, it will be obvious what the right outcome should be”.
Bill had a lot of trial experience. One day some younger trial lawyers in his office were speculating about which way the jury was going to go. Bill shook his head. “Hey”, he grinned at them. “The bowling ball is headed down the lane, and all the body language in the world ain’t going to change it’s course”
After leaving the US Attorney’s office, Bill practiced with Latham and Watkins, and then had his own private practice. He was on the Criminal Justice Act panel in San Diego. His practice included defense of white collar criminal cases, as well as defense of indigent defendants accused of federal offenses. He brought the same high standards to the defense of criminal charges as he brought to the prosecution of criminal cases.
Bill passed away on November 7, 2015.