WINDOW

The
Client
By Doug McInnis
Seattle attorney James Pirtle (’01) explains why his
first human rights case was defending an accused
Ugandan criminal – one of Kony’s commanders
In the late summer of 2011, James Pirtle flew
8,700 miles from Seattle to the Ugandan capital of
Kampala, a place he had never been and knew little
about. Back in Seattle, he was a trial lawyer. But in
Kampala, Pirtle became an unpaid human-rights attorney,
part of a legal defense team trying to keep the state from
executing Thomas Kwoyelo.
Ironically, Kwoyelo was himself accused of the most
egregious human rights crimes – 53 counts of murder, kidnapping,
and property destruction committed while serving
as a soldier and commander in the Lord's Resistance Army,
or LRA. The army terrorized northern Uganda for 20 years.
But Kwoyelo's case was not as simple as sounded.
Kwoyelo says he was forced into the LRA after he was kidnapped
while walking to school. He was 13 years old.
“He was nothing but a little boy trying to go to school,”
says Pirtle (’01, Philosophy). “We're talking about a
13-year-old. I can’t get that out of my mind. I was 13 once. I
remember walking to school.”
But the Ugandan government failed to offer Kwoyelo
amnesty, though it had done so for more than 26,000 former
LRA fighters, including some of higher rank . “Of
the first 26,000 to apply for amnesty, he was the only
one to be rejected.” Instead, he was imprisoned and
tortured to obtain a confession, Pirtle says.
Pirtle learned of the case through Human
Rights Watch after Ugandan attorneys put out
a call for help. Intrigued, Pirtle volunteered. “I
didn’t think in a million years that they would
pick me. I was just a trial lawyer from Seattle.”
Pirtle wasn’t picked for his experience
in human rights law. He had none. But he
did offer two things Kwoyelo’s defense
team needed: his legal perspective from
outside the Commonwealth and his
American citizenship. By having an
American on the team, it would
be harder for anyone to carry out
Answering the call:
James Pirtle first
learned of the case
through Human
Rights Watch.
30
WINDOW • Fall/Winter 2013 • Western Washington University
www.wwu.edu/window
Photo by Daniel Berman ('12) 31