Biography
Carol Erskine is a retired Massachusetts Juvenile Court judge whose career has spanned medicine, law, and the judiciary. Before becoming an attorney, she worked as an intensive care respiratory therapist caring for critically ill patients often on life support. As a lawyer, she served as guardian ad litem for Paul Papacalos, a fully competent young man with locked-in syndrome who sought the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment.
That deeply personal and professionally transformative experience inspired In Paul’s Eyes, Carol’s first venture into filmmaking. She serves as the documentary’s Executive Producer and Project Founder, bringing Paul’s story, and its enduring questions about dignity, autonomy, love, and the right to make one’s own medical decisions, to the screen. Before her judicial appointment, Carol was named one of Massachusetts’ “Top Ten Lawyers” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. She later served on the bench for more than twenty-one years, presiding over complex cases involving medical decision-making, mental health, child abuse and neglect, juvenile offenders, exploited children, runaways, and other vulnerable populations. She has received numerous child advocacy and judicial excellence awards,
The author of A Cruel Injustice: How Massachusetts Put Four-Year-Old Harmony in the Hands of a Monster (with all proceeds benefiting the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption), two children’s books, and numerous op-ed pieces on issues affecting vulnerable populations, she currently teaches Criminal Justice Ethics and Constitutional Law at the graduate level. Carol is also a frequent legal analyst and commentator and has appeared on Court TV, ABC Nightline, CNN, FOX, NBC10 Boston, WCVB, Boston 25, and various podcasts and media programs. Her website, thejusticefile.com, features opinion essays, legal analysis, constitutional education, and trial commentary, with a particular focus on social issues at the intersection of law, justice, and public policy.
Carol Erskine, a retired Massachusetts Juvenile Court First Justice who served on the bench for more than twenty-one years, brings a uniquely relevant perspective to In Paul’s Eyes through her rare professional journey spanning medicine, law, and the judiciary. Named one of Massachusetts’ “Top Ten Lawyers” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly before her judicial appointment and having argued cases before both the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the Supreme Judicial Court, she earlier worked as an intensive care respiratory therapist caring for critically ill patients facing life-and-death decisions. Afte becoming a lawyer, she served as guardian ad litem in the landmark case of Paul Papacalos, a fully competent man with locked-in syndrome who sought the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. As a judge she continued to confront profound ethical questions involving life support, medical decision-making, and vulnerable individuals, focusing throughout her career on human dignity, ethics, autonomy, and the protection of vulnerable populations while presiding over countless child-abuse, mental-health, criminal, and sexually exploited-children cases; she currently teaches Criminal Justice Ethics and Constitutional Law at the graduate level. The author of A Cruel Injustice: How Massachusetts Put Four-Year-Old Harmony in the Hands of a Monster (with all proceeds benefiting the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption), two children’s books, and numerous op-ed pieces on issues affecting vulnerable populations, Judge Erskine is also a frequent legal analyst and commentator appearing on Court TV, ABC Nightline, NBC10 Boston, WCVB, Boston 25, and various podcasts and media programs.
The author of A Cruel Injustice: How Massachusetts Put Four-Year-Old Harmony in the Hands of a Monster (with all proceeds benefiting the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption), two children’s books, and numerous op-ed pieces on issues affecting vulnerable populations, Judge Erskine is also a frequent legal analyst and commentator and has appeared on Court TV, ABC Nightline, CNN, FOX NBC10 Boston, WCVB, Boston 25, and various podcasts and media programs. Her website, TheJusticeFile.com, features opinion essays, legal analysis, constitutional education, and trial commentary, with a particular focus on social issues at the intersection of law, justice, and public policy.
