A former prosecutor turned criminal defense attorney with 300-plus jury trials, the Heeney Award for Lifetime Excellence, and a landmark depraved heart murder case before Maryland’s highest court.
Robert C. Bonsib is a co-founder of MarcusBonsib LLC, where he has practiced criminal defense law since 1990. Over the course of his career he has tried more than 300 jury cases in state and federal courts across Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Bonsib began his legal career in 1974 as a law clerk and then assistant state’s attorney in the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office under State’s Attorney Arthur “Bud” Marshall. In 1983 he joined the United States Attorney’s Office as an Assistant United States Attorney. He returned to Prince George’s County in 1987 as the Deputy State’s Attorney under State’s Attorney Alexander Williams Jr., who had won a historic election as the first Black person elected to a countywide office in Prince George’s County. After sixteen years in prosecution, Bonsib entered private practice and co-founded his firm with Bruce Marcus, a former public defender.
Bonsib is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a recipient of the Heeney Award for Lifetime Excellence in Criminal Law. He has served for more than twenty years on the Prince George’s County Judicial Nominating Commission. His representation of Daniel Beckwitt produced a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Maryland on depraved heart murder, and the case remains the leading authority on that issue in the state.
Timestamps will be added when this episode is published on April 1, 2026.