--- alias: - Kenneth A. Marra - Judge Kenneth Marra - Judge Marra born: 1951 category: Law Enforcement & Legal created: 2026-09-25 location: Queens, New York (born) relations: - fn: 1 reverse: true role: U.S. District Judge, Southern District of Florida start: 2002-09-13 type: appointed with: '[[George W. Bush]]' - end: 1980 fn: 1 role: attorney start: 1977 type: employed_by with: '[[Department of Justice]]' - end: 2019-09-16 fn: 2 role: presiding judge start: 2008-07-07 type: participant_in with: '[[Doe v. United States]]' - fn: 8 role: presiding judge start: 2008 type: participant_in with: '[[In re Chiquita Brands International]]' summary: Kenneth Marra is a U.S. district judge in West Palm Beach, appointed in 2002, who presided over the Epstein victims' Crime Victims' Rights Act case and the Chiquita paramilitary-financing litigation. tags: - Person - KennethMarra - FederalJudge - JeffreyEpstein - CrimeVictimsRightsAct - NonProsecutionAgreement - Chiquita updated: 2026-09-25 --- Kenneth A. Marra (born 1951) is a senior United States district judge of the Southern District of Florida, sitting in West Palm Beach. Appointed by President [George W. Bush](/people/george-w-bush/) in 2002, he presided from 2008 to 2019 over [Doe v. United States](/events/doe-v-united-states/), the [Crime Victims' Rights Act](/concepts/crime-victims-rights-act/) case brought by victims of [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/), in which he held in February 2019 that federal prosecutors had violated the Act by concealing the [Epstein non-prosecution agreement](/events/epstein-non-prosecution-agreement/). He also presided over the multidistrict litigation against Chiquita Brands International over its payments to Colombian paramilitaries.[^1][^2][^3] ### Career Marra was born in Queens, New York, graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1973, and received his law degree from Stetson University College of Law in 1977. He was an attorney with the [Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/) from 1977 to 1980 and practiced privately in [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/), from 1980 to 1983 and in Florida from 1984 to 1996. From 1996 to 2002 he was a judge of Florida's 15th Judicial Circuit Court in Palm Beach County, the circuit whose State Attorney in those years was [Barry Krischer](/people/barry-krischer/).[^1][^4] Bush nominated Marra to the federal bench on January 23, 2002. The Senate confirmed him on September 9, 2002 and he received his commission on September 13, 2002. He assumed senior status on August 1, 2017, and his seat was filled in November 2020 by Aileen Cannon.[^1] ### The Epstein Cases Marra presided over the Crime Victims' Rights Act petition filed on July 7, 2008 by the victim then known as Jane Doe 1, later identified as [Courtney Wild](/people/courtney-wild/), and over a separate civil suit by another Jane Doe against Epstein, No. 9:08-cv-80893, which ran from 2008 to 2010. In the petition case he denied the government's July 2008 motion to seal its own response, ordered the government in August 2008 to produce the non-prosecution agreement to the petitioners under a protective order, and in February 2009 denied their motion to unseal it. The case was administratively closed in September 2010, and after Marra issued an order to show cause for lack of prosecution it was reopened in October 2010.[^2][^5] In a 2011 ruling Marra held that rights under the Act attach before the government files formal charges, and in 2013 that the Act authorizes the rescission of a prosecutorial agreement, including a non-prosecution agreement, reached in violation of the conferral right. In April 2015 he struck from the record the allegations in a December 2014 filing that Epstein had trafficked a victim to [Alan Dershowitz](/people/alan-dershowitz/) and others, describing them as "immaterial and impertinent" to the case.[^3][^6] On February 21, 2019 he granted partial summary judgment for the petitioners. He wrote that "[p]articularly problematic was the Government's decision to conceal the existence of the NPA and mislead the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility," that "[w]hile the Government spent untold hours negotiating the terms and implications of the NPA with Epstein's attorneys, scant information was shared with victims," and that "[t]he Court is not ruling that the decision not to prosecute was improper." He rejected the government's argument that a 2015 amendment had excluded non-prosecution agreements from victims' rights, reasoning that "[o]nce a NPA is entered into without notice, the matter is closed and the victims have no opportunity to be heard regarding any aspect of the case."[^3] After Epstein's death, Marra closed the case on September 16, 2019, denying the victims' requests to rescind the agreement, to compel a meeting with former U.S. Attorney [Alexander Acosta](/people/alexander-acosta/), to obtain grand jury and internal documents, and to impose sanctions or damages. He wrote that "[t]he Court has no jurisdiction over Alexander Acosta, the former U.S. Attorney, who is now a private citizen," and that "despite Petitioners having demonstrated the Government violated their rights under the CVRA, in the end they are not receiving much, if any, of the relief they sought." He said the rulings "likely played some role, however small it may have been, in the initiation of criminal charges against Mr. Epstein in the [Southern District of New York](/organizations/us-attorneys-office-for-the-southern-district-of-new-york/)." He also ordered unsealed the remedies briefing that had been filed under seal in December 2011.[^7] ### The Chiquita Litigation Marra presided over In re Chiquita Brands International, the consolidated suits by relatives of people killed by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which Chiquita had admitted paying from 2001 to 2004 in a 2007 federal guilty plea that carried a 25 million dollar fine. In 2019 he ruled that the first bellwether plaintiffs lacked sufficient evidence to reach trial; the Eleventh Circuit reversed in September 2022. On June 10, 2024 a jury in his West Palm Beach courtroom found Chiquita liable for the deaths of eight men and awarded their families 38.3 million dollars. Chiquita said its payments had been extortion rather than collaboration and announced an appeal.[^8] [^1]: Federal Judicial Center, "Marra, Kenneth A.," Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/marra-kenneth [^2]: Docket, *Doe v. United States*, No. 9:08-cv-80736-KAM (S.D. Fla.), entries 1, 11-14, 26, 28, 36, 38, 40, 44, CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4502088/doe-v-united-states/ [^3]: Opinion and Order, *Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 v. United States*, No. 9:08-cv-80736-KAM (S.D. Fla. Feb. 21, 2019), ECF No. 435, at 26-33 (Marra, J.), reported at 359 F. Supp. 3d 1201, citing *Does v. United States*, 817 F. Supp. 2d 1337 (S.D. Fla. 2011), and *Doe v. United States*, 950 F. Supp. 2d 1262 (S.D. Fla. 2013). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867.435.0.pdf [^4]: "Hon. Kenneth A. Marra '73, U.S. District Court Judge, West Palm Beach," *Stony Brook Matters,* Stony Brook University. https://sbmatters.stonybrook.edu/hon-kenneth-a-marra-73-u-s-district-court-judge-west-palm-beach-2/ [^5]: Docket, *Doe v. Epstein*, No. 9:08-cv-80893-KAM (S.D. Fla.), CourtListener docket 4586642. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4586642/doe-v-epstein/ [^6]: "Lawyers Call Sexual Misconduct Case Against Dershowitz 'A Mistake,'" *The Harvard Crimson,* April 11, 2016. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/4/11/lawyers-drop-dershowitz-case/ [^7]: Opinion and Order, *Doe v. United States*, No. 9:08-cv-80736-KAM (S.D. Fla. Sept. 16, 2019), ECF No. 478 (Marra, J.). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-flsd-9_08-cv-80736/pdf/USCOURTS-flsd-9_08-cv-80736-2.pdf [^8]: "Chiquita found liable for paramilitary killings in Colombia," *Courthouse News Service,* June 10, 2024. https://www.courthousenews.com/chiquita-found-liable-for-paramilitary-killings-in-colombia/ ; National Security Archive, "Chiquita Found Liable for Colombia Paramilitary Killings," June 10, 2024. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/colombia-chiquita-papers/2024-06-10/chiquita-found-liable-colombia-paramilitary-killings ; EarthRights International, "U.S. Court Orders Chiquita to Stand Trial for Colombians' Murder Claims." https://earthrights.org/media_release/u-s-court-orders-chiquita-to-stand-trial-for-colombians-murder-claims/