Jeralyn E. Merritt is a Denver attorney in private practice primarily representing persons accused of serious federal drug-trafficking and white-collar offenses and in related forfeiture actions. She served as one of the principal trial lawyers for Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Merritt is an elected fellow and member of the Board of Governors of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NADCL) and is co-chair of its Legislative Committee. She has testified before both Congress and the United States Sentencing Commission on drug sentencing laws and writes a regular column on criminal justice legislation for NADCL's monthly publication, The Champion. She lectures to lawyers nationally on a variety of criminal defense topics, and as a television legal analyst since 1996, has appeared regularly on Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Court TV, CNBC's Rivera Live and other national television programs. Merritt is also the founder and creator of www.crimelynx.com and www.talkleft.com, Internet sources for criminal defense lawyers and journalists covering crime-based news and politics.

Merritt earned her BA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver College of Law. She resides in Denver.