Celebrity attorney F. Lee Bailey dead at 87
Waltham, Mass. (AP) - F. Lee Bailey, the famous lawyer who worked with O.J. defended. Simpson, Patricia Hearst and the alleged Boston Strangler, but whose legal career was put on hold in two states, has died, a former aide said Thursday. He was 87 years old.
Bailey died in an Atlanta area hospital, according to Kenneth Fishman, Bailey's former law partner who became a Superior Court judge in Massachusetts.
Fishman did not disclose the cause of death, but said Bailey had moved to Georgia about a year ago to be closer to one of her sons and had been dealing with multiple medical issues over the past few months.
"In many ways, he was the model of a criminal defense attorney in case preparation and investigation," said Fishman, whose legal association and association with Bailey dates back to 1975.
In a career that spanned more than four decades, Bailey was seen as arrogant, arrogant, & with a contempt of authority. But he was also acknowledged as courageous, talented, meticulous & tireless in protecting his clients.
Bailey entered the U.S. in September 1981. "The legal profession is a profession that has a tremendous collection of egos," he said in an interview with News and World Report. "Some people who are not arrogantly strong."
Some of Bailey's other high-profile clients included Dr. Samuel Shepard - accused of murdering his wife - & Captain Ernest Medina, who was indicted in connection with the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.
Bailey, an avid pilot, best-selling author & television show host, was a member of the legal "dream team" that defended Simpson, the former NFL star running back & the actor acquitted of charges that he had married his wife. , Nicole Brown killed Simpson. & his friend, Ron Goldman, in 1995.
"I lost a great man. F Lee Bailey you will be missed," Simpson said in a tweet on Thursday.
Bailey was the team's most valuable member, Simpson said in a 1996 story in The Boston Globe Magazine.
"He was able to simplify everything & identify the most important parts of the case," Simpson said. "Lee determined what the strategy of the case was, what was going to be important & what was not. I thought he had an amazing understanding of what the most important parts of the case were going to be, & it turned out to be true."
One of the most memorable moments of the trial came when Bailey cross-examined Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman in an attempt to portray him as a racist, aiming to frame Simpson. It was a classic belly.
Fuhrman denied using racist adjectives, but the defense later turned over a recording of Fuhrman's racist abuses.
Even though Fuhrman remained calm under the pressure, & some legal experts called the confrontation a draw, Bailey recalled the exchange months later, "that was the day Fuhrman dug his grave."
Bailey's latest book, "The Truth About the O.J. Simpson Trial: By the Architect of the Defense," was being released this month.
Bailey acquitted for many of his clients, but he also lost cases, most notably of Hearst.
Hearst, a publication heiress, was kidnapped by the Symbiones Liberation Army terrorist group on February 4, 1974, & participated in armed robberies with the group. In the trial, Bailey claimed she was forced to participate because she feared for her life. He was still convicted.
Hearst called Bailey an "ineffective attorney" who turned the trial into "a joke, a farce & a sham", in a declaration he signed with a motion to commute his sentence. Hearst accused him of sacrificing his defense in an attempt to get a book deal about the case.
He was released in January 1979 after President Jimmy Carter reduced his sentence.
Bailey made a name for Shepard, an Ohio osteopath convicted of murdering his wife in 1954.
Shepard spent more than a decade behind bars before the US Supreme Court ruled in a landmark 1966 decision that "massive, widespread, prejudicial propaganda" had violated his rights. Bailey helped lead to an acquittal in the second trial.
Bailey also defended Albert DeSalvo, who claimed responsibility for the Boston Strangler murders between 1962 & 1964. DeSalvo confessed to the murders, but was never tried or convicted, & was later released. Despite doubts over DiSalvo's claim, Bailey always maintained that DiSalvo was a stranger.
Throughout his career, Bailey opposed the authorities with his sometimes abrasive style & pursuit of publicity. He was condemned by a Massachusetts judge in 1970 for "his visions of extreme arrogance" & was banned for a year in 1971 for speaking publicly about a case in New Jersey.
But publicity was part of his strategy, Fishman said.
"Enjoying the public became a tool for them," Fishman said. "He was one of the 1st lawyers to go outside the courtroom and speak in front of a group of microphones. All the news about a case was from the prosecution side. So his strategy was to get out there and suspect all the criminals. did." Had to accuse."
Bailey was banned in Florida in 2001 & in Massachusetts the following year, just as he had traded millions of dollars in stock owned by a convicted drug trafficker in 1994. He spent nearly 6 weeks in federal prison on charges of contempt of court in 1996 after refusing. . Flip the stock. The experience "troubled" him.
He passed the bar exam in Maine in 2013, but was denied the right to practice by the state's Supreme Court, which concluded that he had not demonstrated that he understood the seriousness of his actions that other states would. inspire. I was opposing it.
Francis Lee Bailey was born in the Boston suburb of Waltham, the son of a newspaper advertising man & a schoolteacher.
He enrolled at Harvard University in 1950 but left at the end of his sophomore year to train to become a marine pilot. He maintained a lifelong love for flying and even owned his own aviation company.
While in the military, Bailey volunteered for the legal staff at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina, & soon found himself the legal officer for over 2,000 men.
Bailey earned a law degree from Boston University in 1960, where he averaged 90.5, but graduated without honors because he refused to join the Law Review. He said the university waived the bachelor's degree requirement because of his military legal experience.
Bailey was married four times & divorced three times. His fourth wife, Patricia, died in 1999. He had three children.