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Francis Lee Bailey

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Francis Lee Bailey Jr., commonly referred to as F. Lee Bailey (born June 10, 1933, in Waltham, Massachusetts) was an American lawyer prior to his disbarment. He served as a defense lawyer in the Sam Sheppard re-trial, the court martial of Captain Ernest Medina, and the O. J. Simpson trial. Bailey's cross-examination of LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman is widely regarded as one of the greatest cross-examinations in the history of modern American jurisprudence.

Bailey has also had a number of visible defeats, legal controversies, and personal trouble with the law. In spite of his difficulties, Bailey still has a reputation for being one of the most successful defense attorneys in American legal history.

Contents

Education and military service

Bailey studied at Harvard College, and was a member of the class of 1954 [link]. He dropped out of Harvard[link] to join the United States Marine Corps in 1952, and received his aviator wings in 1954. He served as a jet fighter pilot and a legal officer. He was discharged in 1956. Bailey received his law degree from Boston University, where he was first in the graduating class of 1960.

Notable cases

In 1954, Dr. Sam Sheppard was found guilty in the murder of his wife Marilyn. (The case was believed to be the basis for the Fugitive television series (1963-1967) and the 1993 movie.) F. Lee Bailey was hired by Sheppard's son to help in his father's appeal. In 1966, F. Lee Bailey successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that Sheppard had been denied due process, ordering a re-trial. Bailey won a not-guilty verdict for Sheppard. This case established Bailey's reputation as a skilled defense attorney and was the first of many high-profile cases.

\" While defendant Albert DeSalvo was in jail for the "Green Man" sexual assaults, he had confessed his guilt in the "Boston Strangler" murders to Bailey. Bailey sought to arrange a deal for DeSalvo to avoid the death penalty in the Strangler murders, in exchange for his confession. Bailey used DeSalvo's murder confession to argue an insanity defense in the sexual assault case. However, DeSalvo was found guilty.

Bailey successfully defended U.S. Army Captain Ernest Medina in his 1971 court martial for responsibility in the My Lai incident (Vietnam war).

The case of Patty Hearst, a newspaper heiress who had been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), was one of Bailey's most notorious defeats. Legal analysts have said Bailey presented a very poor case. He allowed a retired Air Force colonel to remain on the jury; most jury analysts believe jurors with military backgrounds are very pro-prosecution. His medical and psychiatric expert witnesses gave inconsistent testimony, weakening the insanity defense. His closing argument to the jury was short and weak, leading to the speculation that he was either exhausted or intoxicated at the time. Hearst was found guilty and received the maximum sentence.

Hearst later wrote that she believed that it was his closing argument that lost the case. It appeared that he had been drinking—his hands were shaking, his face was flushed, and his statements to the jury were rambling and incoherent. Hearst later sued Bailey for inadequate representation, claiming that his attention was diverted by his working on a book deal at the time. He had accepted the Hearst case with the stipulation that he get the book rights and that Hearst not write her story for at least 18 months after the publication of his book.

Bailey joined the O.J. Simpson defense team just before the preliminary hearing. Bailey held numerous press conferences to discuss the progress of the case. In a press conference prior to his cross-examination of Mark Fuhrman, Bailey said, "any lawyer in his right mind who would not be looking forward to cross-examining Mark Fuhrman is an idiot." His famous cross-examination of Fuhrman is considered by many to be the key to Simpson's acquittal. In front of a predominately minority jury, Bailey forced the detective to plead his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by asking him if he had ever used the word "nigger" to describe blacks. Bailey also attracted minor attention for keeping a silver flask on the defense table.

Controversies

Bailey's visible public profile has come both as a result of the cases he has taken and for his own personal actions. In 1970, Bailey was censured by a Massachusetts judge for “his philosophy of extreme egocentricity,” noting that disbarment wouldn’t be a bad idea. Bailey has been disbarred thrice — in 1971, the State of New Jersey barred him from practice for one year; and in 2001 in the state of Florida, with reciprocal disbarment in 2002.[#endnote_disbarment_fl][#endnote_disbarment_ma] The Florida disbarment was the result of his handling of stock in the DuBoc marijuana case. In March 2005, Bailey filed to regain his law license in Massachusetts.

Other legal run-ins have included:

Wrongful death suit - Flight 007

In 1983, Korean Air Flight 007 was shot down by Soviet interceptors. Bailey represented the families of the passengers in a wrongful death suit. When he accepted that case, he agreed to "work full-time as required" on the case. However, in five years, while charging full-time legal fees, he worked only 97 hours on pretrial preparation, compared with 6,311 hours worked by the two other law firms. The families sued Bailey for misrepresentation. In his defense, Bailey argued that he had to move to Florida so his wife could be near her ailing parents, and thus he could not assist the families. In 1993, a federal court ordered Bailey to return some of the money to the families.

1994 DuBoc case

In 1994, while the O.J. Simpson case was in trial, Bailey and Robert Shapiro represented Claude DuBoc, an accused marijuana dealer. In a plea bargain agreement with the U.S. Attorney, DuBoc agreed to turn over his assets to the U.S. Government. His assets included a large block of stock in BioChem, worth approximately $6 million at the time of the plea deal. When the government sought to collect the stock, it had increased in value to $20 million. Bailey claimed he was entitled to the appreciation in payment of his legal fees and refused to turn over the stock to the government. In 2000, he was sent to prison for contempt. After forty-four days at the Federal Prison in Tallahassee, Bailey agreed to relinquish his claim to the stock and he was freed.[#endnote_simpson] [#endnote_disbar_response]

Publications

Bailey has authored a number of books, including three best selling non-fiction books:

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
O. J. Simpson murder case
Key figures Prosecution figures Defense figures Witnesses Other elements

 

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