F. Lee Bailey

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For the English astronomer, see Francis Baily.

Francis Lee Bailey Jr., commonly referred to as F. Lee Bailey, (born June 10, 1933, in Waltham, Massachusetts), is a legendary American criminal defense lawyer who served as the defense lawyer in the Sam Sheppard re-trial and the court martial of Captain Ernest Medina, among other high profile trials, and was one of the lawyers for the defense in the O.J. Simpson trial. He has also had a number of visible defeats, legal controversies, and personal trouble with the law, and was disbarred for misconduct while defending his client Claude DuBoc.[1] In spite of his difficulties, he still has a reputation for being a highly successful defense attorney, and is the Chairman and CEO of IMPAC, Integrated Control Systems, Inc., a Florida corporation.[2]

Contents

[edit] Education and military service

Bailey went to Kimball Union Academy and graduated in the class of 1950. Bailey studied at Harvard College, and was a member of the class of 1954 [1]. He dropped out of Harvard[2] 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 LL.B. from Boston University, where he was first in the graduating class of 1960.[citation needed]

[edit] Notable cases

[edit] Sam Sheppard

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

[edit] "Boston Strangler"

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.

[edit] Dr. Carl A. Coppolino

Dr. Coppolino was accused of murdering his wife, Dr. Carmela Coppolino (August 28, 1965), and Lt. Col. William Farber (July 30, 1963). The prosecution claimed that Coppolino injected his victims with a curare-like substance called succinylcholine chloride, which at the time was undetectable due to limited forensic technology. Bailey, who had just won Sam Sheppard an acquittal in Nov. 1966, successfully defended Coppolino in the New Jersey case over the death of Lt. Col. William Farber in Dec. 1966. However, Coppolino was convicted of murdering his wife in Florida. He was paroled after serving 12 years of his sentence.

The conviction proved to be a landmark case, since the toxicological evidence utilized scientific techniques that have not been proven in forensic science.[citation needed] Only trace amounts of succinic acid were found by the toxicologist, Dr. Charles Umberger. Umberger later testified that the presence of abnormal levels of succinic acid in brain tissue samples indicated that succinylcholine chloride was used. Despite Umberger's conclusions, it is difficult to decide whether Dr. Coppolino should have been convicted for the murder of his wife. After the conviction, Bailey filed multiple appeals, arguing that the evidence was fabricated by "forensic experts" (namely Dr. Milton Helpern and Dr. Charles Umberger).

Dr. Coppolino maintains his innocence to this day.

[edit] Ernest Medina

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

[edit] Patty Hearst

The case of Patty Hearst, a newspaper heiress who had been involved in bank robberies after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), was one of Bailey's most notorious defeats. Many said that Bailey could have won the case as there was ample evidence Hearst had been tortured and abused by the SLA.[citation needed] Bailey gave a very short weak closing argument. Patty Hearst describes it in her autobiography as "disjointed" and that she suspected he had been drinking. During his closing argument, Bailey spilled a glass of water on his pants. [3]

[edit] O.J. Simpson

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 predominantly minority jury, Bailey got the detective to claim he never used the word "nigger" to describe blacks at any time during the previous 10 years, a claim the defense team easily found evidence to refute. Ultimately, the statement that Bailey drew from the detective forced Fuhrman to plead the fifth in his next courtroom appearance, thereby undermining his credibility with the jury and the otherwise devastating evidence he allegedly found. Bailey also attracted minor attention for keeping a silver flask on the defense table, which fellow defense attorney Robert Kardashian claimed contained only coffee.[4]

[edit] William & Chantal McCorkle

Chantal McCorkle (born 1968, Slough, England) is a British citizen. Along with William, her American husband, she was tried and convicted in 1998 in Florida for her part in a financial fraud. The McCorkles sold kits purporting to show buyers how to get rich by buying property in foreclosures and government auctions. They advertised on infomercials; among the grounds for their conviction was their representation in the infomercials that they owned luxury automobiles and airplanes (actually rented for the commercials), and their use of purported testimonials from satisfied customers, who were actually paid actors.[5]

She, represented by Mark Horwitz, and her husband, represented by F. Lee Bailey, were each originally sentenced to over 24 years in federal prison under mandatory sentencing laws. After two appeals, the McCorkles' sentences were reduced in 2006 to 18 years.[6]

[edit] "Paul is Dead"

In 1969, during the "Paul is Dead" urban legend's popularity, F. Lee Bailey participated in a television show where he received "testimony" from believers in the myth.[7]

[edit] 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 2001 he was disbarred in the state of Florida, with reciprocal disbarment in Massachusetts in 2002. The Florida disbarment was the result of his handling of stock in the DuBoc marijuana case. Bailey was found guilty of 7 counts of attorney misconduct by the Florida Supreme Court. Bailey had transferred a large portion of DuBoc's assets into his own accounts, using the interest gained on those assets to pay for personal expenses. In March 2005, Bailey filed to regain his law license in Massachusetts. The book Florida Pulp Nonfiction details the peculiar facts of the DuBoc case along with extended interviews with Bailey that include his own defense.

[edit] 1994 DuBoc case

In 1994, while the O.J. Simpson case was being tried, 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.[3][4]

[edit] Publications

Non-fiction
Fiction
  • Secrets (1977).
Magazine
  • Gallery, publisher (1972).[8]

[edit] See also

United States Marine Corps Portal

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "SJC-08764: IN THE MATTER OF F. LEE BAILEY", "Suffolk, December 2, 2002 - April 11, 2003," mass.gov, accessed October 7, 2007.
  2. ^ "F. Lee Bailey, Chairman and CEO IMPAC Control Systems, Inc."
  3. ^ Hearst, Patricia Campbell & Moscow, Alvin, Patty Hearst: Her Own Story, Corgi/Avon, 1988 (p. 442-443) ISBN 0552134902, previously published as Every Secret Thing (1982)
  4. ^ Donna Foote, "Here Comes the Jury", Newsweek, October 21, 1996.
  5. ^ Allie Johnson, "Chantal's Angels", The Pitch, November 9, 2000.
  6. ^ "Judge cuts couple's jail term", The Orlando Sentinel, March 25, 2006.
  7. ^ R. Gary Patterson, The Walrus Was Paul: The Great Beatle Death Clues (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998) 16-17. ISBN 978-0684850627 (13).
  8. ^ "Playboy and Plagiarism", Time October 16, 1972, accessed October 7, 2007: In October 1972, Bailey became "the showcase publisher of Gallery", a new magazine, based on Playboy and Penthouse magazines, but later dropped out as publisher.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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