Politics
Did F Lee Bailey defend OJ Simpson? Famous cases explained
F. LEE Bailey an attorney who defended a series of high-profile cases before he was disbarred in two states, died on June 3, 2021.
Here’s everything you need to know about his most famous cases.
F Lee Bailey died on June 3, 2021[/caption]
Did F Lee Bailey defend OJ Simpson?
In perhaps the most high-profile case of his career, Bailey was part of the dream team that defended former NFL star OJ Simpson and got him acquitted on charges that he killed his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in 1995.
Dubbed the “Trial of the Century”, Simpson’s murder trial began on January 24, 1995, and lasted until the verdict on October of the same year.
Simpson’s legal “Dream Team” included charismatic lawyers Robert Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran along with Simpson’s close friend Robert Kardashian – the late father of Kim Kardashian and F Lee Bailey.
Following Bailey’s death Simpson described him in a statement as “one of the great lawyers of our time” and “a great friend.”
Why was F Lee Bailey disbarred?
Bailey was licensed in Massachusetts and Florida.
He was disbarred in the two states for misconduct while defending his client Claude Louis DuBoc.
In 2014, he was denied a law license by the Maine Board of Bar Examiners and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
He was part of the defence team in the OJ Simpson case[/caption]
What were F Lee Bailey’s most famous cases?
Bailey worked on a number of high-profile cases throughout his career, with the most known and publicized to be the trial of Simpson.
Some of the most famous cases included the court-martial of Captain Ernest Medina for the My Lai Massacre and Sam Sheppard’s re-trial over the murder of his wife.
Sam Sheppard
The case of physician Sam Sheppard would be the first that established Bailey as a skilled attorney.
The case that inspired the popular TV series The Fugitive took place in Ohio, where Sheppard was found guilty of murdering his wife Marilyn in 1954.
His brother hired Bailey to help with the appeal- which he did in 1966 by arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that Sheppard had been denied due process.
Sheppard won a re-trial and was found not guilty.
“Boston Strangler”
Boston Strangler was the name that had been given to the murderer of 13 women in the Boston, Massachusetts, during the 1960s.
It was later revealed that it was Albert DeSalvo based on his confession.
While he was in jail for a series of sexual assaults, known as the “Green Man” he confessed his guilt in the “Boston Strangler” murders to Bailey.
He was found guilty of the assaults but was never tried for the strangling as no physical evidence substantiated his confession.
DeSalvo was eventually sentenced to life in prison in 1967.
Ernest Medina
U.S. Army Captain Ernest Medina was court-martialed in 1971 for his involvement in the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War.
With Bailey leading the defence team, Medina claimed he never ordered the killing of non-combatants and that his men acted on their own.
He also added that he was not aware of the massacre before it was too late.
He also denied personally killing any Vietnamese non-combatants at My Lai, except for a young woman who was found hiding in a ditch and Medina said he shot her because he thought she had a grenade.
He was acquitted in August 1971.
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Patty Hearst
One of Bailey’s defeats was the prosecution of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.
Hearst had committed a series of armed bank robberies after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).
In her autobiography, Hearst described Bailey as having the appearance of someone with a hangover, and spilling water down the front of his pants while making the closing argument.
Hearst was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
After serving 22 months her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 and she was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001.
