Bailey, F. Lee
(Francis Lee Bailey), 1933-2021, American lawyer, b. Waltham, Ma., Boston
Univ. Law School (J.D., 1960). Bailey attended Harvard for two years before
dropping out to join the Navy and then becoming a Marine fighter pilot. On
his discharge in 1956, he was admitted to Boston Univ. Law School. Following
his graduation in 1960, he took on his first high-profile case, the
so-called “Torso Murder Case,” in which an auto mechanic was
charged with killing and dismembering his wife; Bailey won him an acquittal,
his first of many dramatic wins. In 1966, he won acquittal for Dr. Sam
Sheppard, the inspiration for the fictional TV series The
Fugitive, which won national publicity for the young lawyer.
Other noteworthy cases that Bailey defended included Albert DeSalvo, who
claimed to be the Boston Strangler; DeSalvo was found guilty and sentenced
to life in prison (1967); Capt. Ernest L. Medina, accused of participating
in the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War (acquitted, 1971); and Patty
Hearst, who was accused of bank robbery and using a firearm in committing a
felony (convicted, 1976). His last national exposure came as part of the
so-called “Dream Team” defending O.J. Simpson on murder charges in 1995.
Bailey became well-known through his frequent TV appearances and his many
popular books on his defense strategy. His later years were beset with
controversy; he spent 43 days in jail in 1996 for refusing to turn over fees
to the court that he had collected from a convicted drug trafficker, and in
2001 Florida’s Supreme Court disbarred him for stock fraud. (His home
state of Massachusetts followed suit in 2003). He attempted to be admitted
to the bar in Maine in 2013, but was denied, and in 2016 he filed for
bankruptcy there.
See his The Defense Never Rests: The Art of Cross-Examination
(1971, with H. Aronson), For the Defense (1975, with J.
Greenya).
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