F. Lee Bailey: The Defense Never Rests!

Have you heard the news?  Prominent criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, who authored The Defense Never Rests, has published a new 20,000 word document which purportedly offers new evidence confirming the innocence of O.J. Simpson, for whom Bailey and several other prominent defense lawyers obtained the controversial murder case acquittal in 1995.

I doubt that Mr. Bailey's new "evidence" will change many people's minds.  Don't you agree?  But that is not the point of this post!  You see, my point is that Mr. Bailey was a hero, or role model, of sorts for me as I was growing up in Georgia.  As the son of a Baptist preacher, I didn't know any lawyers, but Bailey's courtroom exploits helped motivate me to want to become a trial lawyer, too!  I wanted to become the next F. Lee Bailey and handle the next Sam Sheppard or Boston Strangler case!  As a young man, I once wrote a letter to Mr. Bailey and thanked him for his influence, and I was tickled to get a kind letter in response.

Therefore, I don't care whether or not Mr. Bailey's newest "evidence" changes any minds about Simpson.  And I don't really care that Mr. Bailey has had a difficult time, recently, with the state bars of two states.  But I do care that, for me, F. Lee Bailey, (along with my father), was a good role model who helped inspire me to want to become a trial lawyer.  And I am also happy to see that, even today, "the defense never rests!"