Subject:  Re: Fieger on trial |
Author:
Chris
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Date Posted: 04/21/08 9:16pm
In reply to:
Chris
's message, "Fieger on trial" on 04/16/08 8:02pm
8 added to Fieger trial jury pool. 32 jurors have been selected of a 40-member pool from which a 16-member jury will be selected. Jury selection resumes Tuesday.
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Fieger legal team a dream
Big-time criminal attorneys known for winning high-profile cases across nation
BY DAVID ASHENFELTER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER •
April 21, 2008
When a big-time lawyer like Geoffrey Fieger gets into trouble, who does he call?
Other big-time lawyers, of course.
Fieger has hired two nationally known criminal attorneys to defend him against charges that he and law partner Vernon (Ven) Johnson illegally contributed $127,000 to Democrat John Edwards' failed 2004 presidential campaign.
The team is led by Wyoming criminal lawyer Gerry Spence, a 78-year-old author and legal commentator whose Web site boasts that he hasn't lost a criminal case in more than five decades.
Spence's cocounsel is David Nevin, 58, a Boise, Idaho, lawyer who was tapped this month to help defend Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mohammed is being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and faces the death penalty if convicted in an upcoming military trial.
The two lawyers -- plus Steve Fishman, 58, a top Detroit criminal attorney who represents Johnson -- will spend the next five weeks trying to persuade a federal jury in Detroit to acquit Fieger and Johnson of charges that they recruited employees, vendors and friends to contribute to Edwards' campaign and reimbursed them with law firm funds.
The trial, which is to get under way this week, is expected to attract many spectators, including lawyers and even some federal judges, who want to see Spence in action.
Wayne State law professor Peter Henning, a former lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice, regards Spence as one of the most celebrated lawyers in recent times.
"Gerry Spence is legendary, and it will be interesting to see how he handles himself," Henning said.
The careers of Fieger and Johnson are riding on the outcome.
"In a way, this is a death penalty case for Mr. Fieger," Spence told U.S. District Judge Paul Borman last week. "He'd be finished as a lawyer. ... In many ways, it would be the end of Mr. Fieger as a human being."
The prosecutors -- Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Helland, 54, and Justice Department lawyer Kendall Day, 30 -- will be focusing on their evidence, not the defense table.
"We can't be influenced by who is on the other side," Helland told Michigan Lawyers Weekly in September. "We have to prove our case."
The lawyers and prosecutors wouldn't comment for this report because Borman has barred them from talking to reporters.
Spence 'has a way with juries'
Spence was born and raised in Wyoming. After graduating from the University of Wyoming law school in 1952, he worked as a county prosecutor and represented insurance companies as a private lawyer.
In 1990, the 6-foot-2, silver-haired man known for his fringed leather jackets persuaded a federal jury in New York to acquit former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos of looting the treasury of more than $200 million.
In 1993, he convinced an Idaho jury to acquit white separatist Randy Weaver of murder charges in the much-publicized shootout and standoff at Ruby Ridge, where Weaver's wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal were killed.
Other big cases include a $26.5-million libel award against Penthouse magazine on behalf of a former Miss Wyoming and a $10.5-million judgment for the family of Karen Silkwood, who was contaminated by radioactivity while working at an Oklahoma nuclear plant.
"Gerry Spence is simply the greatest trial lawyer ever to have lived in the United States," said Boise criminal attorney Chuck Peterson, who worked with Spence and Nevin on the Ruby Ridge case. Nevin's client, Kevin Harris, was acquitted, too.
"He has a way with juries that no one else I've met has been able to duplicate," Peterson said of Spence.
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