Bobby Lee Cook was a gentleman and a scholar for the Defense!
In my last article in "Cross-Wise" as we approached our discussion of the death penalty, I briefly outlined my professional legal background. Let me briefly highlight one aspect of this background which is central to my own development of a view on the death penalty. This aspect is: criminal defense attorneys.
After graduating from law school with a JD law degree in hand, I worked as previously stated for eight years as a prosecuting attorney in a State's Attorney's Office in Illinois. Following those eight years I left Illinois in December of 1990 to enroll in an advanced law degree program, seeking a Master of Law degree in litigation. This degree program was at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia.
The trial litigation courses at Emory's law school were held in the evenings, four nights per week. As a requirement of the program each student, regardless of their legal background, was expected to participate in two legal clerkships during their two semesters in the academic program. One clerkship had to be in a civil law firm. The other had to be in criminal law, either in a prosecutor's office or a criminal defense office. Having already prosecuted for eight years, I opted for my second clerkship to be in a criminal defense firm.
The criminal defense firm I clerked in was a small three person firm in Summerville, Georgia, two hours northwest of Atlanta, in the mountains of northwest Georgia. I worked each day in the firm during my second semester of the academic program, then I would drive two hours after work into Atlanta. After classes I'd drive the two hours back up into the mountains.
The four hours of driving each day were worth it, for the firm I was clerking in wasn't the average law firm. It was the firm of Bobby Lee Cook. If one does a "google" search of the name Bobby Lee Cook, one will discover what those in the criminal defense world who are knowledgeable of world class attorneys already know: Bobby Lee Cook was, and still is, regularly rated as one of the premier criminal defense attorneys in the United States.
When attorney F. Lee Bailey was in legal trouble, he turned to Bobby Lee to defend him. Over a forty year period Bobby Lee Cook represented over three hundred defendants charged with murder. He was regarded as one of the kings of cross-examination. One moment he could charm your socks off … and the next second he could have a witness melting on the witness stand in a pool of perspiration.
Bobby Lee Cook was an old school trial attorney, regarded as one of the "deans of criminal defense attorneys." He is tall, lanky, has long grey hair, a goatee and mustache, gold rimmed glasses, and continues to wear classic three piece suits when few no longer do. He arrives at court in a Rolls Royce, yet maintains the touch of a commoner.He is a southern gentleman: kind, polite and courteous … particularly to the women of his communities. And he maintains an intelligence and wit sharper than an accelerated college student.
He was such a legend in the south that he became the trial attorney whom the old "Matlock" television series starring Andy Griffin was modeled after.
While he maintained his practice in Summerville, a town of 3,000 residents in the mountains of northwest Georgia, his annual income is well over one million dollars per year due to his high priced clients who came in from around the country. Yet each Saturday morning, he opens his office to pro bono work for his community … often receiving chickens or eggs or such in payment. Most often, for those who come in seeking a helping hand but who can't afford an attorney, he accepts nothing at all.
It was Bobby Lee Cook who more than any person in the courtroom whom I have ever encountered, taught me the value of honesty, integrity, ethics, kindness, fairness, decency, and hard work in one's courtroom work. Bobby Lee's word was better than gold. And his compassion for the oppressed, and sense of righteousness and justice, is unsurpassed.
What Bobby Lee wants, more than anything else, was a fair trial. He desires that a defendant, any defendant no matter who they are or what they are charged with, be given a trial that any of us would desire if we ourselves were sitting in the defendant's chair. He treats his defendants, even those three hundred charged with murder, as beings maintaining a sense of worth and the image of God, … as beings who still deserved a nation of fair laws … and not as beings deserving any sense of lynching, or injustice in the striving for a conviction.
What Bobby Lee taught me was that in the courtroom, more than any where else, that reason, logical, and even handedness should prevail … therein insuring stability and true equality for all.
What Bobby Lee taught me was that so many of the best people in the legal profession work, often in the face of public criticism, as hard and as honestly as they can … as criminal defense attorneys.
Prior to clerking for Bobby Lee Cook, during my eight years as a prosecutor in Illinois I had been on trial against many good criminal trial attorneys who also were exceptional individuals. And in my nine years prosecuting in New York City I would again work with many outstanding individuals who labored as criminal defense attorneys.
What I discovered from my work with all of these, particularly clerking with Bobby Lee Cook … was that the defense bar was an extremely honorable bar, filled with individuals who believe every bit as much in their work as does the most dedicated prosecutors. What I discovered, on our journey to the death penalty, was a criminal defense bar which was committed to insuring that innocent defendants not be convicted, and that those whom they knew were guilty be fairly treated.
Stan
After graduating from law school with a JD law degree in hand, I worked as previously stated for eight years as a prosecuting attorney in a State's Attorney's Office in Illinois. Following those eight years I left Illinois in December of 1990 to enroll in an advanced law degree program, seeking a Master of Law degree in litigation. This degree program was at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia.
The trial litigation courses at Emory's law school were held in the evenings, four nights per week. As a requirement of the program each student, regardless of their legal background, was expected to participate in two legal clerkships during their two semesters in the academic program. One clerkship had to be in a civil law firm. The other had to be in criminal law, either in a prosecutor's office or a criminal defense office. Having already prosecuted for eight years, I opted for my second clerkship to be in a criminal defense firm.
The criminal defense firm I clerked in was a small three person firm in Summerville, Georgia, two hours northwest of Atlanta, in the mountains of northwest Georgia. I worked each day in the firm during my second semester of the academic program, then I would drive two hours after work into Atlanta. After classes I'd drive the two hours back up into the mountains.
The four hours of driving each day were worth it, for the firm I was clerking in wasn't the average law firm. It was the firm of Bobby Lee Cook. If one does a "google" search of the name Bobby Lee Cook, one will discover what those in the criminal defense world who are knowledgeable of world class attorneys already know: Bobby Lee Cook was, and still is, regularly rated as one of the premier criminal defense attorneys in the United States.
When attorney F. Lee Bailey was in legal trouble, he turned to Bobby Lee to defend him. Over a forty year period Bobby Lee Cook represented over three hundred defendants charged with murder. He was regarded as one of the kings of cross-examination. One moment he could charm your socks off … and the next second he could have a witness melting on the witness stand in a pool of perspiration.
Bobby Lee Cook was an old school trial attorney, regarded as one of the "deans of criminal defense attorneys." He is tall, lanky, has long grey hair, a goatee and mustache, gold rimmed glasses, and continues to wear classic three piece suits when few no longer do. He arrives at court in a Rolls Royce, yet maintains the touch of a commoner.He is a southern gentleman: kind, polite and courteous … particularly to the women of his communities. And he maintains an intelligence and wit sharper than an accelerated college student.
He was such a legend in the south that he became the trial attorney whom the old "Matlock" television series starring Andy Griffin was modeled after.
While he maintained his practice in Summerville, a town of 3,000 residents in the mountains of northwest Georgia, his annual income is well over one million dollars per year due to his high priced clients who came in from around the country. Yet each Saturday morning, he opens his office to pro bono work for his community … often receiving chickens or eggs or such in payment. Most often, for those who come in seeking a helping hand but who can't afford an attorney, he accepts nothing at all.
It was Bobby Lee Cook who more than any person in the courtroom whom I have ever encountered, taught me the value of honesty, integrity, ethics, kindness, fairness, decency, and hard work in one's courtroom work. Bobby Lee's word was better than gold. And his compassion for the oppressed, and sense of righteousness and justice, is unsurpassed.
What Bobby Lee wants, more than anything else, was a fair trial. He desires that a defendant, any defendant no matter who they are or what they are charged with, be given a trial that any of us would desire if we ourselves were sitting in the defendant's chair. He treats his defendants, even those three hundred charged with murder, as beings maintaining a sense of worth and the image of God, … as beings who still deserved a nation of fair laws … and not as beings deserving any sense of lynching, or injustice in the striving for a conviction.
What Bobby Lee taught me was that in the courtroom, more than any where else, that reason, logical, and even handedness should prevail … therein insuring stability and true equality for all.
What Bobby Lee taught me was that so many of the best people in the legal profession work, often in the face of public criticism, as hard and as honestly as they can … as criminal defense attorneys.
Prior to clerking for Bobby Lee Cook, during my eight years as a prosecutor in Illinois I had been on trial against many good criminal trial attorneys who also were exceptional individuals. And in my nine years prosecuting in New York City I would again work with many outstanding individuals who labored as criminal defense attorneys.
What I discovered from my work with all of these, particularly clerking with Bobby Lee Cook … was that the defense bar was an extremely honorable bar, filled with individuals who believe every bit as much in their work as does the most dedicated prosecutors. What I discovered, on our journey to the death penalty, was a criminal defense bar which was committed to insuring that innocent defendants not be convicted, and that those whom they knew were guilty be fairly treated.
Stan
Good words.
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