A Conversation With Bill Baxley – Part 1
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on May 4, 2016
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on May 4, 2016
Yesterday, high-powered Birmingham, Alabama attorney Bill Baxley called me. Baxley represents House Speaker Mike Hubbard in his pending criminal case. He called to discuss Tuesday’s Facebook article titled, “From ‘Storming the Statehouse’ to Jail on Corruption Charges: The Incredible Rise and Fall of House Speaker Mike Hubbard”. Baxley, who is by far one of the best criminal defense lawyers in America, provided me with exclusive insight regarding the status of Hubbard’s criminal case, as of Tuesday.
I have tremendous respect for Bill Baxley and his legal skills. He is one of my heroes in the legal profession. Baxley has no peer in the criminal defense bar of the state of Alabama. Baxley’s track record for winning tough criminal cases under the most difficult circumstances is legendary.
While Baxley was Alabama’s attorney general, we worked together on several matters. One of them was the November 26, 1976, pardon of Clarence Norris, the last known surviving "Scottsboro Boy". The nine Scottsboro Boys were falsely accused in 1931 of raping two white girls on a train running through Paint Rock, Alabama. All were arrested, tried, and convicted of rape. Eight of them were sentenced to death on multiple occasions. The U.S. Supreme Court saved their lives on each occasion within hours of their scheduled execution.
Starting in 1974, I fought Alabama officials for two long years to clear Norris and the other eight Scottsboro Boys from the false criminal charges. Baxley helped me in this fight by reviewing the decades-old case files and strongly recommending the pardon for Norris. The all-white Alabama Pardons and Parole Board's resistance to this pardon was massive and heartbreaking. In the end, Bill Baxley and I prevailed.
Norris was the only Scottsboro Boy who lived long enough to see their names officially cleared. The pardon, which was the first and only one ever issued by the state of Alabama to a death row inmate based upon a finding of "innocence", ended a 45-year legal battle to saved the Boys' lives and clear their names.
To this day, the Clarence Norris pardon was my greatest and most satisfying accomplishment as a lawyer and a man. This is why Norris' picture is on my Facebook wall.
Like Baxley, I have also enjoyed success in the criminal defense arena. Some of my other landmark cases are still nationally recognized to this day. They include the following:
U.S. v. Richard Arrington, Jr.: From 1988 to 1992, I successfully represented Richard Arrington, Jr., Birmingham’s former mayor, in his fight against federal prosecutors who sought to make Arrington a criminal defendant in an ongoing public corruption and bribery case. In 1991, prosecutors named Arrington an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the fraud trial of another individual. In 1992, the Department of Justice cleared Arrington of all allegations of wrongdoing and, at my insistence, issued the first-ever public apology to a public official for smearing his name during a criminal investigation.
U.S. v. U.W. Clemon: In 1996, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles formally notified then-Birmingham U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon of their intent to indict him on various fraud-related charges arising from his sister’s operation of a non-profit school in Los Angeles. I represented the lead political group responsible for Judge Clemon’s presidential appointment to the federal bench in 1980. I immediately launched an investigation into all aspects of the government’s case, including allegations of widespread prosecutorial misconduct in the case. My investigation produced a comprehensive report to the U.S. Attorney General on prosecutorial misconduct in the case. Based upon this report, the Department of Justice promptly terminated the criminal investigation of Judge Clemon with no charges filed.
U.S. v. Richard Scrushy: In 2003, I represented Richard M. Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth. Scrushy was originally indicted on 85 felony counts of Sarbanes Oxley and related accounting fraud charges. If convicted on all charges, Scrushy faced 650 years in prison. He was the first CEO in the nation charged with violating Sarbanes Oxley. The case was featured on 60 Minutes. In 2005, Scrushy walked out of the federal courthouse in Birmingham as a free man. My legal team defeated prosecutors on all charges in Scrushy’s case. The July 25, 2005, edition of Fortune magazine profiled the case in a feature article titled, “Donald Watkins: The Man Who Saved Richard Scrushy”. I was labeled the “real legal mastermind of the case” in the February 2, 2005, edition of the Wall Street Journal. No white-collar criminal defendant before or since the Scrushy case has defeated 85 felony charges in an individual case.
It is against this backdrop of criminal defense experiences that my conversation with Baxley occurred. The conversation was fascinating, straightforward, and very educational.
As a seasoned litigator, I fully understand the multitude of challenges facing Baxley in mounting a successful criminal defense to Hubbard's 23-count indictment. This task is especially difficult in today’s anti-public corruption environment where citizens around Alabama and the nation are demanding that public officials adhere to the highest standards of accountability, transparency and ethics in government. What is more, Hubbard’s trial is scheduled in the midst of the public corruption firestorm engulfing Governor Robert Bentley and his lover, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
Tomorrow, I will disclose the substance of my discussion with Baxley in “A Conversation with Bill Baxley - Part II”. I will also provide my personal legal analysis of what is happening in Hubbard’s criminal case, why it is happening, and how I expect this case to eventually end.
Stay tuned.
Donald V Watkins
The Meck Report/Blog
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