Gerry Spence Popular Books

Gerry Spence Biography & Facts

Gerald Leonard Spence (born January 8, 1929) is a semi-retired American trial lawyer and author. He is a member of the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, and is the founder of the Trial Lawyers College. Spence has never lost a criminal case before a jury either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney, and did not lose a civil case between 1969 and 2010. He is considered one of the greatest lawyers of the 20th century, and one of the best trial lawyers ever. He was described by Richard Falk as a "lawyer par excellence". Spence is recognized for virtually winning every case he has dealt with, and for winning a number of well-known cases, such as Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, the Ed Cantrell murder case, the Karen Silkwood case, and the defense of Geoffrey Fieger. He also defended Brandon Mayfield, and carried out the successful prosecution of Mark Hopkinson. One of his most significant cases was the defense of Imelda Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippines, in a racketeering/fraud case considered one of the trials of the century, which he won. He has also won large million-dollar lawsuits against companies, such as $26.5 million in libel damages for 1978 Miss Wyoming Kim Pring against Penthouse in 1981. He also won a $52 million lawsuit against McDonald's in 1984. According to Spence, he has won more multi-million dollar verdicts without an intervening loss than any lawyer in America. He acted as a legal consultant for NBC in its coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial and appeared on Larry King Live. He is the author of over a dozen books about politics and law, including The New York Times bestseller How to Argue and Win Every Time (1995), Win Your Case (2005), From Freedom to Slavery (1993), and Police State: How America's Cops Get Away with Murder (2015). Background Spence graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1949 and from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1952 and was first in his class. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in May 1990. He started his career in Riverton, Wyoming, and later became a successful defense attorney for the insurance industry, winning many cases. Years later, Spence said he "saw the light" and became committed to representing people instead of corporations, insurance companies, banks, or "big business." From 1954 to 1962 he served as prosecuting attorney of Fremont County, Wyoming. Gerry Spence and his second wife, Imaging, share their time between their homes in Dubois, Wyoming, and Santa Barbara, California. Despite having homes in two different states, Spence has stated that he will "die in Wyoming." High-profile cases Karen Silkwood Spence gained attention for the Karen Silkwood case. Karen Silkwood was a chemical technician at the Kerr-McGee plutonium-production plant, where she became an activist and vocal critic of plant safety, also known as a whistleblower. On November 13, 1974, Silkwood died in a one-car crash under suspicious circumstances after reportedly gathering evidence for her union. Spence represented Silkwood's father and children, who charged that Kerr-McGee was responsible for exposing Silkwood to dangerous levels of radiation. Spence won a $10.5 million verdict for the family. In 1984, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the family's right to sue under state law for punitive damages from a federally regulated industry. The Silkwood case achieved international fame and was the subject of many books, magazine and newspaper articles and the major motion picture Silkwood starring Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood. Other cases After the Silkwood case, Spence tried a number of high-profile cases. He has not lost a civil case since 1969 and has never lost a criminal case with a trial by jury. By 1980, he had dealt with around 50 murder cases, not losing a single one of them. Despite his tremendous success, he has had several of his more prominent civil verdicts overturned on appeal and lost a 1985 manslaughter case in a bench trial in Newport, Oregon, in December 1985, later prevailing on appeal. He is known for taking up cases deemed to be unwinnable, such as the murder case of Joe Esquibel, who murdered his wife in front of multiple witnesses, yet Spence managed to gain his acquittal through reason of insanity. He gained the acquittal of Sandy Jones for the murder of Wilfred Gerttula, and had the manslaughter conviction of her son, Michael Jones Jr., overturned on appeal. Spence successfully defended Randy Weaver on murder, assault, conspiracy, and gun charges in the Ruby Ridge, Idaho, federal standoff case, by successfully impugning the conduct of the FBI and its crime lab. Spence never called a witness for the defense. He relied only on contradictions and holes in the prosecution's story. Spence later wrote that he rejected Weaver's anti-Semitic beliefs, but took the case because he believed Weaver had been entrapped into committing a crime and furthermore that federal agents had behaved unconscionably in shooting Weaver's wife and children. He also successfully defended Ed Cantrell in the Rock Springs, Wyoming, murder case, and he won the acquittal of former Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos in New York City on federal racketeering charges. Spence also defended Earth First! founder David Foreman, who in 1990 had been charged with conspiracy for an alleged plot to sabotage a water-pumping station. On June 2, 2008, Spence obtained an acquittal of Detroit lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, who was charged with making unlawful campaign contributions. Before returning a not-guilty verdict, the federal court jury deliberated 18 hours over four days. The acquittal maintained Spence's record of never having lost a jury trial in a criminal matter. In civil litigation, Spence won a $52 million verdict against McDonald's Corporation on behalf of a small, family-owned ice cream company. A medical malpractice verdict of over $4 million established a new standard for nursing care in Utah. In 1992 Spence earned $33.5 million verdicts for emotional and punitive damages for his quadriplegic client after a major insurance company refused to pay on the $50,000 policy. Mock trial: United States v. Oswald In 1986, Spence defended in absentia Lee Harvey Oswald, the deceased assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, against well-known prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi in a 21-hour televised unscripted mock trial sponsored by London Weekend Television in the United Kingdom. The mock trial involved an actual U.S. judge, a jury of U.S. citizens, the introduction of hundreds of evidence exhibits, and many actual witnesses to events surrounding and including the assassination. The jury returned a guilty verdict. Expressing admiration for his adversary's prosecutorial skill, Spence remarked, "No other lawyer in America could have done what Vince did in this case." The "docu-trial" and his preparation for it inspired Bugliosi's 1600-page book examining the details of the Kennedy assassination and various related conspiracy theorie.... Discover the Gerry Spence popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gerry Spence books.