Black's Law: A Criminal Lawyer Reveals His Defense Strategies in Four Cliffhanger Cases

Author: Roy Black
Published: March 2000
ISBN: 0684863065
Paperback Book
Number of Pages: 320

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Roy Black's cases illustrate the life-and-death struggles that occur every day in our criminal courts. In Alvarez, Black has to convince a jury to put aside poisonous pre-trial publicity, the threat of a race riot and almost universal pressure for a conviction in order to keep a young Hispanic police officer out of jail for killing a young black hoodlum in the line of duty. In Knight, Black must contend with issues of class and race as he wages a four-year struggle to persuade federal appeals court judges to overturn the death sentence imposed on an insane, brutal killer because of the incompetence of his first lawyers. In Hicks, Black has to prove the innocence of a client who is his own worst enemy by convincing a jury that the police conducted a sloppy murder investigation. And in De La Mata, Black must persuade jurors to disregard the damaging testimony of admitted drug dealers who have plea-bargained for lesser sentences in order to save a former bank president caught in the crosshairs of a federal prosecutor waging his own relentless war on drugs. Black's Law reveals what really goes on in our criminal courts and makes resoundingly clear the crucial role that criminal defense lawyers play in safeguarding the basic right to a fair trial for all. Criminal lawyers will find plenty of useful trial tips here. Layfolk will simply be mesmerized by this inside-the-courtroom legal primer. The hyperbole of the subtitle aside, Black's Law is a remarkably down-to-earth, insightful book about the difference one dedicated attorney can make in a criminal-justice system that is deeply flawed. True, Black has represented the elite: he counts William Kennedy Smith and sportscaster Marv Albert among his former clients. But he has also staked much of his legal reputation on people many others would prefer to see rot in jail. "I want you to see the defendant as a flesh-and-blood human being, not a hunk of meat," writes Black, a former public defender who now appears regularly on CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN. "I want you to feel how he is scared, humiliated, confused and desperate." Luis Alvarez is a young Miami cop who ignited horrible race riots after he killed a black man he thought was pulling a gun on him. Thomas Knight is an insane multiple killer whose death sentence finally is vacated after Black spends years working to show the many ways in which Knight's inadequate legal counsel was responsible for never getting him a fair trial or the obvious mental-health treatment that he deserved. Steve Hicks, a bartender with no criminal past until he was charged with murdering his girlfriend, is a disturbing example of the ways in which shoddy police investigative work and circumstantial evidence can ruin a person's life. The case of Fred De La Mata, a Cuban immigrant bank president, offers a depressing illustration of how overzealous federal prosecutors can dictate the course of a trial. An unsettling page-turner and sobering reminder that in the legaltreatment of the least fortunate of our citizenry lie all of our rights. (Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection; author tour) . No one is more qualified than Roy Black to give us such an authoritative and compelling look into our criminal justice system.
— Daniel Petrocelli Black's Law will take its place with Stryker's The Art of Advocacy, Wellman's The Art of Cross-Examination, Nizer's My Life in Court and Edward Bennett William's One Man's Freedom.
— F. Lee Bailey ROY BLACK is one of America's most famous and respected criminal defense lawyers. A former public defender and professor at the University of Miami Law School, he appears frequently on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and CNN. He lives in Miami, Florida.

Table of Contents
Introduction 9
Alvarez 17
Knight 103
Hicks 173
De La Mata 247
Author's Note 307
Acknowledgments 309
Index 311

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