"Epstein's lawyer". That's going to be the hook for the news of the passing of Roy Black, penultimate criminal defense attorney.
Before anyone goes down the conspiracy rabbit trail, do know that he was so much more than that. If you're interested, look up his bio but speaking from personal experience Roy Black is one of the many blips of good fortune in my life.
I graduated from law school in 1986, spent some time in Austin, and came to Mobile in 1987. As I am able to speak Spanish, I started representing federal cases as a Criminal Justice Act panel attorney.
One of those involved Roy. He represented Dickie Lynn, who was accused of importing 16 tons of cocaine into Alabama.
My client was an offloader who was stupid enough to try his case in federal court. (We won. But that's another story. Read my book if you want to know more.) My job was to stay out of the way and let the big dogs fight.
I had no idea how far out of my depth I was at the time. But Roy (and the other defense team) handed me a priceless luxury; for 5 weeks I sat there and watched the precision surgery of criminal defense artistry. I even wrote a book about it.
But more than that, I saw up close that you can be the big fish in the biggest pond and not lose your sense of grace or humanity. Roy legitimately cared about the law and his client and he never made me feel like the baby lawyer that I was. He took pleasure in walking around downtown, enjoying things like the shoeteria, peanut shop, George's Candy store. He was a real person through and through.
