The IMPAC-Connecticut State University
Young Writers Competition
Bailey talks flaws in the legal system
By LINDA CONNER LAMBECK
Connecticut Post Online [www.connpost.com]
March 28, 2006
' Rainy Faye Bookstore & Gallery, Housatonic Community College fellow writers Bentivegna, Briggs, Douskey Cited '
BRIDGEPORT — Defense attorney F. Lee Bailey will discuss shortcomings in the legal system April 5 at Housatonic Community College.
Bailey, whose audience is expected to include some 90 criminal justice students at the college, will touch on the problem of factual errors by juries that can lead to wrongful convictions and sometimes wrongful executions. The talk begins at 10 a.m. in the college's Performing Arts Center and is free to the public on a seat-available basis.
Bailey is expected to punctuate his address with war stories drawn from his own experiences and knowledge of other cases. Bailey has been involved with many high profile trials, including the successful defense in the retrial of Dr. Samuel Sheppard, the trial of the "Boston Strangler" and the court martial of Capt. Ernest Medina for his involvement in the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
Also among his clients are newspaper heiress and kidnapping victim Patty Hearst and O.J. Simpson.
Bailey also will headline a book signing at the Rainy Faye Bookstore at 5 p.m. April 5.
Bailey will autograph copies of his book "The Defense Never Rests."
Eye surgeon and novelist Joseph Bentivegna of Fairfield also will appear at the book signing. Bentivegna's book, "The Lords of Greenwich," focuses on political corruption in Connecticut.
Also participating will be Connecticut Review Editor John Briggs, a short story writer, photographer and English professor at Western Connecticut State University, and poet Franz Douskey of Hamden, who teaches English and communications at Gateway Community College in New Haven.