The online version of the Albany interview with Lin Wood during a golf tournament for the 23rd Lopez Hospice is a must read in my opinion. Carlton Fletcher, who can be reached at the email address of carlton.fletcher@albanyherald.com, has written an excellent article.

It outlines many of his clients, including, John and Patsy Ramsey, Howard K. Stern, Richard Jewell, the mothers of Natalee Holloway and Laci Peterson, Gary Condit and others.

He touches briefly on several of them from the rich and famous to the every day “meat cutter”, Lin “Wood is about as down-to-earth and straight-forward as a guy with his pedigree is bound to be”, as stated on the online paper.

The online paper describes Lin Wood including notes of other accolades to Lin Wood such as; “No less a luminary than Dan Rather called the Atlanta-based lawyer “the attorney for the damned.” Editor & Publisher magazine labeled him “one of the most dangerous media-plaintiff lawyers in the United States.”

“For every television interview I’ve done, I’ve turned down 100,” Wood said. “I have no desire to be this big celebrity or media lawyer, this ‘attorney of the damned.’ Certainly, that kind of stuff is flattering, and I appreciate the recognition. But at the end of the day I’m just Lin Wood, a person who cares about his clients.”

“Born in Raleigh, N.C., some 56 years ago, Wood was raised in Macon, moving to central Georgia with his family when he was 3. He earned his law degree at Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law and practiced in the city before accepting a position, [now a partner], with the powerful Powell Goldstein LLP firm of Atlanta.

And Wood’s reputation certainly precedes him. He’s become the go-to guy in cases that tend to feed the media frenzy. Some of his most noted:

— Richard Jewell, a guard who was initially accused of the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta: “Richard was a legitimate hero. He helped evacuate hundreds of people who could have been harmed by the bomb in Olympic Park and, unbeknownst to most people, when he saw the initial reaction of the agent who first saw the bomb, he risked his life by going through a five-story tower to make sure all the people there were evacuated. Richard should be remembered as a hero, but sadly, until his death he was remembered more as the person first accused of the bombing. He showed remarkable dignity and grace in the face of all that, and he was a dear friend to me.” That was quoted from Mr. Wood during the interview. I also remember reading that at the funeral of Mr. Jewell Mr. Wood eulogy of Jewell included that on each anniversary of the bombing Mr. Jewell returned to the park late at night to place a single rose at the site of the death of one of the victims, never forgetting the woman he had not saved.

— Howard K. Stern, who was questioned in the death of Anna Nicole Smith: “Like many of my clients, the public has a gross misperception about Howard K. Stern. Of course, it didn’t help that they confused him with the shock jock, but he was not at all like he was portrayed in the media. He’s a down-to-earth good guy, a smart lawyer. He loved unconditionally Anna Nicole Smith and did nothing to deserve the treatment he got.”

— John and Patsy Ramsey, the parents initially accused in the death of their daughter, JonBenet Ramsey: In the article Mr. Wood states, “…One thing I’m glad of is that the Boulder (Colo.) DA exonerated the Ramsey family in the crime. And I know Patsy went to her grave with that truth in her heart.”

— Beth Holloway, — Sharon Rocha, mother of the murdered Laci Peterson: — Gary Condit, the U.S. congressman who was named as a suspect in the disappearance and murder of Chandra Levy in Washington, D.C and others, as outlined in the article. “The names in those cases were the subjects of hundreds of headlines and television news stories, and as is the case in such high-profile incidents, many people tend to believe the media-fueled accusations levied against the principles. Wood, however, said he believes in his clients.

I decided a long time ago that there were only so many hours in a day and so many years to get involved in these cases,” he said. “I will only represent people I believe in. It doesn’t make me a better person or lawyer — I admire those attorneys who will take on cases of people who confess or who they think are guilty, that’s necessary for our system to work — but that’s just my own personal belief.

If I believe in my clients, it inspires me to use my God-given talents to best serve them.

And while Wood is often characterized as a “celebrity attorney,” he says the cases of “everyday people” mean as much to him as those of the rich and famous.

I was proud to help a 31-year-old stroke victim get some badly needed financial help, and I defended a man who, as I told the jury, might be ‘just a meat cutter’ to some, but he had also become my friend. That man told me while the jury was deliberating that it didn’t matter if he won his case or not, what I’d said meant as much to him as the outcome.”

What touched me the most in the article was that Mr. Wood seems to understand the complexity of domestic violence, sharing something in the interview I had never read about Mr. Wood. In the interview Lin “Wood says he can’t remember a time when he did not want to be a trial lawyer, and that contention was solidified by a tragedy in his own family. After returning home from a date as a 16-year-old high schooler, he discovered that his father had beaten his mother to death.

Even though my father had committed this hideous crime, he was still my father, and I remember how two spectacular lawyers — Manley Brown and Hank O’Neal (both of Macon) — had done everything they could to help my father,” Wood said. “They did it out of a desire, I think, to help me, but that lesson stayed with me…”

To read the complete interview with Mr. Wood visit the online version of the Albany Herald.

http://www.albanyherald.com/stories/20080914n1.htm.

As a survivor of domestic violence what a thing to read for me and millions of others that understand the complexity of being a survivor as well as to why the victims remain in those situations at times for years. I have never talked to Mr. Wood and have to say I hope I don’t ever have to meet him”. I have never talked to Howard K. Stern and hope I “don’t have to ever meet him”, why you might ask, because somehow I have become embroiled in a legal case with both men. I wish them both well and maybe years from now …. Well who knows…

©Rose Turner
September 14, 2008
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Tags: Anna Nicole Smith, Gary Condit, Howard K Stern, John and Patsy Ramsey, L. Lin Wood, Lin Wood, Richard Jewell, the mothers of Beth Holloway and Laci Peterson