Richard S. Jaffe

Jaffe is best known for leading the exonerations of three death row inmates in Alabama, and for representing Centennial Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. Jaffe has successfully defended hundreds of individuals accused of murder, including more than sixty cases where the defendant faced the death penalty. He tried twenty-two of those cases to conclusion to a jury. In Alabama, six people have been exonerated from death row. Jaffe served as lead lawyer in four of them: James Willie “Bo” Cochran, Randal Padgett, Gary Drinkard and Wesley Quick (on appeal). None of Jaffe’s clients are on death row nor have been executed. In addition, Jaffe served as lead counsel, at the behest of the ACLU, in the case of State of Alabama versus Montez Spradley, who was also on death row. Jaffe’s efforts led to Spradley being released from Alabama’s death row.

Jaffe was a member of the American Bar Association’s Alabama Death Penalty Assessment Team. The eight-person assessment team spent nearly two years collecting and analyzing various laws, rules, procedures, standards, and guidelines relating to the administration of the death penalty in Alabama. In 2006, the Alabama Assessment Team released a report finding major flaws in the state’s administration of the death penalty, and recommended a moratorium on all executions until the legislature could reform the capital punishment system.

In 2019, Jaffe was inducted into the "Hall of Fame Attorneys" by B-Metro Magazine.

Two of Jaffe’s clients, Bo Cochran and Randal Padgett, were profiled in the off-Broadway theater production of The Exonerated by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. The play was later adapted into a made-for-cable movie. During the development of the play, the playwrights consulted Jaffe on details surrounding both cases, interviewing him and his clients on multiple occasions.

In September 2017, Oliver Robinson, a former Alabama-State legislator, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, four counts of fraud, one count of bribery and one count of tax evasion. He cooperated with the U.S. Attorney's office and testified during the bribery trial of former Drummond Vice President of Government Affairs David Roberson and former Balch attorney Joel Gilbert this summer. Striking a deal, he was sentenced to a total of 33 months in prison and a supervised release period of three years.

Demetrius Watson, a former marine, was indicted in 2013 for the shooting death of Lisa Langston. In a decision that was ultimately held up by the Alabama Supreme Court, the case was dismissed after Jaffe successfully argued that Watson was immune from prosecution under Alabama's stand your ground law. This was the first successful use of this defense in Alabama.

The American College of Trial Lawyers inducted Jaffe as a fellow in 2013.

In 2012, Jaffe received a NAACP community service award.

Jaffe is the author of the book Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned, a memoir published by New Horizon Press in 2012 that chronicles his legal career. The book provides details into some of Jaffe’s highest profile murder cases as well as his representation of Olympic and Birmingham bomber Eric Rudolph. In 2020 The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDLPress) published the 2nd Edition of Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned.

In 2008, Cheryl Braswell Gutherie, a Huntsville, Alabama attorney and former candidate for the United States House of Representative, was accused of securities fraud by deceiving her client, Mariko Redcross. The case was dismissed at the preliminary hearing.

Every year since 2008, Super Lawyers has listed Jaffe as one of the top lawyers in Alabama. In 2014, Super Lawyers listed him among the top 10 Super Lawyers in Alabama. He has been listed in Best Lawyers of America since 2007. Best Lawyers of America named Jaffe "Lawyer of the Year" in non-white collar criminal defense in Birmingham for 2010 and 2015, and "Lawyer of the Year" in white-collar criminal defense for Birmingham for 2013 and 2020.

In 2004, Montez Spradley was convicted of murdering Marlene Jason, a 58-year-old lunchroom cashier at Mountain Brook Middle School. Overruling a 10-2 vote of the jury, Alabama Judge Gloria Bahakel sentenced Spradley to death. In 2011, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Spradley’s conviction and death sentence, and ordered a new trial on related witness tampering charges. Jaffe joined Spradley’s defense team and became his lead attorney following the Court of Criminal Appeals decision. Spradley entered an Alford (best interest) plea in 2013 and was released from prison in 2015.

In 2002, Jaffe was awarded the Roderick Beddow Award, the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyer Association's most prestigious award for service in the criminal defense field.

Jaffe served as president of the Alabama Criminal Defense Association (ACDL) in 2001. He is the founder and twice president of the Greater Birmingham Criminal Defense Attorneys Association (GBCDLA). Jaffe is also a member of the National Association of Distinguished Counsel. Jaffe served four three-year terms as a board member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). In 2009 he served on the Executive committee and served for two years as the co-chair for its Death Penalty committee.

Jaffe is a former faculty member at Miles Law School. Jaffe taught criminal law and evidence. From 2000 to 2008, Jaffe served as the co-counsel along with Emory Anthony for Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Bernard Kincaid.

Also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, Rudolph was charged with the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics as well as the bombings of an abortion clinic in Sandy Springs, Georgia (January 1997); a lesbian bar in Atlanta (February 1997); and an abortion clinic Birmingham, Alabama (January 1998). Jaffe represented Rudolph following his arrest in 2003, but withdrew from the case after 14 months.

Along with Larry Whitehead, Matthew Hyde and James Stephen Brookshire, Shannon Mitchell an attorney in Marshall County, Alabama was charged with conspiring to murder an Albertville police officer in 1995. Two of the four defendants received the death penalty. Jaffe represented Mitchell who was found not guilty.

Gratton was accused of murdering her live-in boyfriend, Warren King, in March 1994. King was a government witness in the racketeering and extortion trial of former Jefferson County District Judge Jack Montgomery. King’s body was found two weeks before he was to report to prison for his role in aiding Judge Montgomery’s extortion of two drug dealers. At the time of his murder, King was seeking to implicate additional players in the Montgomery case in exchange for a reduced sentence. Jaffe represented Gratton in two trials, both ending in a hung jury resulting in mis-trials. Gratton ultimately entered an Alford (best-interest) to manslaughter for probation after she agreed to serve eighteen months in prison.

Police arrested Drinkard in 1993 for the murder of Dalton Pace. Two years later he was convicted and sentenced to death row. Drinkard’s conviction rested mostly on the testimony of his half-sister, Beverly Robinson, and her common law husband, Rex Segar. In 2001 the Alabama Supreme Court reversed the conviction and death sentence and ordered a new trial because prosecutors had improperly introduced evidence of his involvement in unrelated property crimes. Jaffe represented Drinkard in his second trial, which resulted in his acquittal and release in 2001.

In 1990 Padgett was convicted of murdering his estranged wife by stabbing her forty-six times then raping her corpse. The jury recommended life in prison without parole, but then-Marshall County Circuit Judge William Jetton overruled the jury and sentenced Padgett to death. He spent three years on death row until the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals granted Padgett a new trial. Jaffe represented Padgett in his second trial. Jaffe successfully argued that someone staged the rape and planted his DNA in her. After deliberating for three days, the jury found Padgett not guilty.

Jaffe began his career as a prosecutor. In 1976, then State of Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley hired him as an Assistant Attorney General in the criminal appellate division. In 1977-1978 he served as a Deputy District attorney for Tuscaloosa County, Alabama where he tried serious felony cases of all types before moving to Birmingham and opening a private practice concentrating on criminal defense.

Richard S. Jaffe (born February 27, 1950) is an American lawyer, legal analyst, leadership coach, and author of Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned. Jaffe is considered one of the foremost experts and lecturers on criminal law in America and is frequently called upon to comment on death penalty issues and other areas of criminal law by national television, radio and print media. After his 3rd death penalty exoneration at a jury trial, a Birmingham television station led with the byline “Birmingham’s Matlock.”