Featured Cases
Bo Cochran with Richard Jaffe at Jaffe’s office in 2009 (photo courtesy of the Linda Jaffe)
James Willie “bo” cochran
Accused of shooting a grocery store manager, James Willie “Bo” Cochran was sentenced to death. Richard Jaffe was appointed to represent Bo in 1982 to appeal his first death sentence. Many years after his first trial, and several years of Bo’s case meandering through appeals courts, Jaffe represented Bo as lead counsel in his third trial in 1997. With determined investigations and arguments, Jaffe and his team led the jurors to a “not guilty” verdict on all degrees of homicide, finally securing Bo’s freedom.
Randal Padgett (left to right), Richard Jaffe, and Bo Cochran in Chicago in 2003 at the occasion when then Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on executions in Illinois and commuted over 160 death sentences
Eric Rudolph in custody after evading capture for over five years (photo courtesy of the Birmingham News)
Eric Robert Rudolph
Also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, Eric Robert Rudolph ultimately pleaded guilty to several bombings, including the Centennial Olympic Park Bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and the bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham. After five and a half years of evading law enforcement, Rudolph was found. The Government decided to prosecute the Birmingham bombing case first. In his search for experienced death penalty lawyers capable of taking a case of enormous magnitude, Judge Lynwood Smith chose Richard Jaffe for lead counsel. Jaffe was lead counsel in the case for 14 months.
Randal Padgett hugging his daughter Heather following his acquittal (photo courtesy of the Birmingham News)
Randal Padgett
When Richard Jaffe took on Randal Padgett’s case, Padgett had been on death row for five years for the alleged gruesome murder and sexual assault of his wife, Cathy, from whom he was separated. With the help of Derek Drennan and Michael Mastin, Jaffe was able to make the case at trial that the evidence pointed to Padgett’s then girlfriend planting his DNA at the scene. Jaffe’s cross-examination of her led to several self-incriminating statements swaying the jury to exonerate Randal Padgett.
For the first time in five years, Randal Padgett celebrates the holidays at home with his daughter, Heather, and son, Micah (photo courtesy of the Birmingham News)
Shannon Mitchell
In 1995, Boaz, Alabama attorney Shannon Mitchell, who was representing a client accused of stealing from his former employer, was falsely accused of engineering the murder of the local police detective who found the evidence against his client. Accused of capital murder, Mitchell assembled Richard Jaffe, Doug Jones, and the late Randy Brooks to represent him in the case. After a lengthy and tense trial, the jury acquitted Mitchell, who is currently a practicing lawyer and municipal judge today.
Attorney Shannon Mitchell, who was represented by Richard Jaffe, Doug Jones, and the late Randy Brooks in his capital murder case, sends multiple such notes of gratitude each year
Ardragus Ford enters court in his wheelchair (photo courtesy of the Birmingham News)
Ardragus Ford and Toforest Johnson
Through a combination of false witness testimony and faulty investigation, both Ardragus Ford and Toforest Johnson were arrested for the murder of Deputy Sheriff William Hardy in Birmingham in 1995. In Ford and Johnson’s separate trials for the same murder, the state of Alabama argued completely different theories of the crime—in Ford’s trial, the state argued that Ford shot Deputy Hardy, and in Johnson’s trial, the state argued that Johnson shot Deputy Hardy. Ardragus Ford, who was represented by Richard Jaffe, was acquitted. Toforest Johnson was convicted and remains on death row, fighting for his life, and maintaining his innocence.