2 days ago
Imelda Marcos lawyer Gerry Spence dies at 96
Trial lawyer Gerry Spence, the defense counsel who won the acquittal of former first lady Imelda Marcos on federal racketeering charges in the United States, has passed away at the age of 96.
Distinguished by his fringed buckskin jackets, Spence began his legal career as an insurance defense attorney and later served as a prosecutor.
By the late 1960s, he shifted exclusively to representing plaintiffs and criminal defendants.
In 1978, the lawyer moved the Spence Law Firm from Casper to Jackson, Wyoming.
Spence successfully defended Marcos against federal racketeering and fraud charges in New York City in 1990. The event was considered as one of the trials of the century of the 20th century.
The Marcoses faced charges for allegedly stealing more than $200 million from the Philippine treasury and investing the majority in jewels, art, and prime Manhattan real estate properties.
'The trial ended in Mrs. Marcos's acquittal, with jurors citing Gerry's ability to humanize a polarizing figure,' the Spence Law Firm said on its website.
Spence also won the $10.5 million verdict against Kerr-McGee Corporation on behalf of Karen Silkwood's case.
Silkwood was a nuclear plant worker and union activist whose death in 1974 became the subject of a federal investigation and the Oscar-nominated film 'Silkwood'.
Spence's last trial involved the representation of two innocent yet convicted men in Iowa.
The Associated Press reported that Spence died surrounded by his family in Montecito, California late Wednesday, Aug. 13.
'We are proud of his legacy and his contributions to the world, but most importantly, we are proud to be part of the family he built with love. We feel this loss deeply and we will carry him with us always,' his granddaughter, Tara Spence McClatchey, said. — Mariel Celine Serquiña/RF, GMA Integrated News
