Thank goodness Great-Aunt Coco loved a good courtroom drama instead of the soaps. If she hadn’t spent quality time with her young niece, the two of them solving whodunits with Nancy Drew and Perry Mason, and cheering on Gregory Peck in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Wayne might not be one of the nation’s most prominent criminal defense attorneys today. Wayne, 47, has become a nationally recognized expert and is a regular legal analyst for CNN Headline News. She also has offered commentary on ABC, MSNBC, Fox and local media in numerous cases, including the Kobe Bryant sexual assault trial. And this year she became the first African-American woman to receive the Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ top honor. – Sheba R. Wheeler
Why are you a good criminal defense attorney? I have a passion for this work. I truly believe that no matter what a defendant has been charged with, no matter how heinous or horrible or distasteful the allegations, they deserve to have an advocate on their side.
What if your client is guilty? You never make that kind of subjective call. I’ve had cases where there’s been overwhelming evidence against my client, and it still didn’t make a difference to me. I think what would be worse is if an attorney decided a client was guilty when they weren’t, and then didn’t defend that client in a zealous manner because of their personal feelings.
Why have you been able to become an expert at defending sexual assault cases? I’m not afraid to take on the victim’s word in the courtroom. As a woman myself, I feel very comfortable scrutinizing the word of another woman against a man. I call it like it is. There is a perception that a woman who defends rape suspects is a sellout by allowing a man to use you as a ploy or a shield, but that’s ridiculous. I defend all of my cases the same way, no matter a person’s race, age or gender. No one group of people’s words should be taken any differently than anyone else’s in an accusatory situation.
But your race and gender must have affected you in some way during your career. I’ve had prosecutors approach me thinking I was the defendant in federal and state court cases. I’ve had judges who thought I was a family member of a defendant. As a lawyer, you can take that battle on, or focus on the battle that you are there for. I’ve found over the years that if you earn the respect legally of judges, prosecutors and defendants, then that’s all that matters at the end of the day. I once represented a KKK member in Pueblo. He had been charged with multiple robberies in Pueblo but was also wanted back in Mississippi for killing his mother. He was horrified that I was appointed as his lawyer, but I saved his life. I made a deal that he would not face the death penalty once he was extradited. I got a letter from him telling me that he has since changed his opinion about black women.
How were you persuaded to become a courtroom talking head three years ago? A lot of those lawyers you would see on TV hadn’t tried their own cases in years. The people from ABC said they wanted a lawyer who really knew this stuff, they needed the word of a true believer, and promised they wouldn’t censor what I had to say.
You don’t typically take death-penalty cases. Why not? They take an extraordinary emotional toll on the lawyers; it takes up your life when you are trying to save someone else’s. I have a son that I have to devote my attention to, as well. So I have just felt that if you cannot give this kind of work your all, then you need to get out of it.
Does your son like to read Nancy Drew mysteries? I was hoping he would, but he’s not the least bit interested. But he did get to see “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and he loved it and was totally incensed with the verdict in that case. I thought, “Well, maybe I did something right.”
