For those who’ve followed the murder investigation and trial of the men responsible for killing Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey, you’ll want to check out the July issue of California Lawyer magazine for reporter Thomas Peele’s profile of LaRue Grim, the colorful octogenarian defense attorney. He represented Bailey’s self-professed trigger man, Devaughndre Broussard, the star witness in convicting Yusuf Bey IV and Antoine Mackey of the now-defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery.
In the same issue, if I may do a little horn-tooting, there’s a piece by yours truly about the battle over homosexuality within the Presbyterian Church USA’s one-of-a-kind ecclesiastical legal system. It focuses on the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Francisco, a lesbian whose case looks pivotal to determining how the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination comes to terms with gays and lesbians in its midst, and whether it splits apart.
