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(Miami, FL) - Famed South Florida criminal defense attorney Roy Black has died at the age of 80. One of his Miami colleagues, 86-year-old defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, remembers Black as "The Dean."
The New York native studied at the University of Miami before taking on some of the most high-profile cases including the Palm Beach defense of William Kennedy Smith... earning him an acquittal on rape charges in 1991. Black passed away yesterday after battling an illness.
Harvard professor emeritus and defense attorney Alan Dershowitz says Black will be missed in Miami where his services were sorely needed.
Black’s clients included Jeffrey Epstein, William Kennedy Smith, Rush Limbaugh, Helio Castroneves and Kelsey Grammer. Dershowitz says the acquittal of Kennedy Smith was Black's greatest legal and personal achievement as he met and married his wife who was on the jury.
But, if he had failed, Dershowitz says Black wanted him to handle the appeal.
"He will be remembered by all lawyers, and by all people who care about justice as a truly great man. The law will miss him, Florida will miss him and personally I will miss him," said Dershowitz.