Some Of My Best Friends Are Attorneys

Kayla Moore, wife of Roy Moore – loser in the recent special election to fill a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama – defended her husband against charges that he hates Jews by claiming, “one of our attorneys is a Jew.” A writer for the Jewish magazine Forward set herself the task of “finding this unicorn” and succeeded. He is Richard Jaffe, a native of Birmingham, and a good friend of Doug Jones, who beat Moore in the special election. Considered one of the national defense bar’s top lawyers, Jaffe has kept nearly 20 people off death row. He has represented some high profile defendants, including Eric Rudolph, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bomber and a Holocaust denier, who called television news “the electronic Jew.” Jaffe told his Rabbi that he defended Rudolph as a matter of principle. Jaffe’s passion is serving as counsel to addicts, and it was in that capacity that he came into contact with Moore’s troubled son, Caleb.