BESSEMER, Ala. � For Tom Mesereau, there hasn't been much middle ground lately: It's been either glitz or grits.
Mesereau, a big man whose crown of white, shoulder-length hair is about as commonplace in Alabama courts as a powdered wig, is the lead attorney for pop star Michael Jackson. He usually practices in Century City, roughly a million miles from Bessemer's courthouse and the seafood gumbo at the Bright Star restaurant nearby.
But here was Mesereau one sweltering afternoon last month, hoping to effect a sudden change of fortune for a 53-year-old body shop owner who was facing a possible death sentence.
The article details how Mesereau, born in New York, educated at Harvard, and now living in Los Angeles, has defended several death penalty cases in the Deep South pro bono. Details here from Steve Chawkins of the Los Angeles Times.