Winner of the 2018 International Book Award for Biography sponsored by American Bookfest. A compelling read — the extraordinary life story of Fay Stender, whom I vividly recall as a brilliant, charismatic woman lawyer at the forefront of radical politics in the Seventies. Once again, Lise Pearlman has done a masterful job capturing this tumultuous and instructive time. — Barry Scheck Co-Director of the Innocence Project Call me Phaedra is a fascinating and unflinching biography of the pioneering lawyer, prison reform activist and feminist Fay Stender. Here is a compelling account of her inspiring and tragic life, her turbulent times, and her far reaching impact, a well-told story brimming with intimate detail and political insight. —Seth Rosenfeld, investigative journalist and author of SUBVERSIVES: THE FBI’S WAR ON STUDENT RADICALS, AND REAGAN’S RISE TO POWER. Diligently researched and carefully written . Pearlman’s biography accords Fay the recognition she deserves as a seminal criminal defense lawyer at a pivotal moment in the history of the California prison system. — Jonah Raskin “Warriors Not Victims: George Jackson and Fay Stender,” COUNTERPUNCH, May 16, 2018 Moving, well written, at times almost poetic, Lise Pearlman’s new, often thrilling book tells the story of Fay Stender, a revolutionary pioneering woman lawyer dedicated to fighting to achieve justice for some of America’s most notorious prisoners. Fay was my friend from the time of our college days through the years she rose to international acclaim and notoriety until her untimely death stemming from the gun of a man who had tried to murder her. Lise’s book grippingly sheds light on this remarkable woman’s courageous life and the turbulent time in which she made a significant impact on the arc of justice. — Robert Richter Award-winning Documentary Filmmaker Lise Pearlman’s book generates great emotional traction recounting the heroic, tragic life and death of one of America’s most zealous, brilliant lawyers. It is written with clarity and precision and is a necessary remembrance of an amazing woman. — Penny Cooper Member of the California State Bar Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame Call Me Phaedra makes two major contributions to American studies. It documents the life and times of a remarkable activist woman lawyer in the men’s world of the mid-20th century; Stender was a committed lawyer, exhausting and inspiring to work with. It also chronicles the experience of a strong circle of Progressives emerging from the ‘Red Scare’ in that Cold War era who struggled to make society more just at a time when bucking conformity was not the norm. — Peter Franck Former partner of Stender and 2017 San Francisco Lawyers Guild “Champion of Justice” I was a History Major with a Women’s Study Minor in college, and this book would have been a perfect addition to my reading list. Fay Stender was a fascinating and complicated woman who lived during, and was involved in, some very significant times in our nation’s history. Pearlman brings Fay, and those events, to life through the lens of Fay’s legal work. This is an engaging read that will give you new insight on the McCarthy Era, Civil Rights Movement, the Free Speech Movement, Vietnam War protests, the rise of Black Power and the rise of feminism in the Women’s Movement of the 1970s. — Sarah Meckler Golden State Media Concepts podcast book reviewer Expertly documented . new biography [of] Fay Stender’s fascinating life and career. — Lisa D. Smith Publisher and Radio Host BIG BLEND RADIO You can listen to the Big Blend Radio conversation with Lise Pearlman at Big Blend Radio & TV Magazine Summer 2018, Author Connections, p.15. Lise Pearlman is also the acclaimed author of THE SKY’S THE LIMIT: People v. Newton, the REAL Trial of the 20th Century? (2012) AMERICAN JUSTICE ON TRIAL People v. Newton (2016) WITH JUSTICE FOR SOME: Politically Charged Criminal Trials in the Early 20th Century That Helped Shape Today’s America (2017) www.lisepearlman.com Call Me Phaedra The Life and Times of Movement Lawyer Fay Stender U by Lise Pearlman REGENT PRESS Berkeley, California Copyright © 2018 by Lise Pearlman PAPERBACK: ISBN 13: 978-1-58790-435-6 ISBN 10: 1-58790-435-7 E-BOOK ISBN 13: 978-1-58790-436-3 ISBN 10: 1-58790-436-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018933614 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Cover photo of Huey Newton at a press conference on August 5, 1970, after his release, with lawyer Fay Stender standing behind him. (© Ilka Hartmann 2018.) Cover photo of tragic mask of Dionysus, Greek God of the theater: Musée du Louvre, https://commons.wikimedia .org/wiki/File:Dionysos_mask_Louvre_Myr347.jpg. The Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus, on the south side of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, is known as the birthplace of Greek tragedy. Every effort has been made to credit sources and obtain permission where appropriate. If we have inadvertently used or credited material or images inaccurately or without applicable consent and they do not qualify as Fair Use under the U.S. Copyright Act, or are not in the public domain, please contact the publisher so appropriate steps can be taken. Printed in the U.S.A. REGENT PRESS Berkeley, California www.regentpress.net [email protected] I dedicate this book to all the women working for social justice throughout history about whom it could be said, “Nevertheless, she persisted.” Contents AUTHOR’S NOTE n xi PROLOGUE n 1 ACT ONE 1. The Battle of Wills n 9 2. Predestination or Free Will n 25 3. Intellectual Boot Camp n 49 4. Smitten n 55 5. Renewed Ardor n 63 6. Starting Out n 73 7. Turbulence n 79 8. Joining the Movement n 95 9. Unfulfilled n 107 ACT TWO 1. Second Chair at the Latest Trial of the Century n 117 2. The Baton Passes to Fay n 133 3. Freeing Huey! n 143 4. Entering Gladiator School n 159 5. “My Small but Mighty Mouthpiece” n 173 6. The Shaping of a Revolutionary Hero n 181 7. On a Roll n 193 8. Collision Course n 199 9. Blood in His Eyes n 221 10. The Dragon Lady Reigns n 239 x CALL ME PHAEDRA ACT THREE 1. Bitter Fruit n 263 2. Spent n 273 3. Cuba n 287 4. The Barb n 295 5. Reflections in the Mirror n 315 6. Temps Perdu n 327 7. Death Comes Knocking n 347 8. Star Witness n 377 9. Nowhere to Run n 407 EPILOGUE n 437 ENDNOTES n 449 SOURCES n 467 BIBLIOGRAPHY n 469 INDEX n 475 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS n 483 xi Author’s Note U he idea for a biography of Fay Stender struck me near the turn of this century. I was attending a federal lawyer-judge Tconference in Napa County, California. One panel drew a capacity crowd to hear what makes a great trial lawyer. Historically, trial lawyers have seen themselves as courtroom gladiators. Federal prosecutors were taught that trial lawyers were “the fighter pilots and emergency room surgeons of the law.” To craft persuasive storylines to win over juries time and again, top trial lawyers have to not only master the facts and law of each case, but possess charismatic personalities. In the traditionally macho world of the courtroom, top practitioners have often been compared to champion boxers. Like Muhammad Ali, many hone the ability to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” Great trial lawyers have drawn overflow galleries of spectators to admire how they established rapport with prospective jurors, landed punches in opening argument, then took punches and punched back in direct and cross-examinations and in closing arguments. As the panel discussion concluded, the moderator put up on the screen a list of about twenty famous American lawyers he thought best fit the criteria they had agreed upon. All but two of those listed were male. The two women seemed hastily named as an afterthought. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (one of the women named) gradu- ated in 1952 near the top of her class at Stanford Law School. (Chief Justice William Rehnquist was first in the same class; my senior law part- ner John Wells was second.) Nevertheless, despite scores of applications, xi xii CALL ME PHAEDRA she could not find a job in any private law firm. (Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had the same disheartening experience after graduating first in her class at Columbia Law School in 1959.) At the start of her career, O’Connor juggled raising her two sons with part-time work as a govern- ment attorney. She became known for her negotiating skills –- not for mastering the grueling combat of jury trials, where women litigators were still shunned. O’Connor’s career path took her to working for Goldwater’s 1964 campaign for the presidency, then to state political office in 1965, and a decade as an Arizona trial and appellate judge before President Reagan elevated her from relative obscurity to become the first woman justice on the highest court in the land. The other woman lawyer listed at the panel discussion was Sarah Weddington, known for trying one landmark case before a panel of three federal judges in Dallas, Texas, in 1970 — Roe v. Wade. Weddington had graduated from the University of Texas Law School just three years earlier, only to face the same repeated rejection by private law firms in 1967 as Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg had experienced in the 1950s.