Nov. 15, 2005
St. Petersburg Times
After five months of testimony and battling health problems, William Moffitt says he is totally exhausted from the long hours.
By Meg Laughlin
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TAMPA – In the last month of the Sami Al-Arian trial, the judge has been keeping a close eye on the defense table.

Al-Arian’s defense attorney, William Moffitt, occasionally has had difficulty staying awake.

It was so conspicuous that the judge addressed it from the bench.

Several times, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. spoke to Moffitt and his co-counsel, Linda Moreno, when the jury was outside of the courtroom.

About a month ago, when Moffitt appeared to be losing the struggle to stay awake, Moody said: “Ms. Moreno, when I pull on my right ear, you step on his left foot.” Since then, Moody periodically has pulled on his ear to signal Moreno, who then nudged Moffitt.

Last week, Moody interrupted defense closing arguments to address the issue.

“Mr. Moffitt, do whatever you have to do,” Moody said Nov. 7. “If you have to get up and walk around, do that. If you need to leave the courtroom, go ahead.”

When jurors re-entered the courtroom, Moffitt had left.

After five months of testimony, the case against the former University of South Florida professor and three co-defendants, charged with raising money to support terrorism in Israel, went to the jury Monday.

On Sunday, Moffitt spoke in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times about the reason for his problems staying awake:

“I’ve given everything I can for this trial and I have nothing left. I am totally exhausted from the long hours. And, I have knee problems and kidney problems,” said Moffitt, a well-respected lawyer from Washington, D.C., who is past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Moffitt, 56 , said he would not go into details about his kidney problems, except to say he has lost more than 30 pounds in the past few months.

Moffitt said he is distressed over his “emotional and physical exhaustion” but strongly believes it has not affected the defense of Al-Arian. He said he never considered stepping down.

“I have no doubt in my mind that I did the best job for Sami that I could,” he said. “I would not want to be unfair to him. I would rather die.”

Al-Arian’s family supports Moffitt. Al-Arian’s son, Abdullah, 25, who frequently attended the trial, spoke on behalf of the Al-Arian family Monday: “I think the sleeping reflects the mood of the courtroom much of the time. All of us are tired.”

Over the trial, many in the courtroom have fallen asleep during the more mind-numbing testimony, which has included discussions of wire transfers, visa forms and translations of documents. But Moffitt also appeared to doze when attorneys for Al-Arian’s co-defendants gave their closing arguments.

“I’d like to imagine that he was exhausted during the defense closing arguments because he delivered such a powerful closing argument himself,” said Abdullah Al-Arian. “We’re extremely proud of him and our father and the way Bill (Moffitt) spoke of him. We felt we were living in an historical moment.”

Al-Arian and his three co-defendants are charged with conspiring to raise money for the terrorist acts of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for hundreds of deaths in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Moffitt has maintained that no evidence connects Al-Arian to this violence.

The issue of attorneys falling asleep in court has come up in other trials, including the 2000 case of a Texas defendant who landed on death row after his lawyer slept through much of his trial. The defendant appealed on the basis of ineffective counsel and won a new trial.

Moffitt weighed in with an opinion on that case, commenting to the Independent newspaper in London on the judge’s decision to give the man a new trial: “This is a wonderful development for Texas in that there is someone looking out for the citizens and trying to keep them alive in the face of bad lawyering.”

Moffitt has served on the board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union and has frequently given legal commentary on television, including NBC’s Today show, CNN’s Crossfire and most of the major networks. His clients have included former United Way president William Aramony, convicted of defrauding the charity, and the lead singer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in a sexual battery case.

Jury expert Robert Hirschhorn, who advised defense attorneys in the rape trial of William Kennedy Smith and the murder trial of Terry Nichols, Timothy McVeigh’s associate, said that “well-established research shows that the vast majority of jurors make up their minds during opening arguments.

All 12 jurors are totally focused for the beginning, he said. But only two or three are there by the end.