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LEGAL EAGLE spent 15 years in the district attorney's offi ce in Houston, never losing a single felony case. After law school, he convinced me to apply for a prosecutor's job in Houston — no bet- ter way to gain trial experience. I didn't get the job. The hiring committee didn't think I could put my heart in a death-penalty argu- ment. Hardin held no similar compunction. He helped send 14 men to death row. "When I left the DA's office at 49, I de- cided I would represent only people I liked or felt comfortable trying to help," he says. Hardin refuses to represent drug dealers, sexual off enders or spouse abusers — unless he believes they are innocent. (He also has a large civil practice.) "I do represent guilty people, but I recognize my own limitations. I would be totally ineff ective asking the jury to do something I don't believe in." These kinds of comments don't endear AGE INTERVENTION TURN BACK THE CLOCK ON AGING MEDICINE JACOB ROSENSTEIN, MD AGE 56, NEUROSURGEON him to the criminal-defense bar, some of whose members feel he is still too much the prosecutor and unwilling to take the gritty cases that truly defi ne what it means to prac- tice criminal law. Representing Calvin Mur- phy seemed the exception. In 2004, the NBA Hall of Famer was charged with six cases of sexually molesting fi ve of his daughters. Recalls Murphy: "Before he took the case, Rusty did an investigation to make sure in his mind that I was innocent. I know with Rusty, he would not have taken the job if he had not believed in me." Convincing a jury of that belief was an- other matter entirely, but Hardin did it. He coaxed one daughter into agreeing that she "sometimes just made things up" and successfully argued that the testimony by all the daughters — who were adults before they made their claims — was motivated by revenge. The jury deliberated less than two hours before fi nding Murphy not guilty. H ardin has had numerous Perry Mason moments during his career; BEFORE AGE 51 21% Body Fat CALL US AND SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE HEALTH EVALUATION 817-701-0307 www.800AgeExpert.com Our program is not covered by insurance or Medicare. We do accept credit cards and offer convenient financing options. 54 JANUARY 15, 2012 AA.COM/AMERICANWAY AFTER AGE 56 8% Body Fat Scan this code with your phone & watch testimonial videos. Our program is for men & women alike! as a prosecutor, he once persuaded a defen- dant to confess from the witness stand. He seems to intuitively feel his way through tri- als, arguing his cases without notes so he can spontaneously respond to whatever twists come his way. And he's not above engaging in high drama himself. As a prosecutor, he would re-enact crime scenes, brandishing firearms, swinging a pickax or turning off the courtroom lights during a rape trial so the jury could grasp the abject horror felt by the victim. In the Moon case, he told a reporter that if he lost, he would jump off the Empire State Building. And after opposing counsel kept asking witnesses if Marshall had told them that Smith was the "light of his life," Rusty began his closing arguments by playing a recording of Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life." Several jurors doubled over with laughter. "Rusty is just so unpredictable," says Dan Cogdell, a Houston criminal-defense attor- ney who has tried cases with and against him. "Criminal lawyers are taught to ask short questions — questions we believe we know the answer to so we can control what the witness is saying. Rusty asks open-ended

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