On Being a Courtroom Warrior

Consider . . .

The Shocking Insanity Defense
Case of Tony Kiritsis

    This was one of the most highly publicized cases of the last half of the 20^th century.

    Interest in the Tony Kiritsis case of 1977 persists to this day due to the spectacular nature of what he did (kidnapped a mortgage company executive in his downtown office, wired a sawed-off shotgun to his neck, marched him around the icy streets of Indianapolis, then held him hostage for 63 hours), several terrifying lengthy portions of which were broadcast live on radio and television.

    In 2017, Alan Berry and Mark Enoch co-produced the award-winning documentary titled “Dead Man's Line: The True Story of Tony Kiritsis.” That same year, Richard Hall (Tony's kidnapped hostage) published Kiritsis and Me: Enduring 63 Hours at Gunpoint, with Lisa Hendrickson. In early 2022, actor Jon Hamm co-produced and voiced the role of radio talk show host Fred Heckman (who aired Tony's obscenity-laden rants), in a podcast of eight episodes titled “American Hostage” written up favorably in Variety, GQ, and elsewhere. I was Tony's chief defense counsel, and I blasted Hamm's podcast in an op-ed piece for the Indianapolis Star.

    The “not guilty by reason of insanity” verdict stunned almost everyone, especially because Kiritsis had repeatedly shouted over the airwaves that he was not crazy, knew perfectly well what he was doing, was getting revenge for having been cheated – and had made detailed written plans to do exactly what he did.

    When the verdict was returned on October 21, 1977, it was promptly announced during a break in an NBA basketball game going on in Indianapolis between the Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls, and the stadium erupted in a standing ovation of loud clapping and cheers. The outcome was hugely popular both locally and nationally, but many politicians, business people, and others thought the verdict was outrageous.

     The reading of the verdict acquitting Tony Kiritsis was broadcast live on television across central Indiana. The reading of the verdict was then quickly aired on nationwide TV, the first "not guilty" verdict of any sort aired nationwide.

    Indiana's insanity defense laws were promptly significantly changed (gutted), as were most others around the nation within the next few years.

The Case of the Highly Talented
but Coerced Smuggling Pilot Rick Curry

    Rick Curry of Venice, Florida, was the “Ace” - allegedly the main pilot and trainer of other pilots for the international drug smuggling organization known as The Company. He was indicted and tried in federal court for having flown multiple tons of drugs, primarily marijuana, from Colombia and Mexico into Florida, Texas, and elsewhere on several occasions. In an effort to pressure Curry into pleading guilty, the government also charged him as a “special dangerous offender” claiming his piloting skills were “critical to international narcotics smuggling,” a charge that mandated an enhanced sentence of 25 years to life imprisonment and could be read to the jury only in the event of convictions on the underlying charges.

    I interposed a coercion defense for Rick, and he testified on his own behalf and admitted to making the smuggling trips the government's witnesses claimed and, further, to getting paid a great deal of money for those trips.

   Curry testified that he had no alternative but to make the trips else he, and likely his wife, would have wound up as alligator bait in the swamps of south Florida or in Biscayne Bay wearing concrete shoes. The evidence regarding Curry's flights was dramatic: E.g., getting forced down over Colombia by its Air Force, captured by Air Force ground security then stolen from them by threat of superior force by the Army, then freed when a smuggling organization paid a large bribe for Curry's release.

    Think Tom Cruise as Barry Seal in “American Made” but without the farcical trimmings or the federal government's assistance.

    Curry's not guilty verdicts outraged the district court judge so much that he told the jurors to join him in chambers after they were excused and then excoriated them for the verdicts, causing one juror to cry and try to change her votes. Which conduct was reported to the chief judge of the federal court of appeals, who gave the district court judge a written reprimand - with a cc: to yours truly.

    These verdicts of acquittal based on a coercion defense for a smuggling pilot are, to the best of my knowledge, the only such acquittals in United States history. I served as counsel for Rick Curry in four states.

   In the last case in which I briefly represented him (until he absconded to Canada), the charge was that Curry flew a planeload of Quaaludes from Colombia to Florida, landing in the dead of night on the private airstrip at the governor of Florida's ranch.

    All told, six nationally publicized criminal cases, including my own, are discussed in my memoir, which also relates stories of several much less publicized but fascinating cases involving allegedly “impossible” (incomprehensible even to me) acquittals, cheating cops and prosecutors, clearly incompetent defense attorneys, and other matters.

~Nile Stanton