Spence’s defense of Cantrell was a major case in his storied career

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If Gerry Spence went looking for a client to advance his reputation as one of the country’s best trial lawyers, he couldn’t have found a better one than Ed Cantrell.

Opinion

The Rock Springs police chief killed Michael Rosa, one of his detectives, by shooting him between the eyes two days before he was scheduled to testify at a state grand jury in Cheyenne in 1978. Few people in Wyoming gave Cantrell any chance of beating what looked like the most open-and-shut murder case imaginable.

When Spence died on Aug. 13 at his home in Montecito, California, he left a remarkable legacy of never losing a criminal jury trial or civil case from 1969 to his