In 2001 Bill Nettles was a 40-year-old ex-public defender in Columbia, S.C., facing the daunting task of defending Bobby Lee Holmes on charges of raping and murdering an elderly retired teacher. One day he took a call from Mark MacDougall, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who was volunteering to help. As Nettles tells it, MacDougall reached out after a long talk with a friend who happened to be a priest. The subject essentially boiled down to: What do I do with the rest of my life? The priest didn’t have a complete answer, but suggested that one way to get beyond the transitory pleasures afforded a successful white-collar defense lawyer was to take on some death penalty work. A mutual friend referred MacDougall to Nettles, and a formidable team was born.
Together they tore into the forensic evidence that had incriminated Holmes: a palm print and some telltale clothing fibers. They also found potentially exculpatory evidence pointing to another possible killer. But the trial judge wouldn’t let the jury hear that story, and Holmes was convicted and sentenced to death. Eventually the lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed unanimously. Holmes later pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence. And MacDougall had found his calling. “Trial lawyers talk about who they’d want in a foxhole with them,” says Nettles, who is now the U.S. attorney for South Carolina. “I’d want Mark. He’s a good, thorough, tenacious lawyer. It’s just a fact.”
