Criminal Law

• Wrongful Death
  Watkins represented the Estate of Bernard Whitehurst in a wrongful death case against the Montgomery police department. Whitehurst was an unarmed black man who was fatally shot by Montgomery police officer Donnie Foster. The police initially claimed that Whitehurst was a fleeing felon who shot at Foster while on the run.
• Sex Crimes
  After each round of guilty verdicts, the Scottsboro Boys who were convicted of rape by all-white Alabama juries were forced to build their own coffins and lie in them while guards urinated on them.
• Fraud
  USA v. Richard Scrushy: In 2003, Mr. Watkins represented Richard M. Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth. Scrushy was originally indicted on 85 felony counts of Sarbanes Oxley and related accounting fraud charges. If convicted on all charges, he faced 650 years in prison. Scrushy was the first CEO in the nation charged with violating Sarbanes Oxley. In 2005, Scrushy walked out of the federal courthouse in Birmingham a free man. Mr. Watkins defeated prosecutors on all charges in Scrushy’s case.
• Robbery
  In April 2013, the City of Montgomery erected a marker at police headquarters formally acknowledging that, “Whitehurst, 32, did not match the robbery suspect’s
• Misdemeanors
  Watkins’ investigation into the Todd Road incident as a Montgomery city councilman resulted in felony criminal charges against eleven of the mourners being reduced to misdemeanors in four cases and dropped altogether in eight others.
• Assault
  My investigative report was provided to the City Council and Montgomery District Attorney Jimmy Evans. The report, along with the brilliant work of the Taylors' defense team, resulted in the dismissal of all charges against seven family members, and all kidnapping and robbery charges against the other four. The attempted murder felony charges against the remaining four family members were reduced to misdemeanor assault charges. After they pleaded “no contest†to the charges and paid a small fine, the case was over.
• Murder
  All of the 23 mourners at the house were taken into custody. Eleven of them were subsequently arrested, and some of them were brutalized while in police custody. The arrested family members were charged with robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder in connection with the incident.
• Homicide
  The police department failed to follow standard crime scene procedures after the shooting. They failed to conduct a Paraffin test on Whitehurst’s hands to test for gunpowder residue. This test would have confirmed whether Whitehurst had fired the gun found next to his body. Police also failed to perform an autopsy on his body to confirm the entry and exit wounds of the bullets. Autopsies were routine in homicide cases in those days.
• Kidnapping

Business and Corporate Law

• Mergers and Acquisitions
  The family's business empire encompasses a diverse range of business interests, including investment banking, asset management, mergers and acquisitions, mining, energy mixed farming, wineries, and charities.