Defended
Christian Brando, the son of
Marlon Brando, on charges of murdering his
sister Cheyenne's boyfriend Dag Drollett. Shapiro was recommended to
Marlon by Marlon's friend
William Kunstler, the famous cause attorney who was
not a criminal lawyer. Through judicial maneuvering, Shapiro got the
court to throw out Christian's jail-house confession as the detective,
when warning him of his right to an attorney, failed to inform him of
his right to have a public defender appointed to defend him if he could
not afford to pay for his own attorney. The detective failed to mention
this as he was convinced that Christian would have access to an
attorney via his very wealthy father. In fact, Marlon did pay for his
son's defense, the court argued that Christian's rights were violated
since he had not been informed of his right to a public defender if
penurious. This ruling, plus the fact that Marlon had spirited his
daughter out of the United States, making it impossible for the court
to hear her eye-witness testimony to the shooting, enabled Shapiro to
approach the Los Angeles district attorney with a plea bargain. The
district attorney accepted Christian's offer to plead guilty to
aggravated manslaughter. A sentence was not part of the deal, and while
the district attorney pressed for a full 16-year prison sentence for
the crime, Christian was finally sentenced to 10 years.
