UNCONVENTIONALLY GOOD

Record shows Tabish's attorney, who still thinks himself a hippie, one
of the best

At first glance, it would be easy to write off defense attorney J.
Tony Serra as a kooky San Francisco hippie with dingy hair, a gold
tooth, a bad suit and an even worse haircut.

Don't be fooled.

Serra, now in his late 60s, is widely recognized as one of the best
attorneys in the nation. And anyone who watches him recognizes he is a
master at getting jurors to focus on facts -- not his ponytail hair or
his cheap, ill-fitting suits.

"I've always been able to transcend the material level, and I think
that juries give me a fair break once they hear me," Serra said.
"Their first view of me is cynical or very curious. But I normally
overcome it. I've transcended the hair and, fortunately, I'm going
bald, so it's not going to be there much longer."

Serra, the defense attorney for Rick Tabish in the Ted Binion murder
case, has a courtroom track record that is unquestioned. Time after
time over the past three decades, he has won acquittals in
high-profile criminal cases in which public sentiment was against him
and his clients.

He successfully defended Black Panther Huey Newton, who was cleared in
the slaying of a Bay Area prostitute. Serra won the acquittal of
Russell Little, a member of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army who
was charged with murder.

And, Serra defended Bear Lincoln. Lincoln was acquitted of murder
charges, then later cleared of manslaughter charges in the April 14,
1995, shooting deaths of a sheriff's deputy and a friend of Lincoln in
Mendocino County, Calif.

"My record is good," Serra said.

Serra will need to draw on all of his skills over the next two months
in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

There, Serra's client and co-defendant Sandy Murphy face murder
charges in the death of Las Vegas gaming heir Binion. And Serra faces
two of Clark County's best prosecutors, Robert Daskas and Christopher
Lalli.

Opening statements are expected to start at 8:30 this
morning.

Serra said he took Tabish's case after talking to the slaying
suspect's parents, Frank and Lani Tabish. They convinced him that
their son "is really innocent."

That decision will be up to a jury, which will hear how Tabish was
caught digging up Binion's silver two days after Binion's demise.

"It's a circumstantial-evidence case that can be won," Serra said.
"That excites me."

Serra's dad, a native of San Francisco, was a jelly bean maker, and
his mother was a housewife.

Serra said his parents instilled in him that materialism was not an
admirable quality.

"By instinct, they were nonmaterialistic people," Serra said. "Other
kids got big presents at Christmas. My mother would give me a piece of
purple cloth. How beautiful.

"(With one of my) sons, we did kind of the same thing," Serra said.
"Everyone else got bicycles (for Christmas). My son got an apple. ...
He was so proud of his apple."

Serra has been an outspoken advocate for the decriminalization of
marijuana, and he readily acknowledges he still clings to many of the
philosophies of the Flower Power era.

"I'm kind of an aged, San Francisco hippie," Serra said. "I went
through the '60s, and I was kind of hippie-fied."

He has been a vocal critic of the legal profession, which he said is
mostly motivated by money. More attorneys, he has said, should do pro
bono work and avoid being driven by money.

"I've been an anti-lawyer lawyer all my life," Serra said. "I'm old
now, and in retrospect, I'm kind of an aberration."

Serra said he lives his anti-materialism mantra.

He rents a small home in San Francisco for $405 a month. The suit he
wore in court Wednesday was way too tight. It had to be stitched
together in the back because of wear and tear, he said.

"This suit ... I was in the middle of a jury trial in San Francisco in
federal court, and a client thought I looked so shabby that she went
out and bought me a suit," Serra said. "That was more than 10 years
ago."

One of his shoes also has a big hole.

"If it rains here right now, my socks are going to be wet," Serra
said.

"I drive old cars. I call them the green one, the brown one, whatever.
I don't have bank accounts. I don't have credit cards. I don't own
anything in real property. I have no investments. I don't have anything.

"I generate money that other persons would consider meaningful, but it
all goes to my cases," he said. "The money goes to my office or my
bills. I'm an old-fashioned lefty who only wants enough money to pay
my bills or my office."

Serra said the criminal justice system in the United States needs
dramatic reform. Public defenders need more resources to ensure the
poor receive the same level of representation as the rich, he said.

"It's obvious that if you can afford a criminalist, if you can afford
an investigator, expert witnesses ... a team of lawyers ... motion
writers, appellate lawyers, you are going to get better justice,"
Serra said. "Wealthy people will obtain more justice than poor people,
and that is very sad."

He said the country needs to reconsider its harsh approach to
punishment in the criminal justice system.

"The jurors are rightfully very concerned about their own security and
safety," Serra said. "So, they are less in tune with basic freedoms
and liberties that the '60s were so concerned with. It has turned
upside down since I started. ...

"It starts with the federal system, where there is the mandatory
sentencing, which has emasculated the courts' discretion," Serra said.
"That spills over into various states, like, in California, the three
strikes.

"It has become far, far more severe, (and) the sentencing is
draconian. It's not predicated on deterrence or rehabilitation. We are
in a time, an era, where punishment is really the only criteria."