F. Lee Bailey, prominent criminal defense attorney, has died

Jun. 3—F. Lee Bailey, one of the country's most prominent criminal defense attorneys, has died.

Bailey was 87 years old, according to the Associated Press. Bailey lived for much of the past decade in Yarmouth, Maine, and fought for the right to practice law in the state. He was in Georgia at the time of his death.

Bailey took on some of the highest profile cases in the country during his career including the murder case involving former NFL football player O.J. Simpson, newspaper heiress-turned-bank robber Patty Hearst, and the case of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to being the infamous Boston Strangler.

Bailey moved to Yarmouth in 2010 and sought to return to practicing law. He passed the state bar exam but was denied admission by the Board of Bar Examiners in November in a 5-4 decision, saying he had not demonstrated "by clear and convincing evidence that he possesses the requisite good character and fitness necessary for admission to the Maine bar."

Bailey petitioned the state Supreme Judicial Court and Justice Donald Alexander held a two-day hearing in March 2013 to review Bailey's past, his character and his bar application. Alexander found in a 57-page ruling filed on April 19 that Bailey was almost fit to practice law, except for an outstanding tax debt of nearly $2 million.

In 2016, Bailey filed for bankruptcy in federal court in Maine in an attempt to discharge a federal tax debt of nearly $5.2 million. Debts to the Internal Revenue Service are not normally discharged in bankruptcy proceedings, but Bailey told the Press Herald that they can be after a period of time and as long as he has complied with certain conditions, such as filing and paying his taxes on time since the original taxes and penalties were assessed. He owed the money from a dispute over his reportable income from 1993 to 2001.

During a March 2018 interview with the Press Herald, Bailey was working as a consultant and living in Yarmouth, but it's not clear where he was living when he died.

This story will be updated.