Jose Baez – High School Dropout
A few days ago a woman named Casey Anthony was acquitted of 1st degree murder charges in a Florida courtroom. Her attorney, Jose Baez, a former high school dropout, was the lead attorney in her acquittal. This is a quote from the HuffPost Crime:
Anthony has been found not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. She was also found not guilty of aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. But she was convicted on charges of misleading law enforcement.
The trial is a sad case. I make no comment on it.
But what is noteworthy, is that a one-time high school dropout named Jose Baez lead Casey Anthony’s defense team and engineered a not guilty verdict from a jury.
The phrases high school dropout and attorney aren’t normally seen together. Attornies that passed the GED on their way to earning law degrees and passing a state bar exam are very rare.
Who is Jose Baez?
Background stories on attorney Jose Baez are beginning to surface on the Internet with his famous defense of Case Anthony.
Here’s one paragraph on the background of Jose Baez from the Miami Herald:
Born in Puerto Rico in 1969, Baez was raised by a single mother who moved to South Florida. After dropping out of Homestead High, according to the Orlando Sentinel, he married at 17, became a father, earned a GED diploma and joined the Navy in 1986.Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/05/2301017_p2/jose-baez-casey-anthonys-lawyer.html#ixzz1RRC3adF9
The Miami Herald went on to describe his educational background:
After leaving the Navy, he attended Miami-Dade Community College, graduated from Florida State University and earned his law degree from St. Thomas’ University School of Law in 1997. He then joined the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office, where he worked as a paralegal for a short time, while struggling to be accepted into the Florida bar.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/05/2301017_p2/jose-baez-casey-anthonys-lawyer.html#ixzz1RRFtP5bJ
Is Jose Baez a GED Success Story?
Jose Baez isn’t a perfect man. There’s a lot of information in his past that you may not like.
But in a culture where 3 out of 10 high school graduates nationally do not earn a high school degree, Jose Baez’s GED success story is worth noting. There are GED success stories, and Jose Baez’s story is one of them.
