I made it an absolute point to be completely respectful. I never said anything publicly or in the courtroom that anyone would have interpreted as being negative toward the victims. There’s no reason for me to give these people pain any more than they’re already suffering. Why on earth would I do that?

Every day of the trial, I would be riding up and down the elevators, and frequently the elevator I would get in would be filled with family members. And no one said a single negative word to me. I never was threatened. No one was ever unpleasant to me. Nothing.

At the time of the trial, of course, there was no social media. Mr. Berne pointed out that if the trial were held today, internet trolls would have added to the families’ suffering, perhaps faulting the men and women for going to a club that had been operating illegally. Maybe he would have been targeted for representing Mr. Gonzalez.

Rick Berne I just think that it would be a nightmare now. It wouldn’t have changed my decision, because I took an oath. I mean, I represented a lot of people where what they were charged with — I defended murders. I defended rapes. I defended really a lot of horrible stuff. But that’s what the Constitution says. The Sixth Amendment gives you a right to counsel, and I take that extremely seriously.

I’ve had people back then and sometimes even now ask me, how could you do this? And my answer is, read the Constitution. Everybody hates lawyers until they need one.

Eric Warner was the lead prosecutor. He looks back on his opening statement as a lost opportunity. He says he labored how to read the names of the victims out loud to the jury. He ended up reading the names alphabetically, and it’s something he wished he hadn’t done.

Eric Warner If I had been random, it would have seemed even more endless. Really, that’s the point. There were so many names. There were so many people who died that you literally lost count.