More than 100 homicide cases. Over 25 capital murder cases. Fifty-two years defending the accused.

Few criminal defense attorneys have experienced the American justice system quite like Steve McCaughey.

In this episode of Legends in the Law, attorney and host Randy Spencer sits down with one of Utah's most experienced criminal defense trial lawyers to explore the murder trials, death penalty cases, courtroom victories, and difficult decisions that defined his remarkable career.

Steve began practicing law in Utah in the 1970s after attending the University of Nebraska College of Law. He joined Salt Lake's Legal Defenders Association, where he gained extraordinary courtroom experience, including trying 18 jury cases in a single year.

Soon after entering private practice, Steve took on his first capital murder case. The defendant was acquitted, beginning a career that would eventually include some of Utah's most notorious homicide prosecutions.

Defending the accused

Steve shares his experience representing defendants connected to the Ervil LeBaron family, including murder trials in Utah and California.

He recounts the Troy Kell prison murder case, in which a killing captured on video led to an unusual trial held inside a Utah prison. Steve explains the challenges of presenting mitigation evidence and what jurors later revealed about their decision to impose the death penalty.

He also discusses a homicide case involving the killing of a Utah law enforcement officer. After his client was acquitted of the homicide charge in state court, federal prosecutors brought a separate case that resulted in a conviction. The experience illustrates the complexity of reasonable doubt, jury deliberations, and criminal prosecutions involving overlapping state and federal authority.

Perhaps the most difficult case Steve ever handled was the capital murder prosecution of Taberon Honie. Steve discusses the decision to waive a jury for the penalty phase, the challenges of defending someone accused of extraordinarily violent acts, and the appeals that followed. Honie was executed in 2024.

What does winning really mean?

Steve challenges conventional assumptions about criminal defense. An acquittal isn't the only meaningful victory. In a death penalty case, persuading prosecutors to accept life without parole can mean saving a client's life.

He explains how attorneys prepare for both the guilt and penalty phases of capital trials, why he doesn't measure his career by a simple win-loss record, and why representing someone believed to be innocent can create even greater pressure than defending someone believed to be guilty.

Randy and Steve also discuss whether capital punishment is worth its financial and emotional cost, the Tyler Robinson prosecution following the killing of Charlie Kirk, and the changing role of forensic evidence, DNA, video, and digital discovery in modern criminal trials.

After 52 years in criminal defense, Steve McCaughey has retired from practice. But his experiences offer timeless lessons about reasonable doubt, constitutional protections, the right to counsel, and the responsibility of defending people accused of the most serious crimes.

A remarkable conversation about murder trials, justice, the death penalty, and a lifetime devoted to criminal defense.

Judge Ben Hadfield has experienced the law from three very different perspectives: trial lawyer, district court judge, and mediator and international legal educator.

In this episode of Legends in the Law, Randy Spencer sits down with Judge Hadfield for a wide-ranging conversation about landmark cases, courtroom life, BYU Law history, judicial decision-making, mediation, and the growing role of peacemaking around the world.

Hadfield was part of one of the earliest classes at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School and was among the first students to spend all three years in the new law school building. He recalls the school’s dedication, meeting U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, and the profound influence of founding dean Rex Lee.

One piece of advice from Lee stayed with him throughout his career: lawyers can plan where they think their lives are going, but they should remain wise enough to recognize unexpected opportunities when they appear.

Hadfield’s first career was as a trial attorney in Box Elder County.

While practicing family law, he challenged then-existing Utah law concerning retirement benefits in divorce. The case eventually reached the Utah Supreme Court, which adopted the basic pension-division formula Hadfield had advocated for his client—later commonly referenced in Utah practice as the Woodward formula.

Hadfield also recounts a memorable civil trial involving a truck driver who struck a black steer on Interstate 84. After the state refused to settle, Hadfield uncovered evidence involving an inadequate interstate fence and ultimately obtained a $135,000 jury verdict.

In 1993, newly elected Governor Mike Leavitt appointed Hadfield to Utah’s district court bench.

He served nearly 22 years as a judge and shares both humorous and difficult courtroom memories—from defendants representing themselves to emotionally challenging cases involving children and polygamous communities.

After retiring in 2014, Hadfield began mediating.

That third career eventually took him far beyond Utah.

Hadfield and his wife volunteered in Moldova and Ukraine, working with young lawyers and law students on advocacy, jury trials, mediation, and rule-of-law principles. He describes the close relationships they formed there and the sobering changes he has seen among Ukrainian law students during the war.

His work later expanded to South Africa, where he trained High Court judges in mediation and helped develop additional training for traditional leaders.

Today, Hadfield is helping create a multilingual mediation manual designed for traditional leaders in South Africa, with the hope that the project can eventually expand elsewhere in Africa.

It is a conversation about advocacy, judging, mentorship, mediation, legal education, and the remarkable places a career can lead when you remain open to the opportunities life presents.

Sandra Dredge was told she was too old for law school.

She graduated at 50.

Thirty-five years later, at 85, she is still practicing law.

In this deeply personal episode of Legends in the Law, attorney and host Randy Spencer sits down with Sandra Dredge—his longtime friend, mentor and the first attorney he ever worked with—to explore an extraordinary career built on perseverance, service and the belief that it is never too late to pursue a dream.

Sandra had already built successful careers before becoming an attorney. She was the first female auditor in Utah’s Legislative Auditor General’s Office and later became a vice president at a bank.

But she still dreamed of becoming a lawyer.

When Sandra worried that she would be 50 years old by the time she finished law school, her husband gave her the advice that changed everything:

“You will be 50 years old anyway.”

One law school told Sandra she was too old. BYU Law School accepted her, and at age 50 she began the legal career she had dreamed about for years.

Sandra and attorney Linda Anderson established their own practice, taking criminal defense, family law and workers’ compensation cases. They became the first women to hold a contract representing Utah prison inmates in parole revocation proceedings and ultimately handled approximately 1,500 hearings.

Sandra later became a Special Master in high-conflict family cases, placing her on the front lines of extraordinarily difficult custody disputes. She shares the remarkable story of an emergency effort to remove 11 adopted children from a dangerous situation—a case in which she recalls doctors later saying that some of the children might have died within days without intervention.

She also developed a mediation practice spanning roughly three decades and thousands of disputes. Sandra shares stories ranging from the heartbreaking to the hilarious—including the divorcing parents who settled issues involving their child in less than an hour but needed more than six hours to negotiate custody of their golden retriever.

For Randy, however, Sandra’s most important legacy is mentorship.

As a law student, Randy walked into Sandra and Linda’s office looking for an internship. The experience changed the direction of his career. Sandra would go on to mentor many other aspiring attorneys, whose influence now extends to still another generation of lawyers.

At 85, Sandra is still working, still mediating and still living the dream she once worried she was too old to pursue.

Her message is simple:

You don’t have to be 21.

Find the work that fits you.

Make a plan.

And pursue the dream one day at a time.

A moving conversation about women in law, mentorship, second careers, mediation, perseverance and why it is never too late to become who you wanted to be.