Sothern

Billy Sothern, a defense lawyer renowned for taking on some of Louisiana’s toughest capital cases — including the wrongful conviction of Albert Woodfox, who spent 42 years in solitary confinement for a crime he didn’t commit — died on Sept. 30 at his home in Great Barrington, Mass., where he and his family had moved during the pandemic.

His work for Mr. Woodfox, who wrote a critically acclaimed memoir and died in August, was merely Mr. Sothern’s best-known case.

Along with his wife, Mr. Sothern is survived by his parents, who later divorced; his daughters, Rose Mae and Pearl Alma Sothern; his stepfather, Newell Kingsley Woodward; two brothers, Eric Sothern and Jason Warner; and two sisters, Lauren Sothern and Wendy McManus.

Mr. Sothern joined the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, and in 2004 he went to work for an offshoot, the Capital Appeals Project, as deputy director.

His wife, Nikki Page Sothern, said he had been fighting Covid, thyroid cancer and major depressive disorder, and that he died by suicide.