» Entries tagged with "credibility"
Fighting Stupid With Stupid
A lot of my biker friends have a patch on their jackets that says, “if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” Apparently, the quote originates from W. C. Fields. In some ways, it’s great advice for a trial lawyer. People tend to be judgmental. They’re also easily confused. Those are usually characteristics that the prosecution can readily use to its advantage. People want to love or hate someone, and if the person on the stand doesn’t make sense to them, hate tends to be the default reaction. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a prosecutor confuse a defense witness, and subsequently the jury, with idiotic questions. More often, the prosecution preys on the ignorance of the jurors writ large and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Trial
Dear Bad Prosecutor:
Your job is not to argue with everything I say. The interests of justice do not always require that my client receives the maximum fine or prison sentence. Many of my clients deserve bail or commutation. You are allowed to concede points when you do not have a good reason to disagree. I promise. Believe it or not, I am not going to lie and cheat in order to gain some kind of advantage. My goal in this pretrial is not to trick you. Although you are just covering, I am not a high school student, and I do not view you as a substitute teacher. I do not intend to do anything to jeopardize my bar license, now or ever. You have looked over … Read entire article »
Filed under: Government Rants, Prosecutors
More on Victim Interviews
I started responding to some comments on this post, but I ended up writing way too much for one little comment. No harm in putting up another post, right? Anyway, to give you some background (for those of you who don’t like reading blog comments), I brought up in a comment that A.R.S. § 13-4433(B) says “the defendant, the defendant’s attorney or an agent of the defendant shall only initiate contact with the victim through the prosecutor’s office.” Andrew Becke asked: “is there a way to initiate contact with the victim through a motion to the court, thus requiring the prosecutor to respond in a pleading that the victim doesn’t want to talk? That might enhance their desire to be honest.” My answer would be that there are a few … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arizona Cases, Victim's Rights
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