I’ve tried dozens of jury trials as both a prosecutor and defense lawyer and have been to many trial schools and courses about how to pick a jury. In previous posts, I’ve written about the typical questioning that occurs between the lawyers and the prospective jurors. You’ve seen some of this on TV. Of course, some of it …
So you’ve received your notice for jury duty? What can you expect? In my last post, I wrote about how jurors were initially selected. Once they are in the courtroom, in state courts, the lawyers do most of the questioning.
What are the lawyers looking for and why do they ask the questions they do?
Prior to starting …
After trying dozens of jury trials as both a prosecutor and defense lawyer, I’ve seen almost everything about juries and getting selected for jury duty. What will happen if you’re picked for a jury?
We all know that every accused person has a right to a jury trial. It comes to us in America from centuries of English …
Why would a criminal defendant choose to represent himself rather than have a lawyer?
The Constitution and the Supreme Court have given every accused person in the U.S. the right to be represented by a lawyer. If he can’t afford one, there is a public defender system in every state to provide lawyers.
In over thirty years working …
Many people I talk with assume that if a defense lawyer costs a lot, he can “get anyone off.” Maybe–
Let’s look at some more techniques that defense lawyers use to win in trial beyond what I’ve already posted:
2. Defense lawyers exploit the evidentiary problems of the prosecutor.
Let’s look at a case I tried several years …
I’ve posted about prosecutors and how they might win/lose cases but what about defense lawyers? Do defense lawyers have tricks or are they so good ts “misleading” the jury that they can win all the time?
It’s important to remember that a trial is not about proving innocence. At the end of a trial, the jury is instructed …
Last in a series–
Many people were astonished that Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her child. How could this happen when it appeared to people who followed the trial that she was obviously guilty?
I’ve posted four reasons previously and offer a couple more here:
Reason #5 The prosecutors are incompetent or distracted.
The best …
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