What Are Lawyers Really Doing in Jury Selection?

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 …

Getting Picked for Jury Duty

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 …

How Do Defense Lawyers Win??

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 …

How Do Defense Lawyers Win?

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 …

Seven Reasons Casey Anthony was Found Not Guilty

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 …

In Arizona–Will Loughner get off by Insanity?

In some ways it seems so obvious: any person who would plan to assassinate a public official, buy a gun, actually carry out the shooting, and kill people must be insane! Right?

So will Jared Loughner, the shooter in Arizona, get off by reason of insanity in his cases?

Under the law in most states, if a person …

Character Witness in Rape Case gets "Raked"

In a local criminal sexual abuse case, lawyer Aaron Biber had pled guilty to having sex with a 15 year old boy. Under Minnesota law, he’s entitled to a sentencing hearing before the judge imposes the sentence.

The purpose of the hearing is for both the prosecution and the defense to present evidence about the accused and/or crime …