Criminal Law – Criminal Trials

Winning the Un-winnable Case

Many lawyers do not know how to win the case that on the surface appears to be un-winnable. This is the difference between those lawyers who think they know how to win and those that do. There is no case that is un-winnable. The O.J. Simpson case and the Casey Anthony case were not winnable at first glance. However, both were won. Does the lawyer you are considering hiring know the “how and why” that resulted in these acquittals?

Does your lawyer know how to win those kinds of cases?

Probably not.

The following are extracts from my study and presentation to the Alabama criminal lawyers program “A Day with the Experts” taught in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Consider the following:

Facts Have No Importance

Facts have relatively no importance except for the idea attached to them or the fact which is proven. Facts can be illuminated by the truth of ideas. Only by the elimination of multiple probability does one find “Truth” – Henry Lagman

Look at some of the actual cases I have been involved in. These are only a few.

In a circuit court of this state I represented a young black man accused of “conspiracy to commit armed robbery.” The defendant had a brother who was his identical twin. He and his brother were charged with this conspiracy. The chief witness was to be another co-conspirator who was testify against both of them in return for plea bargain and lesser sentence. First, I succeeded in having the brothers tried separately.

With my client we faced the jury. In jury selection I made a point to identify jurors who always had difficulty identifying twins. The prosecution jumped on the other side of the problem trying to identify jurors who could always tell twins apart. This may seem a minor issue but I knew that there was one officer who had and would identify the other “twin” as being at the crime scene. This would be the only testimony regarding identification in the whole trial. Then I attacked the identification of my client by police, by pointing out the identification was of the other twin. When I succeeded in suppressing the testimony of the co-conspirator by a Motion to Suppress. There was no evidence that my client had been involved in the alleged crime at all. (In fact, my client had gone home before the attempted crime was even hatched by the brother and the accomplice.)

At the right moment I made a “Motion for Directed Verdict”. The judge agreed with me and the defendant was free.

On the surface this case did not appear to be a case that could be won but I won it. Many attorneys would have “plead the case out.”

I firmly believe that no case is un-winnable.

You Are Not Alone and You Don’t Have To Be!