First off, I just want to say that after re-reading my last post I was struck by a really freaky thing. The crazy resemblance between accused killer James Schanrock and actor Billy Zane:
Right?! Right?! Anyone else with me on this one?!?!Now, getting a bit more serious...
I was given the gift of a topic for my next post when Magmann posted the following in the comments to my last post on accused killer, James Schanrock:
Magmann said...
Well, Magmann, you don't do this job for 14 years without seeing cases dismissed because of technicalities. I will answer your question with more than a simple Yes or No because it deserves more than that...much more. I will also answer your question as a PDI. I'm not an attorney (I don't think I have the stamina to be one). I'll answer your question like I'd want it answered. Simple language because I'm a simple dude. (Note: If an attorney wants to give us some legal insight into these technicalities or even some examples...please post them in the comments or email them to me and I'll post them for you!)
First, lets look at what a technicality can do:
A technicality can lose a football game.
A technicality can blow up a space shuttle 2 1/2 minutes from lift-off.
A technicality can kill you with the wrong medication at the pharmacy.
A technicality can cause your car to go careening over a cliff because some asshole didn't tighten the lug nuts at Jiffy Tire.
A technicality can impeach a President. IS oral sex considered SEX?
And yes, a technicality can send an innocent person to prison for life...or death.
So you ask me if I would feel successful knowing that a client got off on a technicality.
The answer is...yes, I would.
I would feel more successful with a full acquittal at trial. I would feel more successful if in the course of my investigation I discovered the identity of the real killer and all charges were dismissed against my client.
Lets call a technicality what it is...a fuck-up. We ALL avoid fuck-ups at all costs. Our job as Public Defenders is to defend the rights of the accused...simple as that. Sometimes it means pointing out the many technicalities that were committed by law enforcement in the course of the prosecution's investigation. Sometimes the technicalities deserve a slap on the wrist to the prosecutor or detective and sometime the technicalities are so egregious that the only sensible answer is to dismiss a case because it has been so fucked up by technicalities that there is no way to prosecute the case cleanly.
What Joe or Mary Public doesn't understand is that on the RARE occasions that major criminal cases are dismissed in criminal court, its not usually because someone misspelled a name in a warrant or someone forgot to fill out a proof of service on a subpoena to a witness that decided not to come to court. It usually takes more...a hell of a lot more.
I've seen cases where the case against the client was dismissed because of a technicality like....police misconduct and sloppiness. This misconduct/sloppiness tainted the case so badly that the District Attorney was put into a position that they couldn't take the case to a jury and get the result they wanted...a conviction.
Law enforcement needs to be held to an extremely high standard because their fuck-ups have have habit of unleashing devastating effects on the lives of the victims AND the accused. We must point out/highlight the mistakes and technicalities of the prosecution, this has a habit of making them adhere to their own rules a little bit more. It insures that they follow the law that is written...to protect them and us, the citizens.
I have absolutely no hard feelings against a police agency/DA that conducted a completely thorough and legal investigation of a client that is later convicted and sent to prison for life. Thats THEIR JOB! If for some reason their case is full of technicalities then its our job to point them out and ask...Why? Why should we take this case full of mistakes and send a man/woman to prison on evidence that was obtained illegally or incorrectly?
I'm going to lose the most sleep (and quite possibly hair) over the idea that someone innocent of having committed a crime has been sent to prison.
Oh, and for the record, I don't care who did the raping or killing. If it happened to my family, of course it would be devastating. Such a silly question.
First, lets look at what a technicality can do:
A technicality can lose a football game.
A technicality can blow up a space shuttle 2 1/2 minutes from lift-off.
A technicality can kill you with the wrong medication at the pharmacy.
A technicality can cause your car to go careening over a cliff because some asshole didn't tighten the lug nuts at Jiffy Tire.
A technicality can impeach a President. IS oral sex considered SEX?
And yes, a technicality can send an innocent person to prison for life...or death.
So you ask me if I would feel successful knowing that a client got off on a technicality.
The answer is...yes, I would.
I would feel more successful with a full acquittal at trial. I would feel more successful if in the course of my investigation I discovered the identity of the real killer and all charges were dismissed against my client.
Lets call a technicality what it is...a fuck-up. We ALL avoid fuck-ups at all costs. Our job as Public Defenders is to defend the rights of the accused...simple as that. Sometimes it means pointing out the many technicalities that were committed by law enforcement in the course of the prosecution's investigation. Sometimes the technicalities deserve a slap on the wrist to the prosecutor or detective and sometime the technicalities are so egregious that the only sensible answer is to dismiss a case because it has been so fucked up by technicalities that there is no way to prosecute the case cleanly.
What Joe or Mary Public doesn't understand is that on the RARE occasions that major criminal cases are dismissed in criminal court, its not usually because someone misspelled a name in a warrant or someone forgot to fill out a proof of service on a subpoena to a witness that decided not to come to court. It usually takes more...a hell of a lot more.
I've seen cases where the case against the client was dismissed because of a technicality like....police misconduct and sloppiness. This misconduct/sloppiness tainted the case so badly that the District Attorney was put into a position that they couldn't take the case to a jury and get the result they wanted...a conviction.
Law enforcement needs to be held to an extremely high standard because their fuck-ups have have habit of unleashing devastating effects on the lives of the victims AND the accused. We must point out/highlight the mistakes and technicalities of the prosecution, this has a habit of making them adhere to their own rules a little bit more. It insures that they follow the law that is written...to protect them and us, the citizens.
I have absolutely no hard feelings against a police agency/DA that conducted a completely thorough and legal investigation of a client that is later convicted and sent to prison for life. Thats THEIR JOB! If for some reason their case is full of technicalities then its our job to point them out and ask...Why? Why should we take this case full of mistakes and send a man/woman to prison on evidence that was obtained illegally or incorrectly?
I'm going to lose the most sleep (and quite possibly hair) over the idea that someone innocent of having committed a crime has been sent to prison.
Oh, and for the record, I don't care who did the raping or killing. If it happened to my family, of course it would be devastating. Such a silly question.
So, if this was your client, and you got him off for some techinical error and he walked out the door. Would you feel successful? Knowing that he had killed? And a week later he killed or raped your wife,sister or mother. Still feel successful? Don't get me wrong, if was proved beyond a reasonable he was innocent by a jury of his peers....then so be it, but that is not what I asked.