Defense Attorneys, Occupy Wall Street and Growing Up

Sometimes defense attorneys act like prosecutors are the devil.  As if we have no heart and live to torture and punish defendants.  And it's true when I get a long sentence you might see me widely grinning and celebrating with a margarita with my fellow DAs.  But it's not because I enjoy inflicting pain on others.

I AM A GROWN UP.

In some ways, defense attorneys remind me of the occupy wall street losers-oops-I-mean-protesters.  Spoiled children who like to claim the moral high ground when all they do is parrot some liberal bull, act entitled, and ignore reality.

One of the things we learn as children (if we have good parents) is that bad choices have consequences.  And no matter how hard you stomp your 5 year old foot and cry and make sad eyes at your daddy, if you talked back and got yourself grounded, you're not going to Johnnie's birthday party.  Period.

Defense attorneys are all about avoiding consequences.  But I believe if you never have to be accountable for your actions - if you never have to suffer for what you did - you end up in this Peter Pan world where you think everyone else should take care of you and do all the adult work while you play the day away (and camp out in tents because you're playing at protesting rather than being a real contributor to society).

I celebrate sending bad guys to jail.  Because they're bad guys.  And they need to be in jail.  So we're all safer and they can pay for the choices they made.  And I frankly don't care if they grew up poor and can't read and their mommies didn't hug them enough and girls wouldn't go to prom with them.  Because when you're an adult it's time to stop blaming everyone else for where you find yourself.  Make your choices and live with the results.

And if you break the law and I get your case - go to jail.  Go directly to jail.  Do not whine.  Man up (or woman up) and face the fact that you - and only you - are responsible for where you are.

Yes, I had a whiny defendant day...

My Defendant Ran Away...

in the middle of trial this week.  After a long, contentious morning (in which the public defender made such meaningful motions as a motion to disallow the prosecutor and/or her advisory witness from opening the door for jurors), we got through opening statements before lunch.  It was not going well for the Defendant or his lawyer.  She (the lawyer) was denied a continuance and almost cried in the courtroom.  Then she opened the door to let me bring in all prior instances of the Defendant's violent conduct.

I called my first witness, the Defendant's grandmother.  She was very feeble and frail and looked like she might die on the stand.  The Defendant got very agitated and his lawyer asked the judge to let him take a minute in the hallway to collect himself.  The judge gave him 2 minutes.

And then we sat.  Old lady on the stand dozing off from time to time, jury getting bored, judge getting irritated.  And the Defendant and his lawyer MIA.  The phone rings and the judicial assistant answers and I hear her say "well I guess you should probably chase him down."

Yep, the Defendant ran.  Out of the courthouse and down the street.  I heard the defense lawyer kicked off her heels and chased after him in her bare feet but unfortunately I didn't get to see it.  Judge sends the jury out so we can figure out what to do.  We argue over whether to declare a mistrial (which the judge eventually does).  And throughout it, my lung cancer witness is moaning and falling asleep in the witness stand.

I have one big problem with the decision to declare a mistrial - it rewarded the Defendant for his bad behavior and sends the message that if things aren't going well for you, just freak out, put on a show, and run away and you'll get a mistrial.  He wasted the time of the court, the jury, the witnesses, and me.  And ultimately his little tantrum got him a delay.  But at least it was somewhat entertaining.