John Grisham''s newest book (Doubleday 2015) Rogue Lawyer about Sebastian Rudd's cases and clients. Very exciting read. Along the way he makes observations about the legal system which he uses to justify his stepping over the lines to counter the extra legal activities of the police and prosecutors. He no longer maintains a real office in a building. Instead his office is an armor plated vehicle with a desk. He is accompanied by his body guard Partner. That's his name, Partner. As an investor in a UFC Fighter he defends him when the fighter is prosecuted for homicide. The police chief kidnaps his son. It is a wild ride and his mobile office gets destroyed during the book.
His observation about prosecutors is "Virtually all prosecutors have the same genetic flaw; they cannot admit the obvious once it's on the table. They cling to their theories. They know they are right because they've been convinced of it for months, even years. 'I believe in my case' is one of their favorite lines, and they'll repeat it mindlessly as the real killer walks forward with blood on his hands and says, 'I did it.'"
Quoting the one honest cop in the department, Spurio [honest policeman] says, "These guys are outta control, Rudd [the rogue lawyer]. You gotta stop them."
He responds, "No way, Nate. I can't stop them. Maybe I can embarrass them from time to time, cost the city some money, but what they're doing here is happening everywhere. We live in a police state and everybody supports the cops."
The prosecutor in one case "is not a bad guy and does not want to be where he is now sitting. His problem is simple and obvious--an eager-beaver cop got wounded in a botched raid, and the law, in black and white, says the guy who shot him is guilty. It's a bad law written by clueless people, and now [prosecutor] Finney is compelled to enforce it. He cannot simply drop the charges. The police union is breathing down his neck.
[. . .]
Max Mancini, chief prosecutor is "crafty in the courtroom and boasts of a 99 percent conviction rate, same as every other prosecutor in America. Because he's the boss, he gets to manipulate the numbers, so he has real proof that his 99 percent is legitimate.
Describing the herd mentality, the police have the killer. To relieve the enormous pressure on them, and to begin the process of poisoning public opinion, and to establish the presumption of guilt, they are manipulating the press, as always. A leak here and there and cameras show up to capture the face that everyone has been desperate to see. The "journalists" chase their tails, and [suspect] Arch Swanger is as good as convicted.
Why bother with a trial?
If the cops can't convict with evidence, they use the media to convict with suspicion.
Regarding experts he says, the truth can be expensive, especially when it comes from expert witnesses. Our system is chock-full of "experts" who do little in the way of teaching, researching, or writing. Instead, they roam the country as hired guns testifying for fat fees. Pick an issue, a set of facts, a mysterious cause, and unexplained result, anything really, you can find a truckload of PhDs willing to testify with all sorts of wild theories. They advertise. They solicit. They chase cases. They hang around conventions where lawyers gather to drink and compare notes. They brag about "their verdicts."
Their losses are rarely mentioned.
They are occasionally discredited by nasty cross-examinations, in open court, but they stay in business because they are so often effective. In a criminal trial, an expert has to convince only one juror to hang things up and cause a mistrial. Hang it again on the retrial, and the State will usually throw in the towel.
He's a retired psychiatrist who never liked to teach or listen to patients. Legal insanity has always fascinated him--the crime of passion, the irresistible impulse, the moment when the mind is so filled with emotion and hate that it commands the body to act violently and in a way never contemplated. He prefers to do all the talking. It's his way of convincing me how brilliant he is. I listen to his bull**** as I try to analyze how a jury will react to him. He's likable, intense, smart, and a good conversationalist.
He spends two hours evaluating [the defendant, client], and surprise, surprise, he is now certain the kid blacked out, went crazy, and does not remember pummeling the referee.
On criminals who threaten him, "They are the traffickers, some extremely nasty guys. A gang, a ring, a cartel, a disciplined band of criminals, most with ties to eastern Europe, but some local guys as well. They abuse the girls, keep them terrified and confused and hooked on heroin. Most people in this country don't believe there's sex trafficking in their cities, but it's there. It's everywhere. They, the traffickers, prey on runaways, homeless kids, girls from bad families looking for escape. It's a sick business, [. . .] really sick.
No comments:
Post a Comment