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Old 11-29-2008   #35
jmm99
Council Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Upper Michigan
Posts: 3,583
Default Yup,

Quote:
.... the guy was handcuffed when he was shot.
that is a definite problem.

Which is why in the thread on the case I suggested the "Anatomy of a Murder" defense.

That was a real case, tried in Marquette MI by an older lawyer I knew, Johnny Voelker, whose story is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Traver

Anatomy's "bio" is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Murder

The real trial is summarized here (last 2 pp. of 10):

http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.c...ch/anatomy.pdf

Now, for the bottom line - closing comment by one of the jurors (end p. 10):

Quote:
“I was thankful that the trial was over. I felt that the lieutenant was justified in what he did. I was a soldier and a soldier is trained to defend and that’s what the lieutenant did—defend his wife. I don’t think he was temporarily insane. I felt he had a right to do what he did. Why should he suffer the rest of his life to let a man do that to his wife?”
That is what I mean by "jury nullification" - you argue a legal theory as the direct defense, but the real object is to convince the jury of the indirect defense that you can't argue directly.
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JMM

When I quit learning, I'll be dead.

Crabtree's Bludgeon (updated) - No set of mutually inconsistent observations can exist for which some human intellect cannot conceive a coherent explanation, however complicated and implausible - credits: R.V. Jones & Hayden Peake.
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