THE FACTS:
DA’s only witness – the victim of the alleged assault – happened to be in prison far away in Florida.
My guy with his previous criminal history (“history” sounds so important but WINSTON CHURCHILL he ain’t) was looking at substantial prison time if he were convicted. When the trial came up – well, lo & behold the victim was still safe asleep in his Florida cell and the DA had done nothing to get him. It would have involved lots of paper WORK and who wants to do that?
So the DA did what DA’s do; dismissed the case and then immediately refiled. The clock on “speedy trial” would start running all over again giving the DA time to get his witness from that Florida prison.
I got mad and stood up in the courtroom complaining about the DA acting in an unethical way by refiling the case knowing he wasn’t going to lift a finger (“fill out all that paperwork? not very likely”) to get his witness.
THE DENOUEMENT
When the trial date comes round again – two months later – there’s the guy from Florida State Prison sitting in court. As soon as my guy sees him he takes the DEAL they’d been offering him, getting him back to State Prison (he doesn’t get a trip to Florida) and so there goes another case that hits the skids.
THE LIFE LESSON
The DA makes a point of telling me that if I hadn’t have made such a big production calling him a low life scumbag DA (or words to that effect) he may very well have never gone to all the trouble he did.
QUESTIONS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION:
1. Do you think knowing all you know about Murray he’ll make the same mistake again.
2. If you were the Defense Lawyer what would you do?
3. Do you believe the DA about only doing all that paper work cause Murray pissed him off?
4. Was the DA just saying that to get under Murray’s skin?
My guy is charged with a number of violent crimes all of them carrying long long prison terms like LWOP (criminal lawyers I’ve noticed like referring to this as “EL-WOP”) – ”life without parole” – which is the creme de la creme when you are looking to do crimes that might get you imprisoned for a long time.
Can’t do any better than this which is a lot more impressive than simple “LIFE” which starts at 15 to life and then proceeds up to infinity to LIFE. Pussy sentence. I could do that standing on my head.
The only thing trumping LWOP is DEATH. Can’t do any better than that. But still… So when I tell my young client that his little binge made him eligible for LWOP on a few of the counts he starts crying.
Forgetting about what he actually did and whether or not he actually did it - just on the level of it hitting him what the consequences of what his accused escapade was likely to be – I kind of felt a moment – I wanted to comfort him – but I couldn’t think of anything to say – “it’s not so bad” – “we can beat this” – “i feel your pain”. Couldn’t come up with anything. So I didn’t say anything. Just sat and watched him until he had suffficiently recovered to carry on the conversation.
And then he says to me – and I still can’t believe it but i wrote it down as he said it so that i would know even to myself that I’m not making up this shit. “The cops took my NINTENDO. Can you get it back for me?”
Half the time i’m fighting with my guys because i want him to take the deal. “You’re going to lose if you go to trial. Take the deal, it’s alot better than the judge will give you after the jury convicts you.” Then he’s upset because “you’re my lawyer and you don’t believe me!”
And the other half it’s like hang on, what’s your hurry to take the deal? You’ve got a great case. They’ll never be able to convict. But he doesn’t believe me.
We’re in the judge’s chambers in the middle of a trial. We’ve gone back there to argue about 
an objection the DA is making to something I was asking his witness. I don’t understand the point the prosecutor is making. Don’t think the judge does either because he repeats everything the DA is saying like it’s a puzzle and he keeps adding pieces to the puzzle. This was supposed to take a minute – the jury is waiting in the courtroom – but its stretching out to twenty minutes.
My mind is wandering. I don’t care what the ruling is just please let’s get out of here the standing up while the thing is being discussed to death is killing me. I can’t take the standing – my hips ache. The judge doesn’t care. He’s sitting on a little stool in between me and the DA like a midget referee.
I’ve totally tuned out. Should I take my dog for a walk when I get home or should I work out? It’s been awhile since I worked out but Louie my dog hasn’t been on a walk forever. The walk can be a work out couldn’t it? Boy, this chambers is like a man’s den you’d see on Father Knows Best, lots of leather. I’m sure it’s “decorated”. Did he do it? Nah his wife must have decorated. I wouldn’t mind having an office like this…
The judge is talking like he’s winding up. He does. He gets up from his stool. Shit I missed it. What did he say?
“Oh” I say “can you repeat your ruling your honor?” He stands up and puts his face right up to my face our noses almost touching. I can feel him breathing. He holds my arms in his hands so I can’t move. What’s he going to do? Beat me up? Put a knife in my gut? This judge is crazy he could do anything.
In a loud voice he carefully enunciates – “I want you to listen carefully to my rulings do you understand me?” “Yes your honor.” I follow him out of chambers into the courtroom like a chastened schoolboy.
He scared the hell out of me.
