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Sunday, December 26, 2010

The Unpopular Person in the Room

A good defense attorney will often be, second to the accused, the most unpopular person in a courtroom. A good defense attorney has to be comfortable with that. I had a conversation with a judge in chambers when I was a new prosecutor at the District Attorneys office. The Judge said "The best job you can have as a new attorney is a prosecutor. You are the person waiving the white flag." This judge was a former defense attorney.

Last week in California, a man was sentenced to 51 years to life for killing 3 people and causing life threatening injuries to another when he slammed into their car while driving with a blood alcohol level of almost triple the legal limit. Even worse, this man was on probation for DWI and was driving on a revoked license because of the DWI. It is a terrible case. One of the victims was a promising baseball pitcher who had finished pitching a came for the Anaheim Angles baseball team. The other victims had promising futures. The one person that survived will live with his injuries the rest of his life.

I have been following this case because I am familiar with some of the attorneys involved in the case. The press has covered this case in depth. The testimony at the sentencing hearing from the victims family was gut wrenching. However, only the Simple Justice blog highlighted what the defense attorney said at the hearing.

Click here to read the post and the attorney's remarks. For anyone who wonders what a defense attorney could possibly say about a case like this, what a defense attorney could say about their client who committed this offense,  read the post. Like I said, a  good defense attorney will often be one of the most unpopular persons in the courtroom. I cannot say it any better than Simple Justice- In the face of a courtroom filled with nothing but agony, the attorney stood firm.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very interesting. I came by your site quite by accident. I am bookmarking your page for future reference and, god forbid, I need an attorney in your chosen field.

The fact that you linked attorney Jacqueline Goodman's remarks speaks volumes for you.

January 11, 2011 at 11:35 PM  
Blogger Carilyn Ibsen said...

Thank you for your comment. I appreciate you reading the blog entry.

January 12, 2011 at 8:45 PM  
Anonymous Robert Smith said...

Great write-up, thanks for sharing this information with us.

March 6, 2013 at 8:13 AM  

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