Discussion for article #226566
From what I have heard of this defense they have got NOTHING. All they do is try and muddy the waters. Since none of their mud seems to be sticking they try and change tactics.
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And people say Bobby and Mo had marriage problems before…you know Guvnah Vaginal Probe approved this move.
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Shouldn’t this give her pretty decent grounds on which to ask for an appeal should she be convicted? It seems their attorneys are pretty much blaming her for everything and making her out to be a spoiled rotten, power hungry, Imelda Marcos type.
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That would be “forced error.” Not grounds for an appeal. The defense can’t eff things up on purpose and then ask for a new trial.
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Criminal law attorneys call this “cutthroat”. It’s really the worst variation on the Prisoner’s Dilemma (see google). The 2 can choose to cooperate on a common defense, but that only happens IF both agree there’s a non-trivial chance that it’ll work. Example 1: if there’s reason to think that the 2 joining forces to argue no crime at all was committed might work. Example 2: if there’s room in the evidence to argue there’s reasonable doubt as to whether EITHER person charged committed the crime, as maybe some third party did it. Problems here: 1. there’s no doubt, or at least both sets of defending attorneys believe there’s no doubt, a crime was committed, and 2. there’s no third party to point to (The kids? Political enemies? Not on this evidence.)
There’s a line of judicial authority called “conflicting defenses” that, in some cases, allows room to argue that the two persons ought to be tried separately. But there’s no such conflicting defense situation here: instead, the governor’s team is pointing to the wife, and the wife’s team is pointing to the governor. So, it’s like putting a spider and bee in a glass jar, or tying together two rodents: there’s nowhere else to go, no one else to attack, but the other person. And things get very very bloody, and very often - criminal attorneys will tell ALMOST ALWAYS - both lose.
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Tea-Freakin’Hee
VaginalProbe McD going down with the shit–
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This could put Vaginal Bob in the Republican lead for 2016!
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Nice! Way to (try to) throw your wife under the bus, gov. vaginal probe!
Yes, grounds but the trial technique decisions were made before trial, by the couple. Fencing with an astute federal judge is very different than state courts. From this point I doubt they will have anything procedural to appeal, unless the instructions to the jury are flawed. Having high price lawyers run rough shod over the judge rarely works in federal court.
Thank you for your excellent analysis.