Nancy Grace, Meet Shawn Matlock

I haven’t posted for a while, and I feel a wee bit guilty about that. Its been a busy fall, and the next 2 weeks are the culmination of all of that. Hopefully, after my scheduled trial next week I can get back on a regular blogging schedule. That said, I could not help but pass along to you all my friend Shawn Matlock’s take on Nancy Grace, Scourge of the Airwaves. Unlike Shawn, I do watch television, and even some court shows. Nancy Grace never fails to appall me, as when she pronounced the Duke Three Guilty within days of their indictments. So we know she got that one right. In any event, I can’t improve on what Shawn’s said, so here is his post in full:

We Don’t Need No Stinking Technicalities

Mark Bennett of Defending People has just published a great post in which he pretty well takes apart a reecent ABA poll that reported an overwhelming majority as believing that lawyers spend too much time trying to get criminals off on technicalities.I highly recommend that you read Mark’s post – and remember, one man’s technicality is another’s liberty. Even Rush Limbaugh thought so when his ox was being gored.

Should You Take a Polygraph?

Jamie Spencer, publisher of the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer blog, had a very interesting post today in which he addressed the question of whether an accused should agree to take a polygraph examination. Jamie’s bottom line, I think, with which I agree, is: never agree to take a police polygraph without first consulting a defense lawyer and taking a private polygraph administered by a technician hired by your lawyer. Indeed, I would HIGHLY recommend that you follow what in my opinion is the first cardinal rule: do not ever even talk to investigators without having conferred with counsel.

Prosecutors Experience “Blowback” from Botched Duke Lacrosse Case

The National Law Journal this week reported that prosecutors across the nation report that they are beginning to experience the adverse consequences of Mike Nifong’s baseless jihad against three Duke lacrosse players. The prosecutors claim that defense attorney’s are increasingly making the argument that the Duke lacrosse prosecution is proof that defendants are often wrongfully charged and prosecuted. Preumably the argument is meeting with some success, or the prosecutors wouldn’t be whining about it. The fact is that what happened to the Duke students happens more frequently than any of us would prefer to believe or admit. Its about time that the prosecutors began to reap the whirlwind from the abusive tactics that they so often employ.

How the Innocent End Up in Prison

From Jamie Spencer’s Austin Criminal Defense Blog:

My wife is a fan of what I call “Forensic Files, etc.” – meaning all of those true crime TV shows that have popped up over the last 5 to 10 years or so. (Despite being a criminal defense lawyer, I can barely stand to watch those shows myself.)

I walked by the living room as she was watching the end of last night’s Dateline NBC “Scenes from a Murder” episode about an ultimately still unsolved investigation of a young woman’s death.

I’ll quote the part that caught my ear later in the post, but for starters, here’s my wife’s recap of the events.

Young woman found dead. Years of investigation with multiple investigators lead to suspects including: the fraternity boyfriend, the neighbor (eventually incarcerated for a different violent crime), and even the brother, father and mother are accused of complicity at one point, albeit by a disgruntled out of town police officer who became upset when he was no longer being considered for an acting/directing role in a possible movie.

Bottom line: unsolved violent crime. Unlikely to ever be solved.

Now here’s what caught my attention. As Keith Morrison, the narrator, is wrapping up, he says:

As for [the Sheriff], he says he’s determined still that someone will be charged with the murder of Jennifer Morgan.

That someone be charged. Not that the killer is finally found. That “someone be charged”.

And now to innocents in prison.

The feeling that someone must pay, especially for gruesome and violent crimes, is so strong, that it often leads police, D.A.’s, and juries to feel compelled to “solve” a murder with a ‘Guilty’ verdict.

After all, we know someone did it, right? If no one is convicted, justice has not been served.

How many murder investigations have actually lead to indictments by prosecutors of “the only person we know who to charge”? Or indictments of “the spouse because they are the best suspect”?

Follow that up with a trial where the jury is given no other option as to who will ever go to prison for this crime…and you end up with defendants convicted on extremely shaky evidence.

I share Jamie’s concern. The notion that we’ve got to get somone for this all too often leads to a lack of critical judgment in the process, especially in cold cases. We see that even more in cases that have become politically correct, as I noted in connecgtion with the recent Alabama indictment. I do not presume to have a solution, but so long as the problem persists, I will labor to help solve it.

Source: Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer