User Panel
Posted: 8/15/2005 8:18:41 PM EDT
Defense attornies routinely lie during their opening remarks. Presenting false claims to the jury they know to be bullshit.
During direct and cross examination they insert more lies, usually in the form of a question starting with "Isn't it true..." or "would it be accurate to say...?" Should courts allow this type of conduct? Shouldnt the defense have the same obligation to tell the truth that the victims and witnessess do? |
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no
if they say something at the beginning that later in the case is proven to be a lie, and it can be proved they knew it was a lie, they should be fucked and not just for the defense either |
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Lawyers are not “allowed” to lie now; a lawyer can be sanctioned for knowingly putting on a defense he knows to be false.
Of course this is ignored. |
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Well, cops are allowed to lie aren't they?
Why not the lawyers? SGat1r5 |
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Cops are not allowed to lie in court. |
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I though both defence lawyers AND prosecutors were allowed to lie in their opening and closing remarks.
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That's why some claim they never ask their clients if they are guilty or not. They should be required to ask that question, and give the best legal advise possible while keeping the truth the highest priority. |
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But they lie all the time on the street, which is their workplace. A court is a lawyers workplace. No differance IMHO. Sgat1r5 |
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On the STREETS! Sgatr15 |
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As far as any cops I know, and I know a lot, they can only lie in an undercover situation (UC) like if the bad guy asks "Are you a cop?" Otherwise, no. For the uninformed, there is now the Brady Decision involving integrity (lying), and Cops. If a cops is caught lying, the department has to fire them. Period. Otherwise, they must disclose the lie(s) told to the District Attorney, or be sued big time. If you lie and miraclously keep your job, because the Chief or Sheriff likes you and/or is completely incompetent, you (the officer) will never see the inside of a courtroom. The D.A. will never file any case you ever have for the next 7 years, at least. Might as well be a jailer, or dispatcher for your remaining years and hope like hell you don't arrest anyone. FWIW |
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That's lying isn't it? Sgat1r5 |
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Yes, a necessary evil. To be sure. |
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Yes, the police are allowed to use a ruse in certain circumstances, never in court. Thast ruse will be brought up in court too and the jury has that info. They dont know the defense is lying to them though. |
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Yes, well put. |
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Oh yeah, that would of course obligate the defendant to tell the truth to the lawyer, which they would certainly do right? Defense should be allowed the latitude to probe the state's case for possible alternate senarios, and motivations. They should not be able to present evidence or tesimony they know or reasonably should know to be highly suspect (nor should the state). It is the state's burden to prove that the crime was commited by this individual and that no other explanation is reasonable. To stand up and ball-face lie should not be permitted, but the state's evidence should be able to prove that they have lied if they are meeting the burden. To just stand up and claim that others have lied should not be permitted without evidence that supports it. The state should have the same limits on it in my opinion. Jail house testimony, testimony offered in exchange for reductions should be treated as suspect untill it can be verified though seperate means. |
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So now it is just a "ruse" when a cop lies to me? Is that the official term that you call it? If a lie is used to put a person in court then a lie should be allowed to defend him. Otherwise it is a double standard that benefits the prosicution. Sgatr15 |
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In Texas the police are allowed to lie in interrogations, it's sanctioned. Lawyers may not lie and they may not put a witness on the stand who they know is lying, it's prohibited. Good defense lawyers do not need to lie to a jury. If they are they shouldn't be trying the case and should be sanctioned. It seems as though you have a case of the redass from some bad experience. bd |
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Oh, by the way, jury argument is not evidence. If you sat through the entire trial, you'd hear the judge say that repeatedly. bd |
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The prosecution routinely lies, why shouldnt the defense be able to?
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A defense attorneys duty is NOT to create alibis for his client, it is to force the State to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt using sound evidence to meet the charges, and to ensure the rule of law regarding their clients' rights. No more. No less.
All attorneys are supposed to be officers of the court first and foremost. ie, their primary goal is to preserve justice and the rule of law. They are NOT supposed to have the "hired gun" mentality so common in the US and Canada these days. You can know your client is guilty. It's kind of hard not to most of the time. This idea that the attorney shouldn't ask is a joke created to allow them to break the law themselves without feeling like they have disregarded their duty. |
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Lawyers dont LIE, they just don't tell the whole truth! HE
What lawyers just usually do is suppress facts that can be detrimental to their clients case. If these facts do not come out or are not challenged, then TECHNICALLY speaking they have not lied about it. I know, I know .... "tomayto" - "tomato", "potayto" - "potato" (refering to different pronounciations, but same meaning)..... Little white lies .... half truths = a lie .... But UNFORTUNATELY that's how things are. |
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The reason they do not ask their clients if they are guilty or not is (1) so he can remain objective while defending the case, and (2) so he has plausible deniability when SHTF and he is asked why he did not disclose a fact ... he can honestly say, he did not know and therefore did not lie. |
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wow, the misconception and misunderstanding of criminal procedure is stupefying.
Witnesses lie all the time in court...defendants, police officers, you name it. The attorneys are the only ones who don't offer testimony...you know, evidence... the stuff that is used by the fact finder to determine guilt. |
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Even when they know those scenarios are fantasy? |
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you know as well as i do that many of the questions asked by the defense are simply statements asked in the form of a question that the defense wants the jury to consider later. "Isnt it true that my client did..." "Isnt it true that you did..." Even when its clearly not true. Even when there is video tape showing otherwise. The defense simply wants to get those lies out there to cloud the juries memory of the testimony and video evidence. |
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Call a spade a spade. It doesn't make it less of a lie by calling it a ruse. Roy |
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I just finished a DWI trial. I was called to the stand 7 times and I wasn't even the primary officer.
We had the guy cold. 3 times the legal limit, destroyed 110 feet of guardrail and his Tahoe, admitted ON TAPE to drinking 24 beers in a 6 hour period, and was found by the responding officer trying to start a vehicle that the engine had been torn out of. The defense attorney was obviously of the "baffle them with bullshit" law school. Turning the map of the accident scene upside down "because it looks better that way", calling witnesses by OTHER witness names, stating the defendant was not driving, (when there was no one else in the car and the driver stated on tape he was alone.) Even accused the intoxilyzer operator of falsifying results because the defendant "rejected her advances". His closing arguments were amazing to hear. It sounded like he mixed three different cases together. Even stated his client was riding a motorcycle at one point. FOUR DAYS of this nonsense, and the jury was so confused they practically fell out of the jury box. All that, and some twit female refused to convict because "she didn't believe DWI was a crime deserving of a conviction." |
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Well, you ARE in Austin... |
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Nobody is "allowed" to lie in court. Does that mean everyone tells the truth? Of course not. Not even cops.
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With cops it is so common that it has developed its own term -- see the search for "testilying" above. I heard the term several years ago at a conference of Chiefs of Police. Every one of them knew what it was. No explanations necessary. |
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She was a transplant from Michigan. |
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All a witness has to say is 'no' The defense will lose credibility and the jury/judge will have all the evidence they need to reject the defense theory of the case. *shrug* Seems straightforward enough to me. I can't imagine why an attorney would ask a question like that when they know a witness will reject the proposition suggested by the question unless they are prepared to impeach the witness. If the witness is impeached, then the truth of the matter is anything but clear and is legitimately challenged. It sounds like your real beef is with the jury's simplemindedness. If the jury can't sort out defense cross examination from acres of testimony and videotape, the prosecution really loused up the voire dire. |
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I've sat on 2 juries in my life...both times we were instructed to not consider opening and closing statements during deliberations.
Granted, it's hard to do...but those statements are NOT evidence. When push came to shove, I can honestly say that both juries I was a part of were able to seperate the facts from the fiction. YMMV |
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Do prosecuting or plaintiff's attorneys ever lie? Yes they do. They should also be under oath.
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Not just "No", but "FUCK NO!"
Any lawyer who is found to be lying in court should immediately be taken out back and shot. I despise lawyers because theirs is the only business where you are PAID to lie and EXPECTED to do so. And please spare me the ethics bullshit. Ethics in a lawyer is about as prevalent as air on the moon. I should perhaps mention that the lawyers I despise are personal injury, defense, and those types. Lawyers who assist people with real estate, trusts, etc., as well as prosecuters, are mostly exempt. |
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Dennis Miller on lawyers:
(right click - save as) flymeaway.net/audio/dennis%20miller%20-%20lawyers.mp3 4.2MB mp3 file |
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LOL. Everyone lies in court, the defense lawyers, the prosecutors, cops, witnesses, to think any different is rediculous.
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A minor clarification, then I'll speak on the topic.
Attorneys provide no testimony during trial, in Ca, there's a jury instruction telling the jurors that, so nothing an attorney says is evidence or subject to the oath. That said, it is against the cannons of judicial ethics to knowingly present false testimnony/evidence through a witness. It is against the law to knowingly let a witness testify falsely. Only scum make up facts to win their side of a case. I say this as an attorney. |
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Plus if you do say something obviously false in an opening and do not prove it, that jury will certainly remember it. Saying "The defendant will show that he did not resist arrest, rather AR15fan attacked him without provocation because AR15fan was in love with the defendant's wife and had been sending her flowers at work" certainly will get the jury's attention, but if you don't prove any of that horseshit they are going to tend to not believe much of the rest of your case, whether that's legally right or not.
I think you need to be very careful to not say anything in your opening that you are not sure you are going to be able to establish. |
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Trust and real estate attorneys are the ones that usually run off with their client's escrow money I don't think prosecutors are any more, or less, honest than any other attorney. To a certain extent they are under more pressure. If I get skunked several times in a row in court MAYBE some people will notice and it will hurt business, but in the end I'm self employed. If a district attorney loses case after case, whether they were innocent people, or tough to prove cases, the Chief ADA, or whoever supervises them, will remember. I've had ADAs call me up distraught the day before a case because a victim admitted that they lied about what happened, but I also know of ADAs who would tell a witness who admitted they made something up that if they did not testify in accordance with their previous statement they will be prosecuted, jailed, and their children put in foster homes. |
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[doc holliday] Oh, Zaphod. Are we cross? I couldn't live with myself if I thought were were cross[/doc] Seriously, man, although the scum in my profession are high profile, we're not all like that. |
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What do you do for a living? |
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I got a "not guilty" in a murder trial last week where the deceased was decapitated.
Foung guilty of manslaughter only, got 10 years. Didn't lie to the jury once. The prosecutor did enough for both sides. |
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