While it’s critical to recognize the pain caused the defendants by error and abuse of the criminal justice system, let us not forget that defendants aren’t the only ones who are treated with utter indifference.
Note that she has not only sought help from the Florida State Attorney, but from all those media outlets who purport to be “on the side of the little person.” She was rejected by all, including the glamorous Nancy Grace, pseudo-victim extraordinaire.
Some days, I get the feeling that there’s very little that our government does very well, and perhaps not well enough to justify its existence. As has been said often enough here and elsewhere, criminal defense lawyers defend the criminal. We do not defend crime. And we most assuredly so not defend callousness on the part of government.
H/T He who never has anything nice to say about me.
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Did your law professors not tell you that stories are like pancakes because they have two sides? This girl had a consensual sexual relationship with the man she is complaining about. If what she alleges is true, it’s horrible, but are you buying it? If I were the defendant’s attorney, I’d make sure during voir dire to ask if anyone on the panel saw this video, and put the first twelve who did in the box.
I neither buy it or not. To ask that question is to miss the point entirely, which is sad.
What is the point?
That a DA determining that they can’t prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore decide not to indict is the same as treating a complainant “with utter indifference”?
That the government is being callous because they don’t automatically arrest the victim potential defendant in this case?
Buying or not buying this girl’s story may not have been the point of your post, but unfortunately it’s impossible to judge the government’s conduct (i.e. ‘not helping her’ as she says in the video) without knowing the truth or lack thereof in her accusations.
Or even just the strength of the DA’s case – you know even if her story is true that if she changed it several times, or didn’t originally admit to the initial consensual part of the relationship that it was a shit case for the State.
I’d own up to missing your point too, but I don’t wanna make you sad…
The point is simple: no side owns the pain and grief.
Ah. I see, said the blind man. (And yes, I really did miss the point.)
More seriously though, I think the point would have been better made with an example of someone who doesn’t seem like a lying conniving faker. After, all, going back to missing the point, there’s no pain here if she’s making this up. Unless you mean the pain of being a sociopathic spoiled brat who’s mad now that she didn’t get her way. (I don’t know the truth here either; that’s why I used the word “seem”.)
I do like Michael’s take on the trial strategy: play the video as many times as possible. And yes, I know there’s no trial.
But she just oozes “I’m out to get you”.
I think I have the reverse of that disease you and Bennett were talking about prosecutors having. The one where they automatically know everything because they just took 45 seconds out of their busy lives to skim the offense report – and now they know what your client deserves.
Except, of course, mine is the defense lawyer reverse of that. And in this ‘case’ – by which I mean the approximately one and a half times I watched about 50% of the video – I can’t get it out of my mind that she is LYING.
So what point did I miss by saying that a teenager’s video isn’t credible?
Jamie, you’re kidding. It took you HALF the video to see through her?
Scott is taking more than the allotted 30 seconds to reply. So let me quote him:
SHG wrote: The point is simple: no side owns the pain and grief.
Thanks for standing in for me here. It was past my bedtime.
My response to Jamie is the shorthand, since it was late (for me) and I wasn sleepy. But you raise an important issue, and I want to give you a decent response.
Criminal defense lawyers need to be very careful not to become the mirror image of callous prosecutors. Just as they see a lying perp under every rock, defense lawyers may see a lying “victim”. Step back from you job, and look at it like a human being. People feel pain on both sides of the equation, even if their view of events doesn’t amount to a crime or is otherwise mistaken. They are still human. They still feel the agony of their situation.
Don’t lose your humanity in the process. I believe this girl feels pain. And if not, then this video serves as a reminder that other victims feel pain. Don’t ever forget this. You see this video as a scam. Have you become as omniscient as kid prosecutors believe they are? They know all, can tell truth from fiction at a glance, and are absolutely certain in their sheer speculation. Is this you as well? It isn’t me. I lack the ability to see into other people’s hearts and minds, particularly when their is nothing to base a rational decision on.
I also believe that her pain could be assuaged had the prosecutors carefully explained why they could not pursue the case, and providing her with the victim resources available.
Your immediate resort to arguing a defense theory against this young woman shows a blindness to the greater reality. Do you so hate victims that you have no room in your heart to feel empathy? That’s what makes your reaction sad. Don’t hate victims. Don’t forget that they feel pain too. Don’t become the mirror image of a bad prosecutor. The temptation is there. Fight it.
Criminal defense lawyers are nothing like the mirror image of prosecutors and shouldn’t be. The constitutional provisions regarding criminal law limit prosecutors and liberate criminal defense lawyers. Criminal defendants have much less obligation to the state or the people than prosecutors.
Most of my docket now is family law. I have plenty of experience finding and dealing with pain from people, many of whom are lying. Sorry, I usually can’t afford to look at my job like a human being; I have to look at it like a lawyer. The other side of the pancake in this video is that the girl had a consensual sexual relationship with the man she’s complaining about. You can go to CNN, among others, to find a pancake turner.
I can’t say my reaction to this victim has no hate (I loathe liars) as much as dishonesty.
I see you would rather slug it out than recognize the difference. I assume you’re a relatively new lawyer, all caught up in your new identity and full of piss and vinegar. At least I hope so. If so, then someday you will grow weary of being self-righteous and realize that you’re not a lawyer, but a human being who serves as a lawyer. Then you will be able to see the bigger picture and not feel constrained to fall back on simplistic law school rhetoric to establish your identity.
I was licensed in 1991. So, to lawyers licensed longer than that, I’m relatively new. My TBC is 18413400. I hope to stop falling back on UT rhetoric any day now.
Then you’ve been around long enough. Sorry that there’s no room for you to feel empathy for anyone other than a defendant.