Friday, March 29, AD 2024 4:23am

Bizarre

I have been practicing law for three decades in Illinois and I have never seen anything like the above video when a defendant in a criminal case is represented by counsel.  I will defer to any Florida attorney who can indicate if the above video reflects common legal procedure in Florida, but in Illinois whether a defendant in a criminal case is going to testify is not something the defense counsel is going to indicate.  The ability to keep the prosecution guessing as to whether the defendant is going to testify is a key advantage of the defense.  When a defendant is represented by counsel in Illinois it is assumed that in a criminal case counsel has advised the defendant of his right to testify or keep silent at trial.  If a plea bargain is entered into in Illinois in a criminal case then the judge will advise the defendant of all of his rights prior to accepting the plea bargain.  Other than that, the time for such admonishments is at arraignment prior to a plea being entered, and certainly not during the trial.

Any input from any Florida criminal defense attorneys among our readers would be appreciated.

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c matt
c matt
Friday, July 12, AD 2013 8:08am

Practice in Texas is similar to Illinois – the judge would not bring it up during trial for represented defendants.

I wonder if she is trying to build in reversible error hoping for the following scenario: the jury convicts of manslaughter, this somewhat appeases the mob and avoids the worst of rioting, GZ appeals and then the conviction gets overturned after everyone has forgotten about it.

Jay Anderson
Friday, July 12, AD 2013 9:46am

I’ve been thinking along the same line as c matt for a few weeks now.

Even without this particular incident, this judge has created reversible error throughout the proceedings with the way she has conducted this trial.

However, that would just delay the inevitable mob reaction to an acquittal/reversal. I don’t doubt for a second that a later reversal of the conviction on appeal would still cause the grievance industry to swing into full-scale riot mode. And Lord knows our President would make some stupid comment to stoke the fires.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Saturday, July 13, AD 2013 4:41am

In Scotland, the decision to call the pannel is taken at the close of the prosecution case, after any submission of no case to answer. If the defence lead witnesses, the pannel must go first, so that he cannot tailor his testimony to what his witnesses say. If more than one, they are called in the order they appear in the indictment.

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