As this Boston criminal lawyer begins his 52nd year of life, I return to a question which has plagued the jury system since its onset. Namely, what should a jury hear? Many people believe, as we discussed in my last blog, that the rules which govern what evidence can get before the jury is unfair. The thought is that the jury should hear everything and that, perhaps, the rules of evidence should not even exist.
As an attorney who has fought on both sides of the criminal justice trenches, I can tell you that I have been, in turn, gratified and frustrated by these rules…from both sides. However, most people view the system from the prosecutorial side and figure the biggest problem facing the criminal justice system today is crafty defense attorenys and overly-symnpathetic juries. These people tend to also believe that these inconvenient rules only serve to avoid justice and protect the guilty.
Perhaps you have always felt that way as well. Let’s bring your perspective regarding the system a bit closer to the target, shall we?
Like so many of your fellow-citizens, you have fallen on some difficult times of late. This has also brought the onset on some bad choices and habits.
You have also recently been arrested for Roxbury drug trafficking. You have learned that the Commonwealth turned its attention to you after Benjy Buyer told the officers who arrested him for possession that he had made the purchase of the cocaine on his person from you. When the arresting officer came to fit you for handcuffs, according to the resulting police report, the officer knew that Benjy was telling the truth because you “looked like a drug dealer”. You had a ten dollar bill and one envelope of matching coke in your pocket.
The fact is that you had purchased the coke from the same person that Benjy did; you did not sell to anybody.
This has been a particularly bad stretch of bad luck for you, by the way. Just previous to the drug arrest, you had broken up with your girlfriend, Felicia Flybynight. This took place after she showed up on your doorstep with a black eye. She told you that her other beau, Slugger, gave her the shiner when he learned that she was also seeing you. She was now remedying the error in her ways and leaving town with Slugger. However, before she left town, a friend of hers took a picture of her black eye and asked her what had happenned. “It’s all [INSERT YOUR NAME HERE]’s fault”, was her answer. The friend thereafter called the police and explained the situation to them.
After your arrest for the drugs, the police figured they might as well charge you for the assault and battery as well.
After all, they reasoned, many drug dealers are involved in domestic violence incidents.
Now…your cases are about to go to trial. Your lawyer tells you that the Commonwealth is offering “Guilty-Probation” to cover both matters. Should you go to trial and lose on either one of these cases, they say they will ask that you serve some time in one of their fine institutions.
What to do.
Attorney Sam’s Take On The Cases Sans Evidentiary Rules
Obviously, your first question to your Boston criminal lawyer upon hearing this news is, “Well, what are the chances that we can win at trial?”
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Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog
