“If we don’t win your case for you, your next meal is free.” <\/p>\n
Arkansas being a jury sentencing state, with the jury informed of parole eligibility, we beat the plea offer by a third, or fourth, depending on how you do the math. The offer was 40, the jury gave 31. With credit for time served, he’ll be out in 4 years and 9 months or so. Sometimes, beating the plea offer is a win, particularly when you tried to plead guilty and the victim would only permit the DA to recommend the max. So, we have a trial. More like a slow guilty plea to a jury, but with a stellar cross examination, not that it mattered. It seemed like it was going really badly when the jury took a mere 21 minutes to convict on four counts. Then, in punishment phase, they didn’t max him (maximum was 56).<\/p>\n
21 minutes may be a record for me. Like they say, quick verdicts usually go for the prosecution. But, not always so. I had a 3 minute acquittal once (I was standing at a urinal when the bailiff came for me), and a 30 minute acquittal in a week long murder case.<\/p>\n
And, we have reversible error on denial of a defense jury instruction, aside from another possible issue to take out a 6 year count on sufficiency of the evidence. So, we lost. We expected to. But we came out OK. Not a bad day after all, ending at 7:30, then the 30 minute drive home.<\/p>\n
Postings continue in the A.M. I’m crashing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
b2evGMco.b2evALnk.b2WPAutP Continue reading