Giving Thanks to the Jury System
This week, a former client sent me a recent picture of himself with his two kids along with the simple words, ‘Thanks for helping me get my boys back.’ The client had been accused of committing a serious crime in front of his children and was thereafter arrested, indicted, and had his kids taken away. While the felony charges had very real consequences, nothing corroborated the claim against him- no video evidence, no physical evidence, no confession, no corroboration just the word of one person- his accuser. Through my firm's investigation we found out that the sole person saying my client committed a crime had lied to several prosecutors multiple times during the years the case was pending. I told the ADA about these lies. I gave the ADA proof of these lies. And what did she do? She said she was now “better prepared for trial”- and pressed on with the felony charges trying to put my client, an army veteran, in jail for years based on the word of a demonstrated liar. The case ended up going to trial. When the jury came back with the verdict they acquitted my client on each and every charge.
This week when we gather with our family, give some thanks to our system and that its designers decided to put a group of ordinary citizens between the government and the guy sitting in the defendant’s chair