NOT GUILTY!

                                                       Why is this man smiling?

OK, we were not going to go near the Casey Anthony case for a number of reasons.

But since the major networks and even a prestigious law blog jumped on the Trials & Tribulations, golly Jose Baez is the most incompetent lawyer E-V-E-R bandwagon, and in view of the stunning NOT GUILTY verdict, we could not resist a brief post.

Having second chaired a death case early in our legal career and dutifully attended the 3-day death-penalty-boot-camp sponsored by the California Appellate Project, we are aware that the realities of death litigation are so grim that counsel are urged to set aside all lofty notions of an outright win in favor of a strategy of saving your client’s life.

Second, jurors that are “death qualified”, that is swear under oath that they could and would impose a death sentence if the facts warrant it, are more prone to convict during the guilt phase than a panel that includes jurors philosophically opposed to the death penalty--which question cannot even be asked of potential jurors unless death is on the table.

Third, death penalty appellate specialists stress that—other than avoiding the death of your client as your overarching objective—your goal is object, object, object—even if the law appears settled against you on a particular point. You just don’t want to be that lawyer whose client gets the needle after the United States Supreme Court decides that the death penalty is unconstitutional because you did not make that motion at trial, thereby waiving it for later review. Likewise with any number of lesser "waivable" but potential appellate issues. Therefore, all of those “dumb” objections that Baez was ridiculed for making were actually precisely what any competent lawyer SHOULD DO in a death penalty case.

But the bottom line is this: Under a media spotlight, with a very unsympathetic client and in opposition to some very compelling and prejudicial prosecution evidence,  Baez did the near impossible: Not only did he save his client’s life, she was acquitted not only of murder but of the other serious charges as well, suffering a conviction only for lying to police—and local police at that (not the FBI). The trial lawyer’s equivalent of walking on water. In the context of a capital murder case, the defendant might as well have been convicted of disturbing the peace, so stunning and complete was Baez's victory for his client.

So, to all of you in the media, the blogosphere, and the general public who bought into the party line that Jose Baez is an incompetent idiot, to quote Toby Keith “How do you like me now?”

Ha! We love it! Jose Baez was giving the prosecution the old rope-a-dope, and just about everyone fell for it! "Incompetent" defense counsel wins the "social media case of the century"! Every criminal defendant facing the death penalty should have a lawyer this "incompetent" :).


Read more: Anthony not guilty of killing daughter