■Circumstantial Case — Who Needs Eye-Witnesses Anyway? Surprisingly for many members of the public, jurors are generally instructed that circumstantial evidence deserves as much weight as so-called “direct” evidence.

■Prosecutions of the Rich and Famous—What Kind of Special Treatment Do They Really Get? Forget kid gloves or a get out of jail free card. Celebrities get investigators who look under every rock and behind every blade of grass to try to make a case against them. But the rich and famous usually have plenty of money and great lawyers. And so the reality show for celebrities is the best of times and the worst of times whenever their names are in a police file.

■Prosecution’s Alleged Vendettas — Do Judges or Juries Care? Not much, “vendettas” are more significant as a media strategy.

■Defense of Insanity—Overly Successful or Overrated? Very limited and rarely successful since laws changed in the wake of the insanity-based acquittal of John Hinkley, President Reagan’s attempted assassin.

■When Defendants Try to Put Victims on Trial—Who Gets Convicted? Usually the defendant.  Sounds like a clever plan to skewer the accuser, but attacking victims can often backfire.

■Crimes of the Rich and Famous—Should Victims Prosecute or Sue? Usually both. Despite the prosecutor’s insistence in the Michael Jackson case that the alleged victim seeks only justice, not money, the usual strategy is to prosecute first, then sue; after all, a conviction made a civil suit easy for Mike Tyson’s victim, and even when a prosecution fails, civil damages were still later awarded against O.J.

■Only A He-Said, She-Said? While a one-on-one swearing contest may seem too inconclusive to overcome reasonable doubt, defendants typically have a giant disadvantage—an obvious motive to lie. Seemingly, celebrity cases like Kobe Bryant’s would revise that equation given the accuser’s unspoken opportunity to pursue financial recoveries. But truth is in the eyes and ears of the beholder, and so juries can and do convict simply by choosing to believe the alleged victim. And if jurors believe the accuser, they’ll put the abuser behind bars.

 

 

KENDALL COFFEY

Attorney at Law