Chicago Criminal Lawyer’s Blog

What criminal defense lawyer does not revel at the chance to question a witness before a federal trial?  What criminal defense lawyer does not revel at the chance to object because his client’s rights are being violated? What ex-governor doesn’t revel at a chance to turn the tides in his favor?

In state court when we get a chance to question a witness at preliminary hearing it puts a smile on our face.  A criminal defense lawyer that knows the case is getting to the trial division hopes that the government will put a witness on the stand.  We, criminal defense lawyers, may not win the battle at preliminary hearing but the cross examination of the government’s witness gives us a great opportunity to win the war.  I have on many occasions extracted favorable evidence that lead to my client’s success at trial or motion.  The ex-governor should have had a lawyer asking questions of the agent in this case.  I know that the lawyer may have been halted by Supreme Court Justice from an exploration of the facts, but why not try?

I think that the governor, sorry ex-governor, should have sent a lawyer to the impeachment trial in the senate.  While he was getting the ball rolling via the news and talk show media on his claim that he was not given even minimal due process consideration at the impeachment hearing. I agree it was obvious that the Senate would not allow him to call witnesses.  The ex-governor’s attorney could have been making his client’s position about the unfair hearing heard throughout the country.  I would have been asking leave to call witnesses and had the Senate and Supreme Court reject my client’s request on television.  While the Senate tried to show unity by unanimously voting to impeach him there was the rumblings from a few Senators that maybe the process does not meet constitutional muster after all.   I think that the record should have been made.

The ex governeor sucessfully got a few people to understand that he was not getting a fair shake.  I do not mean to say that he has people believing he is not guilty or not impeachable but rather he got people to understand that the process used against him was political and unfair.  It would have been invaluable to have a lawyer asking questions and having the Supreme Court Justice Chief Judge over rule all of the objection or questions.  What a better was to gain sympathy than to show you can not get out information or ask questions?

This entry was posted on February 3, 2009 at 4:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.