People like to connect the dots. We naturally explain how things happen, how the world works. For instance, when we meet tall people, we assume they have tall parents. One piece of data—someone’s height—leads us to a cause, tall parents.
How does this relate to criminal defense? A jury needs to understand why the government charged you with a crime. They need to see why it’s reasonable to believe you didn’t commit a crime. And good trial attorneys do this with stories.
Not guilty verdicts come from interesting and believable stories. Three weeks ago, I defended a man against a traffic ticket. Not the crime of the century, but he was upset the government charged him at all. It charged him with improper lane travel and reckless driving. Why would the government do this?
According to the prosecution’s story, my client violated numerous traffic laws before a plain-clothed officer pulled him over; for safety’s sake. Yet our story was completely different. We told the jury about the officer’s fit of road rage.
As both parties agreed, my client cut off a policeman. Yet the government claimed this was my client’s latest traffic violation after a string of observed offense. Sound plausible, right?
Wrong. If the policeman saw an aggressive driver, why wait until he was cut off to do something about it? The officer didn’t have a good answer and agreed that the general public deserves vigilant protection. And what about the van that pulled onto the street without a signal causing my client to swerve and avoid a collision? The officer saw it pull onto street but blamed my client for not letting him in. The problem is, you don’t have a duty to let anyone into your lane of travel.
But at the time, the officer didn’t care. As officers often do, this one lectured my client for 10 minutes before giving him a ticket. With those facts on the record, the jury understood why the officer gave my client a ticket: Not because my client was reckless, but because the officer was angry.
We told the jury our story and they understood. Not Guilty.
