To the winning attorneys go the spoils

Jose Baez, attorney

Call it our "murder trial Fourth of July."

The media usually go into slowdown mode for a holiday weekend. People are too busy with personal commitments to consume much media. But the media gravitated to quite the irresistible story for the 2011 Independence Day. This wasn't a novelist's conception of a murder trial. Reality trumps fiction.

A novelist would be hard pressed duplicating the kind of twists and turns we saw in Florida.

We all had flashbacks to the O.J. trial. But that seems like eons ago in terms of the development of the media.

We are awash in media now, so a riveting murder trial becomes a truly larger than life spectacle.

I'm guessing the HLN network had a breakthrough weekend. I'm not sure the event was good for Nancy Grace, who many of us feel may have "jumped the shark," but it elevated the profile of Jane Velez-Mitchell and Jean Casarez. The latter two won high grades.

Grace's outrage has become old. She reminds me of the kind of second grade teacher we might have nicknamed "Battle Axe."

The dust has cleared in the Casey Anthony trial. There is a winner and loser. It's a dichotomy that America likes. We really like winners. Stand up and salute, everyone.

The lead defense attorney seemed on the ropes for a long time, coming under some negative scrutiny, but in a flash he emerges as a sort of hero (or model to emulate). The verdict was not guilty on the major charges.

There are spoils that await a winning attorney in a case like this. He can go on Larry King - Excuse me, Piers Morgan. He might appear on the cover of People Magazine. This particular attorney, Jose Baez, might choose not to avail himself of such things. That would be commendable. But the public would eat it all up. It sure ate up the dramatics through the July 4 weekend.

As with the O.J. trial, there are a whole lot of personalities that get ingrained in the public's mind, leading me to think a trading card series could be inspired. But "trading cards" may be so 1960s. Excuse me, but consider my age (56).
There could even be a card for the guy who found the body. I feel sorry for that guy. Unless there's suspicion he was somehow involved, he shouldn't be forced to testify. His life will never be the same. He came under pressure because there was suspicion his behavior could have been affected by reward money. If that's the case, stop offering rewards. If authorities feel money corrupts, don't dangle out corrupting temptations.

But the state does that with the lottery all the time.

A cast of lawyers was at the forefront again. The rather attractive blonde woman who delivered the prosecution's closing argument had a real shot at fame. I was imagining her on the cover of magazines. But she lost. She'll fade into the obscurity of losers.

Again, America loves winners. Johnnie Cochran RIP was a celebrity after the O.J. trial. So was Robert Shapiro who is now a pitchman for "Legalzoom."

I think defense attorneys have the most to gain in these high-profile trials. Defense attorneys look for diversions, and their own bravado can become a diversion. My, they are gifted at bluster. They make mountains out of molehills. They'll take a minor point of contention and refer to it as a "bombshell" if it goes their way.

Few attorneys can make the prosecution glamorous, but Vince Bugliosi is a big exception. Could Bugliosi have fared better in this trial? After reading his book "Outrage," I'm convinced he would have gotten O.J. convicted - no doubt. I loaned that book to probably our most esteemed local legal mind, Charlie Glasrud. Kudos to Charlie for remembering to return it. The odds of a friend returning a loaned book are rather long. Glasrud is headed into the judging realm.

Speaking of which, the trial we just followed was fascinating in that no one found it necessary to pat the judge on the back as an "African American judge." I heard no such comments.

In other words, he was accepted as an immensely capable judge without regard to race - a real testament to how far we've come in terms of color blindness.

In the O.J. trial we were all conscious of the judge being Japanese. A well-known politician got in trouble doing an imitation of Judge Ito using a faux Japanese accent (a la "Amos and Andy").

Such behavior in the year 2011 would be considered far more unacceptable.

I have argued on this site before that the old "melting pot" ideal is what we should strive for. This principle seemed to be supplanted for a time by the "diversity" mantra, which called for us to be race and ethnic conscious but to love everyone anyway.

With all due respect, the University of Minnesota-Morris got caught up in the "D" word. But since when has consciousness of differences ever helped us get along better? The melting pot ideal may be boring because it's so simple to grasp. So what, it has merit.

F. Lee Bailey once wrote a book entitled "The Defense Never Rests." I would suggest instead "The defense never hesitates to throw tons of mud up against a wall to see if any of it sticks."

Snow the jurors with myriad details, getting them to think maybe it's all so complicated, they'd better just give the defense the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe that's what happened in the Casey Anthony trial.

I remember a chat I once had with our Sheriff Randy Willis, way back when the Minnesota Timberwolves were new and we were discussing basketball a lot. This was at the old main street restaurant that has since been eaten up by a bank. I noted to Randy that the NBA's most famous heckler was a defense attorney by occupation. The fellow's last name was Ficker. I asked if that occupation was logical for the guy.

Randy said "well, they're loud-mouthed and they don't know what they're talking about!"

I should emphasize here that the comment was made in a light mood. A rimshot was called for.

The jury didn't want to talk to the media after the Anthony trial. My God, I can't blame them. Who would want to get his/her name caught up in this kind of infamy?

This trial was a circus with a capital "C."

I had to laugh at the TV talking head Tuesday night who talked about the need to "cross your i's and dot your t's." There was no correction. It was allowed to mercifully pass. Maybe it was a case of holiday weekend work overload.

Holiday weekends are hard on unemployed people. While the whole world seems to slow down, our world stays slow like it always is. We breathe a sigh of relief when "routine" returns.

This year's July 4 weekend will not only be associated with the celebrated trial, there's the Minnesota state government shutdown.
I have an open mind, so I may end up admitting that the Republicans were right after all. That's a tough sentence to write. But maybe we're not as dependent on state government as I thought.
Maybe austerity is an easier pill to swallow than I thought.

The world hasn't ended. The sun rises in the east. If Canterbury horse racing is the biggest issue, well my goodness.

There is a new trial about to unfold now: Roger Clemens' perjury trial. Maybe some new lawyers will step into celebrity.

"Weird Al" Yankovic once wrote lyrics inspired by the original Jurassic Park movie. A lawyer character who had sought escape in a restroom gets eaten by a T-Rex, showing that "dinosaurs aren't so bad after all."

I have never had to hire a lawyer. My blatant lawbreaking by not wearing a seat belt has yet to be discovered. I have survived the alleged "stings." (Imagine the "Dragnet" theme music playing now.)

For a long time I avoided Atlantic Avenue and took "evasive action" whenever seeing a law enforcement vehicle, even pulling over to the curb if I had to.

But now I hear through the grapevine that law enforcement is no longer treating seat belt as a primary offense,

What took so long?

I haven't needed a defense attorney. It might be fun to appreciate the talents of the likes of our Ken Hamrum. But such talents are better appreciated from a distance. For now, I'm comfortable consulting with Ken, mainly about jazz music, at the McDonald's Restaurant. His skills could be a godsend, even though he represents a class of people who are "loud-mouthed and don't know what they're talking about."

Let's all salute defense attorneys. The Casey Anthony trial is another chapter in the glory.

"If the glove doesn't fit, then you must acquit."

How can the prosecution counter such artistry?

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com