Here is a sobering post from the Friends board in that link that M&M posted:
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At 9:56 AM, July 18, 2006, Anonymous said...
Why the defense will lose this case (unless they change strategy)
Although we are just 3 or 4 preliminary hearings into this case, the Nifong strategy is clear. And it will be devastatingly effective.
First off, any sense that Titus (or any of the Durham judges we have seen) will intercede to stop this farce is misplaced. Titus looks to be another Ito warming to his new-found fame and will become increasingly bizarre in his behavior as time goes on. Highly predictable.
Then there is Hamlet Cheek, who has just apparently ended his career by his egotistical vacillation, and will be of no use.
OTOH, Nifong’s approach is already completely apparent, and will build with each court appearance. He intends to try the 43/44 unindicted Lacrosse players (and their 20 “high-priced” lawyers) as unindicted conspirators
(He managed to dupe Aaron Beard of the AP into exactly trumpeting that line in newspapers across the country yesterday, with the headline “DA: Entire team could be witnesses” –read in Nifongian: Entire team _could_ be guilty, I just didn’t want to charge them to save time.).
It will be the wolves-in-khaki strategy from beginning to end. Nifong will repeatedly point out the hulking suited LAX (including their teammates in the gallery to provide moral support). And imply that no matter what the evidence shows that the 3 indicted and 43 unindicted wolves must be guilty of something.
And the team of defense lawyers will make things even worse.
In the preliminary hearings so far, all of the Lawyers shuffling back and forth and making disjointed, incomplete arguments looked like they were guilty of something themselves.
Nifong will continue to inject his timely sarcastic insults (unimpeded by the trial judge, as he has apparently been for the past 27 years) and the defense lawyers collectively will be unable to effectively respond as a group.
They will end up looking weak and disorganized, as they did when Nifong (not for the first or last time) accused them of a legal Blue Wall of Silence yesterday.
It is time to stop underestimating Nifong. His early public comments and his courtroom asides are intentional and premeditated efforts to blur the facts of the case and instead use a smear campaign as the state’s case.
And that will be a slam dunk for the DA.
With Nifong standing there as the sole defender of the safety of the citizens of Durham against marauding out-of-state jocks, both black and white jurors will respond.
If this case goes to trial, and it will, it is imperative that the defense lawyers attempt to sever the cases and try each individually.
To try and break this dynamic. It will not be easy but if they don’t, Finnerty, Evans and Seligmann may well be convicted.
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I report, you decide.
And remember that the jury will be like the OJ jury--people too familiar with the case from Court TV, the Internet, newspapers, etc., will be banned.
Probably they will all have to be computer illiterate,
and in the end will "know" about this case only that "something must have happened in that house". The DNA will be too confusing for them. The pressure on any hold-outs to 'go along' will be intense.
We should not be complacent (as I somethings think the defense attorneys have been.) Everything must be done to halt this before it comes to a trial.
At this point in time if I was one of these kids I think I would have a better chance being tried with the others. I am sure you can get 3 lawyers to act as one in a case where the FA's stories have changed so much. Nifong might try and make the 40 something other players part of this but they will not be represented here by a lawyer. A good jury is key here. And if you get one you stand a better chance that people on the jury could start to have doubts on one persons guilt. And once they question one persons guilt they will question the others.
I saw that post too and it scared the living daylights out of me.
I agree that no judge will stop this thing - or control Nifong either.
I also agree that the "wolves in blazers and khakis" strategy will be Nifong's main line of attack. Since he has no evidence what else can he say.
I disagree that the defense attorneys aren't that good though. The attorneys for the indicted players are very good and they have all the evidence on their side. Will that be enough? I don't know.
Also, as of now, the cases are severed. Nifong will have to make a motion to join them at some point, which I'm sure he will.
Why the defense will lose this case (unless they change strategy)
That kind of declaratory statement immediately sets off the BS meter. NO ONE can make such a prediction with certainty. It is one thing for a jury not to send a black celebrity to prison for murder. It is quite another to send three innocent young men to prison for decades. Joe Cheshire V knows the legal system in NC as well as anyone. Does anyone think the defense has not given extensive thought to the racial factors?
Although we are just 3 or 4 preliminary hearings into this case, the Nifong strategy is clear. And it will be devastatingly effective. And that will be a slam dunk for the DA.
Says a very confident internet poster. Look, Nifong should not be underestimated ; nor should the home town refs (judges). However, the DA still has to present a case. So far, everything we've seen from the DA's files are prejudicial to his own case! The only figleaf he has is that "he must have SOMETHING". He won't have that figleaf at trial and he knows it.
With Nifong standing there as the sole defender of the safety of the citizens of Durham against marauding out-of-state jocks, both black and white jurors will respond.
Another declaration that no one can make with certainty.
If this case goes to trial, and it will, it is imperative that the defense lawyers attempt to sever the cases and try each individually. To try and break this dynamic.
Just how does it follow that trying them individually will break this dynamic? The same dynamic the poster outlined would still be at work.
It will not be easy but if they don't, Finnerty, Evans and Seligmann may well be convicted.
The poster has not shown why the indicted are better off being tried individually, and has made several unsupported assertions. I'm confident that Joe Cheshire V has considered every point this doom and gloom poster made.
In short, I call BS.