Posted on 11/30/2004 5:58:57 PM PST by PjhCPA
The shootings of eight deer hunters -- the murders of six -- is receiving a lot of attention statewide and in Minnesota, where the shooting suspect is from.
Chai Vang's defense attorneys are quiet familiar with the kind of media attention this case is getting. One was part of Mark Chmura's defense team; another represented the man who killed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in prison.
Attorney Steven Kohn said, "We're not looking for the focus to be on us."
"There's an old saying in sports: When you've been there before, act like you've been there before," Kohn said.
Kohn has been a lawyer for 26 years. He represented Christopher Scarver, the prisoner who killed Dahmer in 1994.
Kohn's partner, Jonathan Smith, was with Jerry Boyle defending former Green Bay Packers player Mark Chmura in his sexual assault case.
Vang's third attorney, James Mentkowski, is on the defense team because he has close ties to the Hmong community.
Defense attorney Royce Finne knows what they're going through. He was a defense attorney in the much-publicized Tom Monfils murder trial in Green Bay in 1995.
"It's one thing to fall on your face when nobody's looking at you. It's another to do it in front of whoever," Finne said.
While the spotlight is intense, Finne says the game is the same -- and so are the rules.
"In terms of your relationship with your client, what we have to do and not do, it's the same always," Finne said.
That's a strategy Vang's attorneys are sticking to -- so far. Kohn said, "We're not going to try this case in the media."
Ping the group?
These guys sure came off as slimeballs in their press conference...
Now they admit they seem arrogant.
Fine.
have you heard who is paying these guys? "declined to comment" is all I have seen so far.
That has been my #1 unanswered question so far
This is gonna get ugly.
What I want to know, and I think should be disclosed, is who is paying these slimeballs. This will most surely devolve into portraying the deceased as the culprits. When does lawyer season open in WI?
Then the defense team definitely has a problem. There are two surviving eye witnesses to what the animal did.
This is a hate crime mass murder. And WHO is paying the mega-bucks for these $500/hour scumbags?
Mine too.
I wonder if she dots her "i"s with little hearts?
My guess, no one's paying them. Plenty of publicity and I doubt there's much direct expense here, just shrinks and time. I heard he's got three attorneys.
By law, this hate crime mass murderer gets a lawyer at state expense. This does not explain the $1500 per hour team (I am estimating $500/hour times three vile crooked shysters). Such costs are being paid by someone else. The question remains "Who is paying?"
My guess they take what money he's got (sorry family), maybe some groups chip in, and the rest is a freebe for the publicity, though the State may well chip in, big time. I doubt there are any undertones as to who's paying the bills.
That should be "Who is paying the mega-bucks for each of these $500/hour scumbags".
This seems to be an inevitable side-effect of an adversarial system. In a free society like ours, you can allege whatever you want in your defence. Usually, the jury doesn't buy it.
I'm curious about that too.
Does anyone have any guesses?
I guess what is really bothering me is the fact that this is being treated by the press as simply another murder when we all know that if this had been a white guy blasting off six Hmong hunters it would be an "end of the world" story being jammed down our gullets, with every white hunter in the woods being portrayed as some sort of savage, demented, pathological blood sucker. We would by now know exactly what kind of "fully automatic assault rifle" he was carrying with exploded views of the weapon on every major news program. This is just another example of the fact that our press corps does not realize that we "see it". I'm glad there is an undercurrent of rage associated with this case.
I was just listening to Savage just rail about this. whew! He gets wound up! (Note - I've listened to him only once or twice in the past.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.