Saturday, January 08, 2005

Scrushy trial

The defense in the Scrushy trial has asked for a one-week delay in the start of the trial (so far they've just been picking a jury), saying that the prosecution has just turned over a "deluge" of documents that should have been provided earlier, and that they need time to go through the stuff. Though I don't know whether they're right, I know that it's not unheard-of for prosecutors to do just that -- sometimes, I believe, intentionally in order to swamp the defense, throw them off track and maybe hope they won't find the crucial needle in the haystack. Even if it's not intentional in a particular case, it can still be unfair in its effects. Best oral argument I ever saw was by Leonard Weinglass, who got a criminal conviction reversed by a conservative Eleventh Circuit panel, based on this very argument (that the District Court erred by not granting his motion for a continuance under such circumstances).

posted by sam 10:03 AM 0 comments

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