Guiding Questions

What does it take to be a Defense Attorney?

Fearlessness, strong character, and morality.

What’s the difference between prosecutors and defense attorneys?

Prosecutors call more witnesses.

Prosecutors do more direct examination.

Defense does more cross-examination.

Defense is always trying to get a “soft landing”—the best possible deal for their clients.

Main Ideas

• Focuses on expectations and reactions to defense attorneys. People are cruel to them—death threats, insults.
• No defense attorney wants to let murderers “get off.”
• They just don’t want to see innocent people behind bars.

Guiding Question

Why do Geragos and Harris have so many celebrity clients?

They’re based in LA.

Celebrities attract lawsuits.

Geragos and Harris are kind of famous for representing celebrities.

They don’t take many of those cases because celebs often feel entitled to free service.

Main Ideas

• Mainly a lot of stories about their clients.
• Lots of good examples, but not really making much of an argument.

Guiding Question

Why is there so much misconduct among prosecutors?

There’s been a change in attitudes over the last 20 years.

The job of the prosecutor should be “to do justice” (Geragos and Harris 120).

Now, many prosecutors see themselves as “Batman in a coat and tie” (116).

They want to win cases and put the bad guy away—winning cases has become more important than finding the truth.

Main Ideas

• The more powerful prosecutors get, the less they follow the law.
• Many hide evidence that might prove the defendant not guilty.
• Many use witnesses they know will lie.
• Winning is the most important thing.
• Prosecutors are much more reluctant to drop bad cases than they used to be.
• The public usually supports prosecutors who are “tough on crime.”

Main Ideas

• Judges have to remain neutral or else get kicked out.
• Judicial review boards are made up of more senior/experienced judges, and they can remove a judge for misconduct.
• Judges are elected officials, so they have to be “tough on crime” in order to stay in office.

Guiding Questions

Why do cops lie?

They see it as the right thing to do.

They think that it’s okay if it takes a criminal off the streets.

Nobody wants to accuse a cop of lying because we honor and respect the police.

Why do cops get away with crimes?

There’s a code of silence among cops—other officers will either back up their stories or keep quiet.

Main Ideas

• Planting evidence is the most common form of police misconduct.
• It’s hard to catch “known” criminals in the act (173).
• Police lie because they think they know what happened, but they can’t prove it.

Guiding Questions

What are the cases, and how do they win?

Jurors can get rejected for “cause”—that is, because the judge thinks they can’t be fair in this case.

One example is when G&H got a former cop removed from a jury (194-195).

Main Ideas

• They describe lots of different situations where juries can cause problems.
• A lot of jury selection seems to be based on weird biases and generalizations (because they don’t always get to know prospective jurors personally).

Guiding Questions

Why does the media get to control what the people think?

Most people are exposed to a lot of stuff that they don’t always fact check.

Main Ideas

• Media has access to lawyers and more info than normal people.
• Journalists are just interested in the next story—not necessarily the complicated truth.
• People tend to trust the media.
• Everybody comes into a case with bias, because there’s just so much media coverage.