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Passing the hat for a good cause

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

A few weeks ago Juan Quintero won a life verdict in Houston.  Quintero, an illegal immigrant with a record who snuck back in to the country after being deported, killed Rodney Johnson , a cop, a well loved, well respected, a cop’s cop.  The woman behind that verdict was Danalynn Recer of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, or GRACE, As one commentator noted at the time I think the lesson in this case is that the lawyering matters a lot. The defense strategy of front-loading all the evidence about his mental problems in the guilt/innocence stage (of the trial) was a brilliant legal tactic. It had the jury thinking from the first stage of the case that there is something wrong with this person. And even in Harris County, the death penalty capital of the world, when the jury thinks there is something wrong with a person that interferes with his judgment, they will be willing to not impose the death penalty...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on June 23, 2008 (boomark / email).