Word: desisto
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...their summations, the attorneys in the Von Bulow case seemed to have exchanged roles. Defense Counsel Thomas Puccio once again seemed to be the aggressive prosecutor of his Abscam days, assertively addressing the facts of the case, while Prosecutor Marc DeSisto offered a histrionic and impassioned plea, long on emotion, short on detail...
...DeSisto, in contrast, was earnest and amiable, beginning his summation with a windy anecdote about Abraham Lincoln. Instead of reviewing his case, he painted an emotional and highly colored tableau of the alleged murder attempts. With his hands resting on the front of the jury box, DeSisto pleaded with the jurors to try to relive the crime, to put themselves in the room where Sunny von Bulow went into her two comas. As if holding a syringe in his hand, DeSisto asked, "Can you see it? As he was pushing the plunger down, can you see it? The defendant then...
...DeSisto's showmanship was one of the few tactics left to him. Earlier in the week, a businesslike Judge Corinne Grande rejected all but one of the prosecution's rebuttal witnesses and dashed the state's last hope that it could offer testimony about the $14 million that Von Bulow stood to inherit upon his wife's death. Her rulings spurred accusations of partiality from Claus' stepchildren. Said Alexander von Auersperg: "We can't understand why $14 million isn't considered a motive to murder someone, especially when Mr. Von Bulow doesn't have any money...
...first two days of televised testimony retraced the steps of the original trial. Assistant Attorney General Marc DeSisto in his opening argument depicted Von Bulow to the jury as a freeloading layabout: "He was living off her money, and he was living well. The defendant was well aware of what he would get if his wife died." The prosecution's first witness was Mrs. Von Bulow's maid of 23 years, Maria Schrallhammer, an overwrought, slightly bowed woman who could have stepped out of a whodunit. Schrallhammer recounted how her mistress had slipped into a coma while Von Bulow, sitting...
...DeSisto, the new prosecutor, is an earnest but inexperienced 29-year-old legal beagle who already seems frustrated. Von Bulow's principal attorney for this trial is former Abscam Prosecutor Thomas Puccio, who is as brashly streetwise as Claus is polo-wise; Dershowitz, a constitutional expert, is advising him from the wings...