Word: martel
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...prosecution team decided to reject professional help in selecting the jury. "I brought into the case the best jury consultant in America, the father of the art of jury selection, Donald Vinson," says San Francisco litigator John Martel, a prosecution adviser. "And on the first day of the trial, Dr. Vinson was asked to leave the courtroom because the prosecutors were concerned that the public might feel that the jury or the jury system was being manipulated if they were using a jury consultant." "Meanwhile," Martel continues, "Jo-Ellan Dimitrius was literally steering the ship at that point...
Repeatedly, says Martel, the prosecutors were limited by, of all things, their "high ethical standards" and what appeared to them a tremendous circumstantial case. "When I would suggest they should perhaps be preparing their witnesses very carefully, they would say, 'We don't want to be telling witnesses what to say,' " he recalls. "They were playing cricket in an alley fight." Cochran agrees: "See, they had convinced themselves they had this slam-dunk case. They really believed that. But every day things would go wrong for them...
...been weighted against them, the glaring injustice for O.J. was police negligence, not to mention Detective Mark Fuhrman's bigotry. Investigators came off looking like Keystone Kops, which will certainly prompt a new skepticism about police testimony in all sorts of proceedings. Suggests prominent San Francisco trial lawyer John Martel, a Simpson prosecution consultant: "Perhaps an enlightened society has to pay a price like that to learn of the depth and cost of police misconduct, not just in Los Angeles but elsewhere...
...Soup: 'Who are you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?'" Legal scholar Kamisar notes that juries now and then will use latitude to ignore law and free a defendant on principle, "but as a general proposition, you can't tell them when they can exercise it." Prosecution consultant Martel agrees that Cochran went "somewhat over the top in terms of a lawyer's duty as an officer of the court...
...Vukonich 11 (Donato) 8:12; 6, L, Napierala 14 (Dowd, Palumbo) 12:52. Penalties--L, Bench (too many men) 1:21; H, Caplan (cross checking) 3:58; H, Weisbrod (slashing) 6:20; L, Astley (slashing) 6:20; H, Melrose (slashing) 8:48; L, Cernich (interference) 8:48; L, Martel (holding) 8:50; H, Howley (elbowing...