Word: mosley
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Friends of the Family. Mosley, now 40, is a man whom Mills describes as having "a great, almost warlike hostility for criminals-a hatred that is an outgrowth of, and never overshadows, his love for the law." It is almost as if he knows, as the trial begins, that the process of law to which he has devoted his life will probably set the defendant free. First comes the jury selection. "I need twelve men who can agree unanimously that the defendants are guilty," says Mosley. But if the defense gets one man who refuses to cast a guilty vote...
...trial, Mosley competes with a team of four lawyers for the defense. The courtroom is packed with "family," friends who laugh and whisper insults when Mosley raises objections. To further isolate the prosecutor, defense lawyers win a motion to have his principal investigator, Detective Joseph Price, removed from the courtroom on the pretext that they might call him as a witness. The book also strongly implies that judges are often favorably disposed toward sustaining defense objections, perhaps partly to avoid the embarrassment of having the verdict set aside later because of an error in procedure...
...Mosley holds his own, but his case suffers the same weaknesses as others that have been brought against the Mafia. For example, four of his main witnesses have recently been convicted of crimes; in exchange for their testimony, Mosley has promised to recommend lighter sentences for them. Will the jury believe men with their records? One is a Mafia gunman who testifies that, from a hidden place, he saw Franzese's pals stab The Hawk several times in a parking lot. Remarking on the witness's matter-of-fact account, the defense asks the jury: "Did you ever...
...rules prevent the prosecution from referring to the Mafia or making any mention of the defendants' underworld activities that might prejudice the jury. Occasionally, Mosley manages to work in a reference to the witnesses' fears before the defense can get in an objection. And point by point, he builds a strong case...
...contends, "help has a mysterious way of arriving in the nick of time." In the Franzese trial it came just before the judge's charge to the jury, in the form of a letter from a Sing Sing convict named Walter Sher. The letter claimed that one of Mosley's witnesses had admitted to Sher that he himself had killed The Hawk. In an emotional plea, Mosley argued that Sher was a psychopath, who had written the letter without even being asked, hoping to receive favors in prison from friends of Franzese. Sher's testimony, although unsubstantiated...