Word: phillabaum
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that is essentially what state prosecutors in Ohio are claiming, as they try to ban attorneys from swaying a jury with the power of tears. Butler County assistant prosecutor Jason Phillabaum filed a motion last week calling on the judge to "prohibit" the defense from using emotional appeals to the jury during the upcoming capital-punishment trial of James O'Hara, who is accused of fatally stabbing Stanley Lawson last summer...
...filing this motion, Phillabaum and county prosecutor Robin Piper claim to be trying to avoid a repeat of last month's trial of Harvey Johnson, during which they watched tears roll down the cheeks of defense attorney Greg Howard as he asked the jury to spare his client from the death penalty. The jury assented and Johnson, who was convicted of kidnapping and strangling Kiva Gazaway, was sentenced to life imprisonment...
...upcoming O'Hara trial Piper and Phillabaum are once again up against Howard - who has saved the lives of 15 of his previous 19 clients in death-penalty cases. But Phillabaum insists that the anticrying motion is not a reaction to one particular trial or attorney, but the result of witnessing emotional displays "inappropriate[ly]" tipping the scales of justice in many capital cases...
...Phillabaum's motion has drawn particular attention because of its implication that attorneys weep crocodile tears in a calculated attempt to manipulate juries. Howard vehemently denies this accusation. "They're alleging that I cry on cue and that I've been trained to do this. Nothing could be further from the truth," he told TIME. "In a death penalty case, as strongly as I feel for my clients and as much time and energy as I've put in, it happens...
...Ohio case reflects a long-standing uncertainty about the role of emotion in the application of the law, according to Doug Berman, an Ohio State University law professor and criminal-sentencing expert. He says that Phillabaum's motion is "part of a perhaps misguided attempt to suggest that the law is all rational and not based on emotion...
| 1 |