Quite frankly I think it's justifiable/forgivable considering how twisted, convoluted, complex, and crazy this whole case has been. Even websleuths who have been following this case extremely closely regularly get facts and details mixed up.
It is a strategy. Prior is not making "mistakes."
The core of the case is simple. The defendant's wife was asphyxiated in their bed. Children were buried in his yard. His mistresses husband was shot dead. They got enough money to play out their god and goddess fantasies without the burden of original spouses or minor children.
The more Prior can throw in complications, the better. Contradictions and "mistakes" confuse, and can make an exhausted juror think, "This just doesn't make sense. Therefore the State hasn't proven its case."
Prior also outright misleads when phrasing his questions, such as by characterizing Chad's lawn as a pasture or farm.
I know Prior wants to play the underdog and pretend he's all confused because he is a one man team. But he chose to be in this position. Just as his hired flying monkeys attempted to intervene and continue this case at the last most obstructing minute, John Prior has done very much the same. When Lori was sick, he was ready to go to trial immediately, yet waived the right to a speedy trial which makes that sus. When the trial was about to get started, he needed to get more DNA tested. Then, given the time, he never got the DNA tested. Instead, at the last minute, he tried to get off the case (knowing full well he probably would not succeed. But if he did, it would buy Chad more time and only give Chad an advantage). Then, denied getting off the case, he gets to play victim and underdog, one man handling all this against the big government.
Prior is supposed to vigorously defend his client within the bounds of ethics. I'll leave it to the Idaho bar to determine if his leading questions have crossed lines, or if his fact "mistakes" have.
Yet these are strategies, not mistakes. Prior knows what he is doing. He is not confused. He's no small-town country lawyer. He knows the facts.
MOO