The defense OS by Baez has been criticized by other lawyers in the media. As HHJP pointed out ,Ms. Anthony has 5 attorneys. What are the typical dynamics when so many lawyers are involved ? Is there generally an agreement on strategy?
Disclaimers: I don't do death penalty cases (although some of my cases have involved circumstances which theoretically COULD have qualified for the death penalty) and I have never worked on a case where the defense team contained more than 3 attorneys. Nonetheless...
In my experience, as the case progresses and the evidence becomes known, the strategic options become obvious. In theory, a defendant can assert multiple conflicting defenses i.e. Some Other Dude Did It (SODDI), but if you determine that it was me then here are the reasons why it wasn't as bad as what the prosecution says, or it didn't happen at all. In practice, it may be better to give the jury a single, cohesive counter-explanation of the facts.
By way of example, let's take the implied defense assertion in this case that the rare Henkel duct tape was placed by George on Caylee and the gas can then George meticulously removed duct tape from the rest of household (I guess Baez was insinuating they were using it to mount pictures on the wall? Hold the legs on the sofa? Keep the pieces of string cheese in the refrigerator together? I really didn't understand where in the house OTHER than the shed/garage one might expect to find duct tape in use. As comedian Jeff Foxworthy might say, if duct tape is visible in the living areas of your home, you may be a red neck...) in order to frame Casey, although George didn't plant the remaining duct tape roll in Casey's car but instead used it to post missing-Caylee posters. Casey was supposedly molested by George but her jailhouse videos show her praising what a great father and grandfather he was.
I was trained in the "Golden Thread" technique i.e. there is a golden thread running through all of the evidence and all evidence relates back to that golden thread. My "Golden Thread" training would lead me to use Lee's deposition where Lee explained that Lee sometimes mowed the lawn that summer thus Lee would have removed the neat, precisely square piece of Henkel duct tape George had placed over the gas can vent when Lee was pouring gas into the lawnmower, to break the vacuum so the gas would indeed pour. Then, when Lee re-filled the gas can with gas, Lee was less meticulous than George and placed a less-than-perfectly-square piece of duct tape over the gas can vent to prevent it from leaking. Apparently Lee kept the roll of duct tape because subsequently Lee used it to post the missing-Caylee posters at the missing-Caylee command post. The reason the roll of Henkel duct tape is missing from the Anthony residence is because Lee has it. Cherry on top: Casey had previously complained to others about Lee molesting her (but had NOT complained about George) plus Lee is likely to be familiar with the neighborhood pet cemetery/hangout for drinking and smoking pot. Thus, Lee seems like the obvious choice of alternative suspect - much better than George. Alternatively, since there is SO MUCH evidence pointing straight back at Casey as the last person to see Caylee alive, failure to report Caylee missing/kidnapped, etc., an early-stage plea bargain (prior to discovery of Caylee's trash-bagged, duct-taped remains) would have been a good idea.
If I were involved in a case where the other attorneys wanted to go with a shotgun approach rather than a golden thread approach, I would probably feel so uncomfortable that I would leave. Kind of like how Terence M. Lenamon, Andrea Lyon, Linda Kenney Baden and Todd Macaluso aren't members of Casey's defense team anymore.
Katprint
Always only my own opinions
Did he ask for non-skull photos to be pixelated?? :waitasec:
