Steely Dan
Former Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2008
- Messages
- 30,559
- Reaction score
- 110
IMO, LE should NEVER stop looking at other avenues and focus on one person until a conviction. Even when EVERYTHING points to that one person, they should never stop looking. Because the minute they focus on one person and one person only, they put blinders on. Those blinders only allow them to see evidence that points to that person's guilt. They miss evidence that may cause a jury to find reasonable doubt.
It is not that the "defendant" is not guilty. It is about being able to make the jury see reasonable doubt. When LE has blinders on, they stop looking at the case from a defense point of view. They will not investigate other leads. They are sure those leads are false which they probable are false. However, by not investigating them, they open the door for the defense. The defense will make the argument that they focused on the defendant and did not consider other possibilities. If any of those other leads results in a witness testifying to another suspect, the State is really in trouble. Because if they had not had their blinders on, they would have considered the possibility, investigated it, and proved it was not a lead. But they decided they did not need to do that because they were sure they had the right person.
IMO, most defendants are represented by overworked and underpaid public defenders who do not have the time, the knowledge, and/or the resources to properly prepare a defense. As a result both the prosecutors and LE have become complacent. They cut corners, they do not thoroughly investigate, they focus on who they think is guilty because they know the chances of the public defender putting on a great defense is slim. Then they got a defendant who has the great defense attorney and the resources to put that complacency on trial and juries find reasonable doubt.
IMO, if they were never complacent to begin with, it would not matter if the defendant had a public defender or a great defense attorney...their case would stand the test of both.
BBM
IMO, that's just not practical. If my kid is missing I don't want LE wasting time on CA's latest crackpot theory on what happened to Caylee. LE has a lot of real crime to investigate. Should they ever close the door or ignore credible leads? No, but I don't want them wasting time and money on things that are already settled. In the KC case things are settled to my satisfaction. KC killed Caylee IMO.
When it comes to the KH case and TH I sure hope they haven't closed any avenues. I have no proof that they have.
By making LE check out every lead you get trials that take years to happen. Most DA's, IMO, don't make the evidence fit a suspect. They find a suspect because that person fits the evidence. JMO