[conspire] Reiser case: Hans's paranoia, a psychologist speaks, Hans testifies

[Christian Einfeldt]

> Mo 2008-03-03:  Defence has called Hans Reiser as a witness, a move
> considered highly perilous by defence lawyers:  It opens avenues of
> inquiry for prosecution that are otherwise unavailable, and, in cases
> like Hans's, where impressions on juries count for a great deal, a long
> cross-examination can cause an anger-prone or arrogant or evasive or
> merely unlikeable defendant to sink his/her own case.


True.  Most criminal defense attorneys hate to allow their clients to
testify for the reasons Rick gives above; in addition, if nothing else,
testimony exposes the defendant to prosecution for perjury, if the
prosecutor is miffed at an acquittal and wants to continue to attack the
accused.

Having the criminally accused testify is so unpalatable to a criminal
defense attorney (at least those whom I personally know), that many of them
tell me that they have moved to withdraw rather than see their clients go
down in flames under their watch.

There is another avenue of danger for criminal defense attorneys with
clients who want to testify:  what to do with a client whom the criminal
defense attorney has reason to believe will commit perjury.  The attorney is
not allowed to suborn perjury.  Which means that the attorney is not
allowed, on direct, to ask questions that the attorney knows will illicit
the lies.  Attorneys at that point are supposed to ask very general
questions, and the mere fact that the attorney is now switching to such as
style of direct exam is, itself, a big fat tip to the prosecution and to the
judge, who know exactly what is going on.  If you want to know what life in
hell is like, it is being a criminal defense attorney, at least from my
perspective.  Conversely, people who have the strength to be good criminal
defense attorneys certainly have earned a place in heaven, if there such a
place or such a state of being.
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