EYE WITNESS

Eye witnesses are a nightmare for me cause they're so believable. Everyone believes they saw what they say they saw. Even if we read tons of stories in newspapers about some guy getting out of prison after 30 years because some DNA proved that he couldn't be the guy the eyewitness id'd. Even though we see these reports over and over - you put an eyewitness up there and he says "He's the guy!" pointing at my client and the jury is going to convict.
Recently in trial - liquor store robbery with guns and a shootout. The witness who is in the shootout says he saw everything, everything down to minute details about how my guy looked.
I ask. "How's your vision?"
Without hesitation - "Perfect."
But it looks like one of his eyes is higgly so I ask -
"Is something wrong with your right eye?"
"My right eye? Yeah, it’s a prosthetic."

Why this guy pisses me off.

Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits to Soviet Spying

By SAM ROBERTS
Published: September 11, 2008

In 1951, Morton Sobell was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges. He served more than 18 years in Alcatraz and other federal prisons, traveled to Cuba and Vietnam after his release in 1969 and became an advocate for progressive causes.
Through it all, he maintained his innocence.
But on Thursday, Mr. Sobell, 91, dramatically reversed himself, shedding new light on a case that still fans smoldering political passions. In an interview, he admitted for the first time that he had been a Soviet spy.
(NEW YORK TIMES)

What pisses me off about this guy isn't that he was a Soviet spy - it isn't that he's lied for all these years about being a spy - -organized protest groups (I think I may have participated in some demonstrations to "free Sobell") - even when he got out of prison he went on a lecture circuit proclaiming his and Julius Rosenberg's innocence - what gets me is that he writes a book and about 3/4's of it is about how it was his lawyers and the Rosenbergs' lawyers who screwed up. Never mind that he was caught redhanded - never mind the evidence - including his flight to Mexico under a phony name when Julius Rosenberg was arrested, (he has the chutzpah to claim that he skipped out because he felt the political climate was "getting bad"). No, it was his two lawyers and the Rosenbergs' lawyers who fucked up and caused their convictions. That's what Sobell writes. And when you get down into the details of what this guy has to say it's remarkably similar to the complaints I get everyday from many of my clients. Oh if only I had handled their case differently. I know I'm taking this very personally and it's not personal. But what a piece of shit this guy is.