95% the first day or two, maybe. By the third day it's up to 98%. I don't know if Tanner hates Jim -- that seems strong, based on the evidence I've seen -- but it's more like he doesn't take Bell or his lawyer seriously at all. Bell is more interested in making points against the government than putting on a defense, and is (a bad move) trying to be his own lawyer. He apparently believes he will win; he is almost certainly mistaken. -Declan On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 11:59:28AM -0800, auto211076@hushmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 5 Apr 2001 10:23:33 -0400, Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> wrote:
I think that's a fair description of Day I. By Day II, though, Leen seemed to miss some obvious (to me) technical questions that could be raised on cross. I also had the change to watch him more closely, and he seems to be doing a perfunctory job. He's almost communicating to the jury (and clearly communicating to the judge) that he believes his client is guilty but has the right to a trial.
Over 95% of the objections that Jim's attorney has raised over the last 2 days have been overruled, where almost every one of the objections that the D.A. has raised have been sustained. It's pretty obvious that Judge Tanner hates Jim--partly because Jim hasn't shown the proper decorous respect to the judge--and Jim's attorney is fighting that as well as the prosecution. By yesterday afternoon, he looked totally demoralized.
One of the people in the court who was reasonably friendly to Jim pointed out to him yesterday that instead of trying to prove a point, Jim should have spent his time trying to win his case. Leen has to deal with a client who is at least partly committed to a crusade.
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