Essentially, the title says it all. How do some lawyers make such a difference in the outcome of a trial when defending clients accused of crimes? The evidence is the same regardless of the lawyer, so it doesn’t seem like they should have that much power over the verdict.
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The evidence presented should be the same, but a good lawyer knows to double check the evidence, try to downplay the more damning stuff, and try to elevate the exonerating evidence.
A defense lawyer, at his most basic, is a debator. His job isn’t just to go where the evidence points, far from it. Often he has to take a piece of damning evidence and convince 12 people to ignore it.
To see what a great defense attorney can do, look at Johnny Cochrane and the OJ Simpson trial. He had OJ try on a pair of blood-drenched leather gloves over a pair of latex gloves in court after making sure OJ didn’t take a medicine that would keep his hands from swelling. Of course, those gloves were not going to fit right there, and it shouldn’t have swayed a jury.
But Johnny was very convincing.
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