I spent 22 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit

Re:I spent 22 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit by stronglikedan on Thursday December 05, 2019 @11:47AM (#21713797)

If you know who your judge will be, but you don't have a lawyer yet, just go sit in their courtroom for a while watching the defenders. You want the one that everyone from the state says hello to, and laughs and jokes with. Even better if they have the same type of rapport with the judge. Follow them out when they're finished, and ask them for their card.

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Re:I spent 22 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit by iudqnolq on Thursday December 05, 2019 @12:56PM (#21714482)

Are you a lawyer? This sounds like clever advice, but inexperienced cleverness can be worse than doing nothing in highly complicated and specialized domains like the law.

For example, it could be interpreted as stalking judge to intimidate them into ruling for you (dumb, but morons have tried this) and the court system responds with overwhelming force to anything smelling of possibly threatening a judge.

This is just a random person on the internet's speculation. It'd be useful to know if your comment is similarly just armchair speculation or if you either have expertise or can cite an example of this working out well.

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Re:I spent 22 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit by stronglikedan on Thursday December 05, 2019 @01:57PM (#21715160)

I'm not a lawyer, but I've unfortunately been a defendant a few times. As for examples, I have only my own, but it's worked out well for me, since I've never been convicted of anything.

Anyone can walk into any courtroom at any time (in most cases), so it wouldn't be misinterpreted as stalking. In fact, there are people out there that go spend the day in the courtrooms for fun - just watching the cases unfold.

The gist is that you want a lawyer that is both known and liked by the state and the judge. They have a much better chance of negotiating on your behalf. You definitely don't want one that they don't like, and that is usually immediately apparent in the courtroom interactions.

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Re:I spent 22 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit by iudqnolq on Thursday December 05, 2019 @02:22PM (#21715469)

Thanks for the detailed reply. Good to know the strategy has been tried in practice.

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Re:I spent 22 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit by lonelappde on Thursday December 05, 2019 @12:21PM (#21714134)

If you don't have a lawyer yet after your bail hearing you are already in trouble. You should already have a lawyer and use the opportunity to shop for a second lawyer.

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