Arias Trial is Void Because the Government Facilitated Witness Tampering on a Grand Scale.

Judge Sherry Stephens and Prosecutor Juan Martinez 

Phoenix, AZ—Let me begin by saying I’m not now nor have I ever been retained as the defense investigator for Jodi Arias.  I’m not her friend or one of her supporters. 

I have however been greatly alarmed by the conduct involved with her journey through the Arizona criminal justice system. How the Arias case became such a high profile circus defies all logic.

This was a no more than passionate event of one lover killing another.  This is not really unusual as homicides go.  

How this became a Capital First Degree Murder Case makes no sense to me at all.  Had there been financial gain involved I may have supported a murder charge.

Arias has already been behind bars for over six years and has served adequate time for a more realistic crime such as Manslaughter. 

She’s been convicted of Capital Murder and now a second jury is going to be wangling with her punishment.  We now know that any attempt at fairness of her murder trial and sentencing phase has been terminally compromised

The prosecution and trial of Arias before Judge Sherry Stephens, was nothing less than a judicial nightmare.  The prosecutor Juan Martinez has substantially lowered the acceptable prosecutor's behavior bar and Judge Stephens has miserably failed to rein him in.   

Judge Stephens succeeded in raising her own celebrity star along with Martinez by making sure national TV cameras were unobstructed as they mugged for them.

The media circus created one more unintended monster; legions of pathetic trolls that formed a media fueled lynch mob.  The results were constant death threats to each and every witness that was called by the Arias defense.  Undoubtedly that influenced testimony and perhaps caused defense witnesses to restrain their testimony or refuse to cooperation.  

The threats were discussed today before the Arizona Court of Appeals and they are the apparent reason Judge Stephens has sealed the courtroom.  This sudden attempt to deal with this mess all comes too little and too late.

The decision to allow cameras into courtrooms for live and contemporaneous broadcast was a bad one.  Video is fine as long as it is broadcast or otherwise published after the trial is concluded.

Too many things and do go wrong including the now apparent unbridled witness tampering in the Arias proceedings.

Arizona has now more than adequately demonstrated that protecting Arias’ rights became impossible.  This cannot be somehow cured or remedied now.  Now there is only one fair thing to do and that’s to cut the losses and free Arias. 

There is a valuable less here for future trials. 

Death Penalty Activist Ruben “Hurricane” Carter is Dead

Ruben "Hurricane" Carter dead at 76

Toronto, Canada— He was one of seven siblings raised in poverty.   Ruben “Hurricane” Carter had a troubled youth filled with police, jail, courts and prison.  He somehow found salvation and money as a champion boxer until his new life came crashing down.

Carter’s troubled past kept him on the police radar as a “usual suspect” and he was arrested and twice convicted for a New Jersey triple murder.  Finally in 1985 after some 20 years in prison Carter finally won his freedom from the wrongful conviction.

Carter left the nation that failed him in seeking justice for Canada.  He spent the rest of his life speaking, advocating and investigating on behalf of Death Row inmates.  Carter created and chaired a foundation for the wrongly convicted. 

Carter and Willoughby courtesy New Times

I met and chatted extensively with Carter in Phoenix when he came there on behalf of former Death Row inmate 
Dan Willoughby during his second trial.   Willoughby asked me to do his defense investigation but the court appointed rotation list did not allow for that to happen.  He had insufficient resources to hire me.  Instead I covered the case for TV news.  

Carter was a friendly and determined fellow.  Just like the actor that played him in the movie Hurricane, Denzel Washington, Carter was a very sharp dresser.    

Dan Willoughby

Dan Willoughby had a somewhat sordid adulterous affair with a Mexican transsexual named Yesenia Patino.  In 1991, Patino murdered Willoughby’s then wife Trish in Rocky Point, Mexico. 

Arizona authorities felt that Willoughby was involved in a murder conspiracy that began there and claimed jurisdiction of the murder that was committed in a foreign land.

Patino said she beat Trish Willoughby’s head in with a medieval mace and stabbed her with two knives and strangled her with a rope.  Patino was sent to a Mexican prison for 35 years but was brought to Arizona twice to testify against Willoughby.   Patino first claimed that Willoughby was present and participated in the murder. 

After the first trial Patino recanted, saying she carried out the murder alone and that led to the second trial.   

Even thought the crime occurred in Mexico where there is no death penalty Willoughby wound up on Arizona’s Death Row.  The resources and expertise of Mexican police to examine the crime scene was nothing less than what we’d call today, a CSI nightmare.

Getting an Arizona jury to believe Willoughby considering his peculiar adultery paramour and issues surrounding his dead wife’s wealth and a $1 million life insurance policy proved impossible. 

The jury viewed Willoughby as being a philandering, gold digging, perverted and unsympathetic character.  He was convicted again at his second trial.  This time Willoughby was spared the death penalty and re-sentenced to life in Prison.  

Carter passed away at age 76 in Toronto.  His funeral arrangements are pending.

Can Jodi Arias be Helped Through a New Defense Investigation?

Phoenix, AZ—A jury convicted Jodi Arias of Capital Murder.   She now faces sentencing and her lawyers are frantically trying to save her life. 

I have gotten several requests from sincere readers to reinvestigate the Arias case.  None of them have come with the necessary retainer to allow me to help out.  

The case is somewhat problematic since Arias had changed her story to police and juries rarely will forgive what they believe to be lies, especially by the accused.   I can tell you that many innocent defendants fib to police all the time out of absolute desperation.  It is more about fear and the instinct for survival that anything else.  

I know that the trial was beyond troubling because the jury was bombarded with outrageous outside influences from the massive media circus.  Her trial was a lot of things but fair was not one of them.  Members of the Mormon community pulled out all the stops in efforts to influence that poor excuse for a trial.

For those that would ask why would you investigate for someone like this?  My answer is simple every American that is accused has a constitutional right to an effective defense and investigation is part of that.  The chips will fall where they may. 

Saying that,  I don’t know what the truth is about the actual innocence of Arias.  In the end her defense was self-defense.  I specialize in those kinds of cases and won 14 out of the last 14 I’ve handled for the defense.  Saying that I can’t make a promise of a particular result for Arias.

Lawyers can only do so much with what they are given in the way of evidence and witnesses.  My job is to give defense lawyers more evidence to work with.  Accordingly the defense investigation often becomes more important than the legal work by defense counsel.  Of course the lawyers have to get that evidence before the jury and sometimes that's very difficult.  

Too often the defense investigation is not done well.  Sometimes lawyers constrain the investigators too much or they are unable to suggest creative ways of gathering evidence to the investigators.  Far too many defense investigators are simply not creative and only follow suggestions of the lawyers. 

The investigator must be sharp, creative and must discuss his ideas with the lead lawyer.  The reality is that the lead lawyer is the captain of the ship.  The defense team is not a democracy but a dictatorship with the lead lawyer as a single dictator.  

Like all of us I have to pay the mortgage companies, utilities and the daily costs in a miserable economy.  There is no way for me to do this pro-bono.  The reinvestigation could easily run $50K before it’s over.

It is substantially easier to win a case at the initial trial level that to overturn an existing conviction.  However convictions are overturned all the time.  I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t predict how this will end.

A proposition

I’m willing to begin a reinvestigation this case for $20K.  That would essentially allow me to get up to speed on the facts and give me the various directions to move forward.  In it self this may somehow be enough to find the evidence that could make a difference.  I can’t possibly know until I have spent a couple of months on this case where it will go or what it will cost in the end.  If things begin to look promising we can worry about the additional costs later.    

Arias’s supporters seem both convinced and vocal.   Through our social media funds can be raised and if my minimum retainer can be met I am willing to take this case on.  Perhaps Kickstarter or some other Internet fundraising scheme may be the way to get funding.  I won’t get involved with the solicitation of funds myself.

The other side of this coin is the media  and social media has made Arias a pariah especially within the ranks of the fans of TV legal bomb thrower, Nancy Grace.   Nancy Grace however could be the biggest fundraiser as she agitates the supporters of Arias.

There is just one thing more Ms. Arias must consent to my intervention.  The ball is now in the court of Arias and her supporters.  This  game does not have to be over.

UPDATE:  I just got a reliable tip in Phoenix about the Arias case.  Apparently the defense has found a new witness and is filing a motion for a new trial so that this witness may be allowed to testify.  I don't know the details yet and of course I'm not going to look too hard until I am retained.