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| Lead lawyer, Joel Brodsky |
Chicago, IL—The Drew Peterson
Inquisition was an un-American legal experience. Trial by unprecedented hearsay testimony
rather than evidence doomed Peterson to an adverse verdict. This was to satisfy the lynch mob mentality
that dictated the predetermined result.
There were no less that six
lawyers defending Drew Peterson. That
was a recipe for dysfunction, anger and loathing. I’ve seen it before even when the results
were victorious such as in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
When the stakes are high each
lawyer has different ideas and sometimes the mixture of ideas become incredibly
caustic.
As a criminal defense
investigator and veteran of numerous murder trials I had my own ideas about
Peterson’s defense direction. I did not
get to vote but sensed a disaster in the making, not from legal strategy but by
the shocking perversion of the way this criminal trial was conducted.
I knew there were conflicts
within the Peterson defense team. I also
understand that lawyers are remembered not for their overall batting average but
the results obtained on a high profile case.
Lawyers that believe in their
positions fight for them like pit bulls.
Litigation is about conflict and lawyers are the gladiators that fight
for survival.
Each lawyer had a huge
personal risk of failure especially when you consider over 80% of all normal
prosecutions end in conviction. The
Peterson prosecution was a lot of things but normal was not one of them.
I hate it when lawyers feud
over professional decisions but it’s a reality.
I consider all the lawyers on
the defense teem as legal champions in their own right. I believe they made an adequate record to win
at some stage whether in expected post-trial motions or in the higher courts.
Lead lawyer, Joel Brodsky
released a statement today in response to former team member Steve Greenberg’s
post trial, sour grapes comments:
Steve Greenberg was given a
job to for the defense team, which was to bring motions and make objections, as
well as cross examine a few witnesses.
He failed to bring the most important motions, such as to bar the 2004
“botched investigation” evidence, saying he would object when the state tried
to get the evidence in. Then he failed
to object when the State started with this evidence, potentially causing the
loss of several important appellate issues.
He also missed several other important objections which are required to
preserve issues to appeal. It was then
that Mr. Greenberg was relieved from the job of making objections. Further, even though Mr. Greenberg he did win
many of the motions, these were on small issues. Greenberg lost the big ones,
such as barring the hearsay previously found to be unreliable, and keeping the
“hit man” testimony out. During the
trial he was frequently absent from the defense table because he was hanging
out in the press room, or by the TruTv television tent,. He also failed to attend almost all after
court team meetings, and was unprepared for his cross-examination of the few
witnesses he had, fumbling for papers while the witnesses were on the stand.
Mr. Greenberg was let go because of his failure to accomplish most of the tasks
he was brought on board to take care of.
Also, for the record,
Greenberg did not object to Harry Smith being called as a witness by the
Defense, and in fact was in favor of him being called as late at the day before
Smith was called. Further, Smith was
never barred from testifying, nor was his testimony reduced in scope by a
motion that Mr. Greenberg made and any statements to that effect are
false. Finally, Greenberg never argued
with me not to call Smith, and his statement to that effect is not true. Greenberg didn’t change his story on the
Harry Smith issue until after Smith testified and he felt that the testimony
may have hurt Drew’s case, and only then did he vocally (to others but not to
the defense team members), start saying that it was a mistake. It is nothing more than a blatant attempt to
distance himself from the conviction that was not really anyone’s fault, as the
jurors public comments show that they were going to convict Drew Peterson no
matter how lacking the evidence was.”
Joel A. Brodsky
Attorney at Law
8 S. Michigan Ave.
Suite 3200
Chicago IL 60603
