{"id":8898,"date":"2025-08-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=8898"},"modified":"2025-07-29T11:56:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:56:50","slug":"good-advice-from-a-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/good-advice-from-a-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"GOOD ADVICE FROM A LAWYER"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My reading is primarily non-fiction, so I\u2019m pretty picky about which novelists I\u2019ll spare reading time for. One is Scott Turow, a former attorney whose fiction set in courtrooms rings true to my own experience after years as an arresting officer, police department prosecutor, and expert witness. His latest, this year\u2019s \u201cPresumed Guilty<\/a>,\u201d ran true to form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s one thing he wrote there which I consider a truism: \u201c\u2019God save me from the innocent client.\u2019 That is the watchword of defense lawyers. When I was a prosecutor, I never really understood the phrase, except as a smartass expression I often heard from a lawyer on the other side, since they\u2019d usually follow it by saying, \u2018But God has been good to me in this case.\u2019 Yet there is a grim truth in the maxim. The burden of this case has increased enormously in the last few days. It\u2019s no longer enough to commit every fiber to doing my best. I must \u2013 must <\/em>\u2013 win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve found that to be absolutely true. However, he followed with something I would debate in part: \u201cInnocent clients are also harder to represent in a fundamental way. They are unpredictable. Guilty clients will lie, deny, blame others. They have a certain limited register of reactions. Innocent clients, caught in their nightmarish predicament, cannot be counted on to be rational because they have understandably lost all faith in reason as a governing principle of the social world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll buy the loss of faith part, for sure. As Turow says, it\u2019s understandable. However, I\u2019ve seen again and again that a properly prepared defendant, testifying to the truth, can get that truth across to judge and jury. I do primarily self-defense use of force cases. They are not \u201cwhodunnit\u201d but \u201cwhy did she or he do it,\u201d and only he or she who fired in self-defense can truly, fully explain why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found \u201cPresumed Guilty<\/a>\u201d an excellent read, and recommend it. The trial tactics and dynamics therein are pretty much spot on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My reading is primarily non-fiction, so I\u2019m pretty picky about which novelists I\u2019ll spare reading time for. One is Scott Turow, a former attorney whose fiction set in courtrooms rings true to my own experience after years as an arresting officer, police department prosecutor, and expert witness. His latest, this year\u2019s \u201cPresumed Guilty,\u201d ran true […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8899,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8898\/revisions\/8899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}