Friday, October 10, 2008

Prosecution to Nowhere? (Redux)

Last week I wrote about the DoJ prosecution of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and how it might be going off the rails. The judge has figured out what to do with the case after multiple instances of prosecutorial misconduct came to life. The judge didn't declare a mistrial, but did decide to exclude certain portions of the Government's evidence. Oh, and he's gonna' tell the jury why:

Perhaps more important, he said he would tell the jury on Thursday that he was excluding some of the prosecution’s evidence because 'the government presented evidence the government knew was not true,' an instruction that is likely to undermine the credibility of the prosecution.

In a special hearing outside the presence of the jury, Judge Sullivan said, 'The government knew the documents were lies.'
It will be interesting to see what the jury does with this. Trials are largely about convincing the jury which side's story is more trustworthy. With the judge flat out telling the jury that the Government has been lying to you, will that be enough to torpedo the case?

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