Comments on: Paul Minor’s Brief on Appeal

By: a friend of the law

a friend of the law — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:25:59 +0000

msbroker, thanks for the correction — I agree with you — LOL

By: msbroker

msbroker — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:51:34 +0000

AFOL, you said earlier he deserves what he has gotten….. I disagree, it is my understanding he has “earned” millions of dollars…. I am not sure he deserves them……

By: a friend of the law

a friend of the law — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:38:36 +0000

“There is something very bad-smelling about the same judge’s switching rulings on the jury instructions between the trials. I don’t know if Judge Wingate issued an opinion explaining the change or not.”

Anderson, whatever do you mean? Spill it.

New trial means the proof and evidence must once again be presented in the courtroom in front of a jury. And I know of no rule that says the same exact evidence must be presented the second time around. Likewise, the jury instructions may not have been correct the first time around, and needed to be adjusted — for legal reasons, evidentiary reasons, etc.

I did not mean to suggest that jury instructions are not important. I think they are important. I spend a lot of my time drafting them and arguing for and against them in court.

Having said that, my view expressed above about Minor is primarily while wearing my average Joe citizen hat, not my lawyer hat. And I have no sympathy for the guy whatsoever. He is reaping the whirlwind.

By: curious georgette

curious georgette — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:44:11 +0000

Even if you think the judge erred in changing his mind on the jury instructions, is anybody buying the fantasy that Judge Wingate was part of some anti-Minor conspiracy out to get the defendant? That’s just crazy, crazy stuff. How could anyone who has practiced in front of Wingate even believe that? I have never, ever heard anyone suggest Wingate acted for political reasons in any case.

By: HailReagan

HailReagan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:23:25 +0000

I sat on a jury for a murder trial. All the evidence was circumstantial. The Circuit Judge spent an inordinate amount of time giving us instructions as to how to handle circumstantial vs. physical evidence. I can’t imagine a jury going to decide one’s fate with anything less the best instructions possible. I have no idea though whether the instructions in this particular trial were proper or not. However, proper ones are of the utmost importance to lay folks that are already tied up in the emotions of even having to be there. But that’s just me…..

By: NMC

NMC — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:04:56 +0000

Lawyer-specific rant:

I am very, very tired of the rule about “the jury instructions as a whole” papering over a refusal to instruct in a clear way and trying to make jury instruction issues harmless error.

There was a seminal law journal article by a great judge on the California Supreme Court in the 60s-70s called “The Harm of Harmless Error.”

By: NMC

NMC — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:00:28 +0000

I’ll endorse Anderson 28 and rogerwilco 29

By: rogerwilco

rogerwilco — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:54:16 +0000

I’ll disagree with the characterization of jury instructions as a “technicality.”

By: Anderson

Anderson — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:43:35 +0000

AFOTL, Minor may deserve a lot, but so do plenty of other people who aren’t in jail & neveer will be.

There is something very bad-smelling about the same judge’s switching rulings on the jury instructions between the trials. I don’t know if Judge Wingate issued an opinion explaining the change or not.

I’ll toss a similar question out to the one above from msbroker: would YOU want to be a criminal defendant who got a hung jury on your first case, and then the judge decided to alter the jury instructions to make it easier to convict you?

By: a friend of the law

a friend of the law — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:13:06 +0000

I will say this in general about Minor. Even if his case is reversed on appeal on some evidentiary technicality (which I don’t think it will be), many of us, including me, take exception to anyone trying to paint this man as some sort of “victim” of overzealous prosecution, etc. Hogwash. Minor’s proven activities indicate that he is at least an unethical, corrupt POS that has no business practicing law in the state of MS. He deserves everything he has received to date, IMO. He is lucky that public flogging is not still legal as a form of punishment.