West Coast Trial Lawyers reposted this
Harvard Law Grad At 22 | Former Big Law | Former Federal Prosecutor | Author | TV Commentator | President of West Coast Trial Lawyers
Day one of the Baldwin trial is in the books. Opening statements went as expected, and I still think this is a good defense case. The prosecution made a couple of mistakes at the beginning of their case-in-chief in my opinion. The prosecution has the advantage of starting first and ending last, so you want to start strong and end strong. I understand the logic of proceeding chronologically, but they should have started with more compelling evidence than dry law enforcement witness. Even Baldwin was yawning. Second, they shouldn’t have allowed the defense to introduce evidence of the 911 call during cross-examination. The call was helpful for the defense because the caller said two people were “accidentally shot” and it seemed to blame assistant director Dave Halls and not Baldwin. If you have bad evidence as a lawyer, you should own it and front it for the jury. That gives you credibility. I talked to CNN about the first day.