Patterico's Pontifications

7/12/2007

What kind of lawyer would you want for YOUR murder trial?

Filed under: Miscellaneous — Justin Levine @ 2:13 am



[posted by Justin Levine] 

I was struck by this profile of Phil Spector attorney Bruce Cutler.

First off, he seems to think that he is the only one capable of “freeing” Spector –

“Phillip needs me” to win over the jury. “He needs my oomph, bang and emotion,” said Cutler, who is known as much for his theatrics as his legal skills.

To know him is to acquit him, Cutler said. “The jury needs to know Phillip. They can only know him through me,” he said.

“I believe in Phillip. I am the only one who can wield the cudgel, heavy enough, light enough, to free him,” he said.

Now, word has it that Cutler will be on a reality TV show. Draw your own conclusions.

8 Responses to “What kind of lawyer would you want for YOUR murder trial?”

  1. Note to Bruce:
    If you keep calling your client “Phillip” instead of “Phil,” your client is doomed.

    Perfect Sense (b6ec8c)

  2. Note to Bruce:
    You should counsel your client about those freaky haircuts.

    Old Coot (7c7050)

  3. At least the judge isn’t on Leno.

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  4. I will agree that Cutler has been abrasive and ineffective, even detrimental, to the defense case so far. He antagonized the judge, the jury, the public, and has now made a joke of himself leaving the trial to videotape a TV show. What an egotistical blowhard.

    Roger Rosen, however, has emerged as the lead defense attorney and at times has been outstanding. I questioned his decision to call the LASD detective to quibble about details left out of some of his interviews, especially when D.D.A. Jackson got up joking with the witness and exclaiming that “we go way back.” But after Jackson elicited some seemingly damaging testimony about the propriety of drinking while interviewing a potential witness who might be drinking, I thought Rosen did an impressive and honorable job of drawing distinctions in situations, subject (possible suspect vs. witness), and purpose — turning the tables as to why the homicide investigator tape-recorded potential Spector woman-friend victims with stories while he didn’t tape the woman Spector was taking out earlier in the evening in question.

    nosh (de5a83)

  5. maybe cutler will do for specter what he did for john gotti? I’d have thought that after gotti was convicted, cutler’s stock would have been rated a definite sell.

    steve sturm (40e5a6)

  6. It is a difficult situation for the defense at best. Spector has gone through a couple of defense teams after calling for Robert Shapiro at the time of the shooting and then switching again, mostly to delay. Thus comes the embarrassing Sara Cutler testimony that the prosecution hopes will sink Henry Lee.

    Those that are left have a tough proposition, a high-profile shooting death with a weird, nasty defendant who has lots of history and baggage. And worse still, he very well may be innocent. The forensic evidence is questionable, at best. The defendant is an unsympathetic boar and bore who has a short fuse and likes to draw guns to assert his manhood and control. He is rich, sick in many ways, probably alcoholic, old and alone, trembles, and that only scratches the surface.

    So a formerly attractive actress, down on her luck and meeting him at closing time at the H’o’Blues, accepts a invite home. She’s had a vicodin and now a bunch of alcohol. And she’s thrilled at the however remote potential of meeting this former star but it is a great mansion and maybe it is hope and then, like all of the other girls, she doesn’t want to stay and the gun comes out.

    And now: Does Phil Spector push the gun through her teeth (something he had never done with any of the others) and overcome her struggling and pull the trigger and blow her away? Or does he display the gun and then she thinks this is scary but dramatic and somehow get him to turn over the gun and a melodrama ensues and in the vicodin/alcohol/fame/flame-out haze does she shoot herself? Or is there some sort of strange struggle/assault/accident where somehow the gun went off accidently and tragically?

    What are the defense attorneys, and even the prosecution, thinking? Why does the defense keep fighting the allegations that Spector was drunk? Sure, the prosecution wants to fill out their “two faces” portrayal. But why fight so hard? If he is drunk, he’s less able to overcome the much larger, supposedly less inebriated victim. She was able to grab and control the gun and turn the tables.

    On the other hand, the prosecution doesn’t want her to be a sedated, depressed suicide. But if she is vibrant, hopeful, stable, and a clear victim, then why couldn’t the younger, stronger, larger, more sober person fend him off?

    nosh (de5a83)

  7. Cutler was emblemetic of a certain time in NYC when people really viewed mafia thugs as “Godfather” types. And John Gotti was the archetype and a master at playing the media. Fortunately, the feds finally nailed Gotti and eventually most of the others fell. But fyi: Cutler was brilliant in defending Gotti for nearly two decades, and it was only after he was barred from repping Gotti was he convicted.

    Edward (7bebb8)

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