WHY HAVING A TRIAL BY JURY MAY BE NECESSARY TO OBTAIN THE BEST POSSIBLE RESULT IN CRIMINAL CASES

A jury trial is like climbing a mountain. When you reach the highest peak the view from above will be worth the effort; but if the peak is never reached, then the time, effort and expense will have been wasted. 

No one willingly subjects himself to a jury trial in a criminal case, yet there are occasions when a trial by jury is necessary. One reason for a trial is the most obvious. It's comes when a client insists he's innocent. There will be no plea negotiations. There will simply be a courtroom battle.

Too often the criminal justice system grinds down a defendant's will until the only reasonable choice seems to be to take a plea offer. Yet even the best defense lawyers sometimes forget that every client is presumed innocent under the law until convicted. Even more unusual for lawyers and judges to believe, it's possible that a client who claims to be innocent may in fact be innocent. It's not for the defense lawyer to determine innocence or guilt, but to find the best possible outcome for the client in each criminal prosecution. 

Just as clients are often ground down by the criminal justice system, so are the lawyers and judges. This is true because a high percentage of cases especially in federal courts plead guilty. A recent study established that for the past ten years 96% of defendants in federal court pled guilty leading many defendants to believe the system is rigged to find guilt and to avoid jury trials. One suspects that in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa and in the Florida state court system as found in Pinellas County, Florida that the percentage may be only slightly less.

What this means for defense lawyers is that legal victories are often hard to achieve for any client, let alone those who are innocent, thus further dampening the fervor to achieve brilliant court victories, since even the best defense lawyers must advise their clients of the current probabilities of jury trial success.  Perhaps clients would be well advised to find out when their lawyer last went to trial and what the result was, because one factor of importance in successful plea negotiation is the willingness of defense counsel to go to trial even on a losing case when necessary. Perhaps a client can learn more about the grit of a lawyer from that lawyer's defeats than his winning percentage.

There's something noble about the bloodied fighter getting off the mat despite the pounding. There's something eternally mysterious about the moment before the foreman of the jury announces the verdict. Heart skips a beat, time seems to stop, till 'not guilty' fills the courtroom, feel the deep exhale from your client within, the laughter of his family, a nod from the stern judge, a feeling not just of happiness envelops you but a feeling that justice can prevail in this America, our America, and that justice is worth fighting for.

ANATOMY OF A VERDICT: HOW ANGELA DAVIS BRANDED A TERRORIST WAS FOUND NOT GUILTY BY JURY IN TEARS

Modern criminal defense may have begun in 1972 when Angela Davis, a committed communist, was found not guilty of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy by a white jury, after an eloquent closing argument from her lawyer, Leo Branton.

Angela Davis, center, in 1969

Angela Davis was arrested for providing the weapons used in one of the most troubling and notorious criminal cases of that turbulent era. During a routine trial of a youthful offender, the young man gained control of the courtroom taking the judge, the prosecutor and several jurors hostage. Eventually in a brutal police shootout the judge, prosecutor and one of the jurors who'd been taken hostage were killed.  

The case was presented by the FBI and the press as law and order versus anarchy and chaos. And it was proven that Angela Davis had purchased the sawed-off shotgun used to kill the judge two days earlier. 

Nixon called her "a dangerous terrorist," while John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Rolling Stones recorded two songs defending her, Angela and Sweet Black Angel.

Her defense lawyer, who died two days ago, was one of the first to successfully use a team of psychologists to determine who in the jury pool would be most amenable to defense arguments. 
Yet what Clearwater criminal defense lawyers hope is never
 forgotten is the attorney's brilliant closing argument which reminded jurors of America's long road from slavery linked to residual racism which explained the fact that Angela Davis, an FBI  ten most wanted, had fled after the shooting. As a professor she'd long argued police could not be trusted often referring to them as pigs. 
As the NYT's noted in her lawyer's obituary this morning, his closing argument may have won the day:

Friends of mine said we couldn’t get a fair trial here in Santa Clara County. They said that we could not get 12 white people who would be fair to a black woman charged with the crimes that are charged in this case.Then he presented jurors with a drawing of Ms. Davis bound in chains, then a second drawing of her freed. He said:
“Pull away these chains,” he said, “as I have pulled away that piece of paper.“
Some jurors cried, and after she was acquitted, so did Ms. Davis. She also hugged the jurors.

The best Tampa Bay Defense Attorneys know that it takes much more than mere words reducing jurors to tears for significant not guilty verdicts; it takes finding shared values, dedication, skill and a lot of hard work.