Blog, I'll give you a blog
A friend of mine commented that I had not posted in some time, and he missed my sarcasm. Anyway, I tried a case to jury two weeks ago, and I lost. (I know, I am the only attorney in the world that has ever admitted to losing a case). The jury was out for about 3 hours, when they came back guilty.
Part of me wanted to say, "If there is a reasonable explanation for the behavior, outside of being under the influence of alcohol, then there's a reasonable doubt." I had said as much in my closing argument. The other part of me wanted to jump over the short wall and start battering jurors. What idiots!
The officer had testified that he did not know why field sobriety tests demonstrated intoxication, he only knew that they did, if you failed them. He didn't know why failing them meant intoxication. My client did not take the breathalyzer.
Also picking a jury had been difficult. In the first 8 or so jurors, one had a daughter killed by DUI, one had a niece killed by DUI, one had a friend who had lost his whole family to DUI, and another's wife had been injured by a DUI Chicago Alderman that according to the juror "had gotten away with it'" Of course, I had all of those jurors excluded, however the entire juror pool had heard the potential jurors tell their stories.
In short, DUI cases can be tough. The State of Illinois is always trying to close "loopholes" and juries have more and more bad experiences with DUI drivers. But they are cases that can be managed to successful results too. And people can recover from DUI charges.
So, I apologize for not blogging as much. I have just had a lot on my mind.
Ray Flavin
