<p>Re post 1397: In the Texas case that you are referring to, a grand jury declined to indict. As grand jury proceedings are secret, we can’t know what factors came into play – but obviously a prosecutor was trying to get an indictment. The individuals shot were clearly engaged in a crime (burglary), and the defendant testified before the grand jury – there was also at least one witness to buttress a claim of self defense. See [Texas</a> man is cleared in fatal shootings - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/01/nation/na-shoot1]Texas”>Texas man is cleared in fatal shootings) </p>
<p>In any case, the fact that a grand jury in Harris County Texas fails to return an indictment has nothing whatsoever to do with a trial of case in Florida. (There’s an old lawyer’s joke about Texas, that it’s a good defense to murder that the victim “needed killing”) But the facts from the Horn case may have been one reason that the Florida prosecutor opted to bypass a grand jury.</p>
<p>In any case, the decision by a jury or grand jury in one case has no bearing on what happens in another. Z. may well be acquitted by a jury that hears all the facts – we don’t know. Kluge and I are just saying that we’ve seen people convicted on far less evidence. We’ve also seen people acquitted in stronger cases – but the convictions are far more common than acquittals.</p>
<p>The element that would tend to give me pause as a defense attorney is that an acquittal probably depends on Z’s credibility as a witness. The most dangerous thing that a defense attorney can do in a case is to put the defendant on the witness stand. They tend to fall apart under cross-examination. If the defendant is perceived as being lying or evasive, it’s a double whammy: once the jury decides that the defendant is a liar, its an easy step to conviction. Juries will often work a lot harder to try to see things in a positive light when they haven’t heard from the defendant, and start to feel like they have the responsibility of filling in the missing pieces.</p>