ANATOMY OF A WIN (Continued)
From the Desk of Mace

One of the THE most important things is to have jury instructions that tell your story or at least support your position. Nevada has good self defense instructions that say if evidence of self-defense is presented then the State MUST prove beyond a reasonable doubt that self defense did NOT exist. This is a tough burden.

Also based on my clients testimony and the State's first witness there was a struggle for the gun that actually killed the decedent. This supported a theory of accidental killing. I used a program called, FORECITE that shows you defense friendly instructions from all of the country. I found some from the Virginia Pattern Instruction that really helped me.

During final argument I kept pulling up the gun and saying "What would you do if this gun was pointed at you?" I showed the self defense instruction that said if there was evidence of self defense presented the State needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it did NOT exist. (I blew up this jury instruction to poster size and circled MUST on each one of them) I also blew up some accidental killing instruction that said if you have a doubt whether this killing was intentional or accident than you SHALL find the Defendant not guilty. I reminded the jury these instructions weren't coming form the D.A. or me but they were the LAW!

I reminded them about their oath as jurors and talked about OLD Bailey the first English court house where America got its system of jurisprudence and the saying emblazoned on the rock which says "The Crown Never Loses". What this means as long as a Defendant is tried fairly no matter what the verdict is the Crown Never loses. Finally I told them a tragedy took place on February 9, 2001 ( my client's birthday). Don't let there be another tragedy .

They deliberated about 6 hours ,at 3:30 p.m. they asked about a definition of involuntary manslaughter (which I thought was going to be their verdict). I predicted they would be back that day .They did! At approximately 5:00 p.m., they came back Not Guilty on ALL Counts! How Sweet it is! Unfortunately, I was not able to talk to the jurors at that time because of the late hour and we respectfully waited for the jury to file out before we began our raucous celebration.

Ciao Mace