Unfairly Prejudiced
On November 28, 2000, two men were convicted of the torture and murders of a mother and her son in their Barnegat, New Jersey home. However, about a year ago, their convictions were reversed by the Appellate Division of New Jersey. This occurred despite an overwhelming amount of evidence linking the two men to these murders. Defense attorneys argued that their clients were unfairly prejudiced because during trial, another incident of robbery and shootings at a barbershop had been brought up in which the defendants had taken part. The defense attorneys argued that this had unfairly prejudiced the defendants since there had been too much detail about the barbershop incident including the amount of blood on the floor, the victims that were shot, etc. during the trial of the murder of the mother and son. The gun that was used at the barbershop had in fact linked the two defendants to the murders that had occurred in 2000. For additional information on this case please refer to the Asbury Park Press article entitled “Ocean County prosecutors to court: Reinstate Barnegat murder convictions”
In 1997, the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys wrote an article entitled“Supreme Court Limits Unfair Prejudice in Gun Cases” in this articled it is opined that there is no way that a jury will listen to details regarding a previous incident and not have those details impact their opinion/judgment of the defendants. Prosecutors use this type of tactic to basically portray the defendants as “bad people” which will more likely sway the jury into finding defendants guilty. This raises a fascinating question, should one acting as a jury member allow themselves to be swayed by hearing the details of a previous crime of a defendant? Does one’s capacity to break the law in another circumstance make them more likely to commit the crime for which they are standing trial? It is situations like this that mandate the necessity of a good criminal defense attorney, a defense attorney who can limit the damage from exposure to the jury of past crimes. It is essential when facing a jury trial that your attorney know the rules of evidence and do his/her best to keep these types of incidents out or at least minimize their impact. Contact our office if you are facing a jury trial and want a team of trial lawyers who know how to deal with past crimes at trial.
The Supreme Court has not specified when the ruling of the case regarding the murdered mother and son would be.
