Re: FCPUNX:McVeigh on McVeigh

James A. Donald wrote:
> He who pays controls.
> If someone is charged with a politically sensitive crime, and he has
> a court appointed attorney, then he has two prosecutors and no
> defense.
> 
> Very likely Mcviegh is guilty, but I could have defended him
> better, and so could my dog.

  Amen!!!
  More money was spent on McVeigh's defense than on O.J.'s prosecution.
For fifteen million dollars, McVeigh's lawyer couldn't be troubled to
raise his voice in his client's defense.

  I'm not Lee Fucking Bailey, but I've defended myself successfully in
court on a variety of occassions after firing attorneys who charged me
big bucks to advise me to plead out charges I was not guilty of
committing.
  There are a handful of lawyers I respect as having the skill and the
integrity to properly defend me to the max, but I wouldn't give you two
cents for McVeigh's government-bought schill.

  McVeigh's conviction was a given, no matter how skilled an attorney
he had representing him. That's how it works at that level.
  The role of McVeigh's attorney was to placate the American people's
sense of "justice" without rocking the boat. He didn't upset the
American people, he didn't upset the judge, the prosecutor, his golfing
buddies, or the court house restroom attendant.
  He did upset me, however, and that might turn out to be a big mistake
on his part.

>   McVeigh's conviction was a given, no matter how skilled an attorney
> he had representing him. That's how it works at that level.

Given that he appears to have actually been guilty, and was not tried in 
California, perhaps he would have been convivted regardless of how much 
was spent on his defense.

The O.J. trial should not be used as a legal standard; it was a media 
event, not a trial, with book deals for winners and losers alike.