
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994                   TAG: 9403140220
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By SUE BECKETT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE BEST DEFENSE FOR THE GUILTY IS TO TRASH THE VICTIM

MY BROTHER was put on trial recently in a murder case heard in Roanoke city's courthouse. He was found guilty of washing dishes and possibly pointing a steak knife at his brother-in-law. He couldn't testify in his defense, and the evidence against him was contrived.

The irony in all this is that my brother's been dead for 11 months. His death sentence was delivered by 12 gunshot wounds inflicted by his brother-in-law from two separate guns. And there's no chance of parole for my brother.

For the past 11 months, I've tried to make sense of this heinous crime. I naively thought that the trial would help end the grieving process. But what's supposed to have been the trial of the murderer became a character assassination of the dead victim. My brother was denigrated and insulted in death - murdered yet again by different assailants.

You see, one can no longer think of a murder trial in terms of a victim and a villain because players switch once you get into the courtroom. There's been a change in the way defendants are treated. Defense attorneys across our nation portray their clients as victims instead of the predators they often really are. When there's little or no real defense, all other strategies are exhausted.

First, they might badger police detectives to confuse jurors about the validity of evidence against their clients. Then they can make victims of the villains. Perhaps hearing about abuse as a child, a domineering parent or alcoholism might play on the hearts of the jurors.

(In our case, I suppose it was the alleged post-traumatic stress disorder and/or near intoxication of the murderer since self-defense evidence was contradicted by major witnesses. There was no evidence of a struggle, and the murderer didn't have a scratch on him!) Meanwhile, to cover all bases, the deceased (true victim) becomes the target of attack by a defense attorney whose defense theatrics center on presenting unsubstantiated testimony. Every effort's made to trash and slime the victim, to confuse the facts, and to create excuses and sympathy for the murderer. With all these maneuvers, the defense attorney probably can accomplish his goal - to get just enough jurors to snap into social-worker mode to diffuse the power of justice. A lesser sentence is a near certainty.

The outcome of the trial of my brother's murderer isn't an isolated case. This is a national problem. There's a repeated failure of juries to carry through on the competent and heroic efforts of our law-enforcement officers and commonwealth's attorney's office.

According to a Feb. 14 article in U.S. News and World Report, entitled ``Watching `As the Jury Turns''' by John Leo, we're in an ``abuse excuse'' era. We've become conditioned to let our feelings overtake our ability to think and analyze evidence, and citizens are releasing murderers back into the community with a mere slap on the hand. The article predicts that this era will probably last another 10 years. That's nine years longer than my brother's murderer might be in jail since he's eligible for parole next year.

Sue Beckettf of Rocky Mount is a teacher in the Franklin County school system and the sister of Joe Davis.

by CNB