Should the Defendant Testify?
Typically in a criminal trial, one of the key decisions to be made is whether the defendant should testify. The Baytank case was somewhat unique in that, after judgments of acquittal were granted, the three remaining individual defendants all possessed college degrees or the equivalent of a college degree, all were very articulate, none had any prior convictions and all had impeccable character. In that respect, the only true decision left was to determine the order in which they would testify. Additionally, the company itself had an extremely good reputation within the industry as a leader in environmental protection controls and in reliability of product handling. As a result, each defendant testified. The defense team also presented character witnesses for each defendant. And, in what I think was a first, the defense team was allowed to present a character witness for the company itself. Had the case continued as to all defendants, the defense team had made the decision that not all of the defendants would testify, primarily because of language problems.
Nonetheless, in an environmental crimes case, a lot of the times one or more of the defendants (or the company representative) presents well. This is a striking difference to the typical street crime scenario. Regardless, it is still a decision that must be made on a case-by-case basis.
More later.
As always, feel free to call me or e-mail me with any questions at walter.james@jamespllc.com.
WDJiii