Lawyer Fact Checks Criminal Court Scenes, from 'The Dark Knight' to 'Legally Blonde' | Vanity Fair

this is Ellen of fast a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor with the Brooklyn DA's office and handled everything from simple drug possession all the way up to homicides today Ellen is going to break down what's right and wrong can some of Hollywood's greatest court scenes you can see I'm broadcasting from man living room the criminal-justice world is also shut down due to the corona virus so our whole firm has been operating from our homes first up the Dark Knight heads I'll take it tails he's all yours oh yeah you want to flip a coin to see the leads no one ever flips a point in the middle of trial to figure out who is first chair meaning lead attorney or who's second chair of meetings co-counsel but co-counsel in junior capacity trials are incredibly stressful and as much as you could plan ahead you do with carmine Falcone and Arkham someone must have stepped up to run the so-called family is that man in this courtroom today so the witnesses are actually not permitted at trial to give their answer by nodding or by shaking their head if the witness had done so the attorney that was asking the questions would have made a record saying I see you nodding your head up and down what do you mean by that because there's a stenographer that takes down word-for-word the testimony that is given Maroney he's a fall guy I'm the brains of the organization order permission to treat the witness as hostile I'm asking the judge to treat the witness as hostile means that instead of asking them open-ended questions like you would do on a direct examination of your witness you ask the judge for permission to ask yes or no questions without way you limit whatever the witness is able to say with limiting him or her - yes or no responses so I would say it's probably impossible maybe nearly impossible to get a gun into a courtroom attorneys in federal court actually have it way worse than you probably do through TSA PreCheck they scan all of your belongings they take away all of your electronics with the exception of maybe a single cell phone if you have a special passport you go through metal detectors you get bonded and it's a very secure environment I haven't heard of a single case where someone was able to bring a gun in to either state or federal court in New York next up is Legally Blonde what you're fired I have no representation so I am your lawyer mid-trial is probably the silliest thing you could do if you have any sort of concerns about your representation or have you're going that should all be taken care of before trial [Music] as much as I love Elwood's the attire is absolutely not accurate as to what attorneys we're in real life there's no sandals allowed in court and even if you were a dress here still required to wear some sort of blazer or jacket over it could have been pink but she was missing a jacket Your Honor rule 3.0 3 of Supreme Judicial Court states that a law student may appear on behalf of the defendant in criminal proceedings this is very inaccurate this would never happen no law student would be allowed to conduct a cross-examination of the most important witness on a homicide trial without ever doing a cross-examination or any sort of trial work beforehand the first case that I tried I still remember this it was a search warrant with a crack rock in the bedsheets it's baby steps did you ever gotten a perm the 4th yes how many would you say to a year since I was 12 you do the math you know a girl in my sorority Tracy Marcinko got a perm once so you do not get to talk about yourself or tell stories when you're on trial you're not allowed to do this during jury selection or your opening and especially not when you're examining the witness if in fact you weren't washing your hair as I suspect you weren't because your curls are still intact wouldn't you have heard the gunshot and if in fact you had heard the gunshot Brooke Windham wouldn't have had time to hide the gun before you got downstairs as exciting as this is to be on a roll unfortunately you don't get to ask compound questions they have to get separated out you however had time to hide the gun didn't you chutney after you shot your father I didn't mean to shoot him this is a very cinematic moment it hasn't happened in career where I've been able to break a witness down to the point of confession and I can't think of a single colleague that has gotten this accomplished next up my cousin Minnie can you tell me what would the correct ignition timing be on in 1955 Bel Air Chevrolet with a 327 cubic inch engine and a full barrel carburetor it's a question does that mean that you can't answer it it's a question it's impossible answer impossible because you don't know the answer nobody could answer that question so I don't think any attorney would ever ever get this close to a witness during their testimony because you one aren't beating their personal space and two you're not really sure what reaction you're going to get from them watch this Chevy didn't make it 327 and fifty five two three twenty seventeen come out two sixty two and it wasn't offered in the Bel Air with a four-barrel carb till sixty four so this is the number one thing to teach you in law school and that's not to ask any questions that you don't know the answer to especially when this is done at trial before a jury so this is luring 101 come back next minute no you trying to tell me that this knife really fell through a hole in the boys pocket someone picked it up off the street went to the boy's house and stabbed his father with it just to test its sharpness oh I'm just saying it's possible the boy loss is nothin as somebody else stabbed his father with a similar knife it's just possible so this juror is doing what every defense attorney wants him or her to do and that's question the evidence and hold the government to their burden this juror does not seem convinced that this knife is so unique that there is no other plausible explanation as to how the crime could have happened [Music] where did you get it I went out walking for a couple of hours last night I walked through the boys neighborhood I bought that a little pawn shop just two blocks from the boys house so this is all sorts of bad one of the things that the judge says is you're not allowed to do any additional research you can't read about the case you can't talk to anyone about the case you also can't go to the crime scene what this jurist seemed to have done is actually got out to the crime scene to conduct his own investigation you're asking us to believe that somebody else did the stabbing with exactly the same kind of knife the odds are a million to one it's possible but not very probable so the government's burden is beyond a reasonable doubt and all the defense needs to do is have a shot at there being some other possibility or any other explanation so defense has no burden in this case it's all on the government and it seems that the juries here are slowly becoming skeptical of the government's case up next we have at Lincoln where you were with Miss camp on the night of March 6th yep we went on a date to the Association then I took her back to her place for another date and did you have sexual relations about 400 bucks worth she earned every single cent though in real life this would be a lot longer a lot more thought-out this witness does not appear to be a sympathetic person or someone that the jury would like if anything the jury would think this guy is a sleazebag and if this is how he is behaving in court he may be responsible for hurting the woman and for punching her that is not something that we happen in real life because the prosecutor meets with the witnesses a handful of times in order for the prosecutor to kind of clean them up a little and put forth the most presentable version of the witness to the jury when you left mr Talbot what condition was she in was she hurt no she was fine she did not look like this man what kind of sick bastard is something like that so as the defense attorney I would probably object to his characterization of someone as a sick bastard that is incredibly prejudicial and what you're trying to do is for the jury to make up their own mind rather than rely on anybody else's characterization of your client or the actions isn't it true that before you left miss Campos apartment she asked you to repeatedly strike her in the face with your left fist Your Honor mr. Haller is just muddying the waters without rageous statements yeah the defense job is to muddy the waters it's not necessarily to get your client an acquittal but every little bit helps if the jury is sitting there and they're thinking well there is another explanation for these injuries and if you have a jury thinking that something else may have happened you're getting closer and closer to either a hung jury or two I'm not right acquittal if the jurors have doubts they can't commit do you know a prostitute named Shaquille Barton work name is a shakeela shackles yeah yeah I seen it once and if I brought her in here and she said yes mr Talbot he he did strike me with his left fist in my face she'd be lying so this is why a lot of preparation goes a long way it's very common for defense attorneys to hire investigators to develop their strategy I can't tell you how many times we've been able to dig up dirt or discover really unfavorable things about a witness even if they had nothing to do with the case next up law abiding citizen in light of mr. Shelton's economic means in his potential flight risk the egregious nature of both mr. Ames and mr. darvey's deaths the state requested bail be denied your honor so what we just watched was an application by Jamie Foxx's character to the judge not to set any bail on a matter but instead keep the matter on what's called reman meaning no amount of bail or money will get an individual out until the resolution of the case I am NOT a flight risk and this is my first alleged offense and the prosecution has not presented one single piece of evidence against me now in these circumstances unless the state has obtained some new piece of information relating to my involvement in the matter in question then I find it highly prejudicial even constitutionally offensive to keep me detained without bail so this is a phenomenal bail application by gerard brother's character and it's very impressive for someone that's doing this without an attorney and I think in real life an attorney would still be by his side it's way too risky to let an individual without presumably in special legal training to make a bail application on a double-homicide piece on their own I will grant bail in the amount Your Honor I would caution you not to do that thank you excuse me no I don't think I will excuse you you see this is what I'm talking about you were about to let me go are you kidding me this is why we're here in the first place so I need a bail on a double homicide is exceedingly rare it seems that he has a huge issue with the judge just buying his pitch and considering bail based on what the conduct is in this case I've seen defendants tell the judge to go sit on it or curse the judge out but that's typically done not when bail is about to be granted but when bail is set to high or bail is denied last step we have factored mr. Beachum let's email addresses with court I'm very sorry your honor very sorry it's a long story I mean it happens where you end up wearing the wrong thing to court I have a colleague of mine that can't figure out Hanks brown shoes so if he's the mr. Beecham apologized to the judge for wearing attire that is not necessarily court appropriate but at least keep that a jacket do you wish to enter a plea at this time there's not guilty but I also want to waive my right to counsel and represent myself surely you won't have trouble finding an attorney mr. Crawford No so individuals are able to represent themselves in New York that's called going pro se where you act as both the individual on trial and also as the attorney typically what happens is even if you don't want to get an attorney the judge makes you get an attorney not for the purposes of them conducting the proceeding but for the purposes of acting as your legal adviser miss Crawford wants to go pro / that's gonna take a while on sadly I won't be here for it but people have no objection your honor waive my right to a preliminary hearing and go direct to trial as soon as possible does that help you mister so leaving a preliminary hearing and going straight to trial is an irresponsible thing to do for the defense generally speaking time is on the side of the defense when it comes to criminal matters because the attorneys and the investigators really need to get up to speed on the case and figure out as much information as they can because the government most likely has been on this case for weeks months in some situations even years you don't have to worry about mr. Beecham mr. Crawford district attorney's office will assign another prosecutor no I like mr. Beecham mr. Beachum he likes you I mean Dave stick Attorneys offices have incentive situations hundreds of prosecutors and I wish we could pick who we did cases with and make my job a lot easier now that we've seen a few of these clips we know that Hollywood doesn't always get it right so if you do have jury duty or if you're testifying at a court proceeding just please remember none of us are that good-looking in real life

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Id: -NJAuKpoIYk

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Thu May 14 2020