- [Judge] Then let us begin with your opening statement Mr. Payne. - Whoa, opening statement? So how can you give an opening statement and summarize your case
if you have no idea what your case is or
what the case is about? That's, that's bad news
for Phoenix Wright. (upbeat music) Hey legal eagles D. James
Stone here teaching you how to think like a lawyer. Today we're covering Phoenix
Wright, Ace Attorney, a anime manga based on a video game that was written in Japanese
and translated into english so who knows what we're
gonna to get into today. My understanding based on your comments is that this isn't based on
any particular legal system but it's a combination of the
Japanese and American system. I am not an expert in
the Japanese legal system so I will be looking at
this through the lens of an American attorney because
that's what I know best. If I get something wrong
please leave me a comment in the form of an objection. As the judge and jury in this
case I will either sustain or over rule your objection
based on it's legal merit. And as always stick around
until the end of the video where I give Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney a grade for legal realism. So without further ado let's dig right in to Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney. Defense lawyer Phoenix Wright, okay. - [Phoenix] I just earned
my badge a few months. - Hey I think I recognize that area. So that looks like the Naka
Meguro area of Tokyo along the Meguro river where they
have all the cherry blossoms. Really pretty area of Tokyo. - [Phoenix] So I'm still a rookie. - Did he say he got a badge? In the US at least, you don't get a badge. Police officers get badges. You take the state bar exam and you become admitted to the bar and you don't wear any
sort of lapel pin except for maybe an American flag lapel pin so... don't know what jurisdiction
actually issues a badge, potentially a gun, to
their defense attorneys. (upbeat music) - [Phoenix] In fact
I'm beginning arguments in my first real trial today. - So he is on his first day as an attorney and he's giving an argument in a trial that's, that's pretty crazy. Trials take months,
sometimes years to litigate and you would never start on day one giving an argument as a new attorney. That's not something
that should ever happen, if it does something went
terribly, terribly wrong. - Always so ambitious. This is a homicide case, not many people would take
one on for their first trial. - Yeah also most defendants
in a homicide case would not ever use an attorney
who had never done any sort of trial work before and
it was their first day, that's definitely not what you
want in a defense attorney. - I know what I'm
getting myself into boss. - Do you? - But I had to take it
because I owe it to him. - Oh what's the significance
of the key chain? - The defendant? - Yes. Actually I've known the
guy ever since we were in grade school, he's part of the reason I wanted to be a defense
lawyer in the first place. - [Boss] Let's hope
you can clear his name. - Ah okay so Phoenix Wright
apparently knows the defendant. That can be very problematic because you don't want your
emotions to get in the way of your defense, you have
certain ethical obligations to your client and if your
emotions get in the way of that and also if you're a
witness who might testify to the character of that defendant then you would mainly be conflicted out of representing them so
there's a lot of issues here representing someone who
is a childhood friend, I would never recommend for
someone to represent someone that they know so well,
that's, that's not a good idea. - There's no way he's guilty but how will I convince the judge? - Do you not have any
evidence at this point? Have you not spoken to your client? Okay and they're separating people. So this is a very ornate court room that would be more suited
to an appeals court, not a trial court at the criminal level. Winston Payne, the prosecutor. - [Phoenix] That's my
client, good old Larry Butz. - Okay that's an interesting name. - [Phoenix] He and I go
way back, to say the least. And you've been dreaming of. - And he's apparently
wearing the same thing that he was wearing on
the day of the murder. You wanna put your client
in the best light forward so that's why defense
attorneys, if they have to, will provide a suit and
tie to their clients in order to make them look a little better than if they'd just
walked in off the street. You would never want
to wear just a t-shirt with some crazy hair
and a goatee to court, you'd want to dress them up a little bit so they don't look like a hooligan like this guy kinda looks
like a frat guy or something. - Don't forget, to argue a solid defense you have to believe in
him, and his innocence. - Right. - Not necessarily. All clients are owed an advocate and often you are conflicted because you may see the evidence and you may believe they are guilty or libel of what they're accused of. I have heard from my
public defender friends, those people who provide
defenses to the indigent that it can actually be harder if you truly believe
that someone is innocent. If you aren't sure and you're
just giving them a defense you can go through the motions and you can give them the
best defense possible. But if you really believe
that they're innocent of a particular crime then
it can actually be harder because you are worried
that they may go to jail or be convicted of something
that they didn't do which can actually make it
harder for public defenders. (dramatic music) The judge. - This court is here by in session. - Okay. - We have been gathered
today to hear the case against Mr. Larry Butz. - The prosecution is ready your honor. - All right. - The defense is ready your honor. - Then let us begin with your
opening statement Mr. Payne. - Whoa, opening statement? So (laughs) the opening statement is what you give at the beginning of a trial. And it seems like there
has been very little time that has passed between
the day of the murder and this day in court. Larry Butz is apparently
wearing the exact same thing that he was wearing on
the day of the murder and it doesn't seem like Phoenix Wright has actually spoken to his client yet. However, at the bare minimum you've gotta talk to your client, you've gotta talk to them, you've gotta do some
investigation about the facts, you've gotta conduct discovery. The prosecution is obligated
to turn over the evidence that they have to the defense and you are obligated to
review that information before the trial. That he hasn't apparently
spoken to his client yet and it's the day of trial and he has to give an opening statement, that's crazy how can you
give an opening statement and summarize your case
if you have no idea what your case is or
what the case is about? That's, that's bad news
for Phoenix Wright. - [Payne] We've identified
this statue out of Rodin's the Thinker as the murder weapon. - Alright. - Which I would like to submit
to the court at this time. - Generally exhibits would be determined before the trial goes forward. - [Judge] a modern representation. - Didn't you just hear the lawyer guy? It's Rodin, not Mo Dern, and this was a gift I
made for my girlfriend. - Do you mean you sculpted this. - And why is he speaking? This is opening statements, the attorneys make an argument or they say what the
evidence is going to show for the rest of the trial, this is not the time for
the criminal defendant to say anything at all, especially things that are inculpatory, that's you need to get your client to shut the hell up at this point. - [Payne] Fingerprints
were indeed all over the weapon your honor. - Are you serious? - Shut up, shut up. - Your prints would be
all over it you idiot. - In general, that's good advice just tell you client to shut up. - Let me state my case
man, I can't hang for this. - The prosecution would
not like to call Mr. Butz to the stand your honor. - Is Phoenix Wright not get
to make an opening statement? If trial has started then
prosecution will make an opening statement and they will explain what's going to happen during
the course of the trial, it's generally not the time for argument. Then there will be a recess
and the defense will be able to make their opening statement. So it is very problematic
that here the defense is not allowed to make any
statement what so ever. Now I don't know what opening
statement you could possibly make when you have no
idea what the facts are, you haven't spoken to you client and you have no idea what
arguments are going to be made and what's good for your
client and what's not but still, he needs to be afforded an opportunity to explain his case. - [Payne] We also found a
photograph taken on this trip. - [Larry] Huh? That's the thinker. - [Payne] Your honor I
would also like to submit these items as evidence. - [Judge] I'll accept them. - Okay so the prosecutor
here has not laid any kind of foundation to allow these
exhibits into evidence, he's just simply said that
here's this photograph and here's this passport, he hasn't established that
those pieces of documentary evidence are what they pro port to be and he certainly hasn't
established through this witness that the foundation has been laid. You have to establish a foundation before you're allowed
to bring evidence in. But there's a more
fundamental problem here, the first witness that
the prosecution has called is the criminal defendant. Now in the US at least criminal defendants have a right against self incrimination so they don't have to
testify if they don't want to now if they do testify then the prosecutor will get an opportunity to cross examine. But it's crazy that the
first witness the prosecution has called is the defendant and the defense hasn't objected, they have allowed this to go forward, they are just asleep at
the wheel at this point and this is really, really bad lawyering. - Mr. Sahwit to the best
of your recollection please tell the court what
you saw the day of the murder. - Okay why is the judge
asking questions here? Now sometimes a judge will
ask follow up questions, they have a certain amount
of leeway in the court, it's their court, they can
sort of do what they want. But to start off the
examination it should be the prosecutor, he should
be asking the questions, laying the foundation and establishing the
narrative of what happened, it's improper for the judge to be doing that kind
of in depth questioning. - Why use a pay phone? Was there not one closer to the scene? - Yes but unfortunately due
to some utility repairs there was a scheduled black out
in the area from one to six. So he couldn't use it. - The phone would be
completely inoperable. - A black out? - Alright again, the prosecutor
is not allowed to answer questions in an examination and the prosecutor can't
just magically pull out some record and enter it into evidence, especially in the middle of an examination of a witness that has nothing
to do with that information. This is very wacky. - There you have it, the motive, weapon, and a witness placing Butz at the scene. (chuckles) - Okay. - Is something wrong? - Is, is the prosecution resting here? - Now Mr. Wright begin
your cross examination. - Oh okay, so the defense finally gets to cross examine a witness here. Right now there's so many
constitutional violations that this would be declared
a mistrial like immediately. This would be over turned on appeal within weeks of the verdict
coming down, this is crazy. (dramatic music) - You say you found the body at two p.m., are you absolutely certain of the time? - [Sahwit] Yes without a doubt. - But according to the
autopsy report the victim died sometime after four p.m., it's right here in black and white, - Okay now while this might
seem like a good argument, you're contradicting the
witness with a coroners report. You're really not allowed to
ask those kinds of questions of this witness, this is a lay witness who was there at the scene but this witness is not
a coroner, not a doctor and was not involved in
the autopsy of the victim so he was no knowledge
about the autopsy report and so whatever testimony he might have about the autopsy report
is totally useless. The only time that you
would want to bring up the autopsy report is if
you called the coroner up to the stand, which you
should in this particular case, and what you would wanna do
is verify that the coroner was absolutely certain
about the time of death. Examination is not the time for argument. The time of argument is
in your closing arguments. - It's simple really, all we have to do is cause the clock to sound,
right here and now. - Yeah. (dramatic chord) - Okay, she's apparently
offering testimony as well. - [Clock] It's 9:25. - [Judge] That is certainly a bizarre way to announce the time. - [Larry] It's totally awesome, I'm the voice of the thinker. (cries out) - [Judge] But I'm sorry to
say it doesn't prove anything one way or another. - So this judge is making
a classic mistake between evidence being helpful, AKA probative and being sufficient to
prove the entire case. No one can ever prove their
case with one piece of evidence. What your doing is you're
building a mountain one stone at a time. Or you're trying to
create reasonable doubt one stone at a time. And after a while if
you have enough stones then you can have a mountain
of evidence in your favor. Here the defense is
creating reasonable doubt no thanks to their own
really terrible lawyering, one piece at a time through
every piece of evidence. It really, really bugs
me when I see people make the same error that the
judge has here where they say oh, that piece of evidence
whether it's in a trial or in politics or what have you and they say well that doesn't prove what you're saying is true. No maybe it doesn't but it helps prove it and along with all this
mountain of evidence that does prove the case well you have to look at
everything weaved together. The judge is not doing that here. - But it doesn't matter one
bit if the clock is running slow today, because you can't prove that it was running slow on
the day of the murder. - Again so this witness, in
addition to answering a question that wasn't asked and the
attorney making an argument in the middle of an examination is make the same error that the judge is. He's saying well just because
you've shown something that's very damaging that
doesn't go all the way, you know you've advanced 20 yards but you haven't actually
entered the end zone. He's saying well it's now worthless. That's not true, you
made forward progress, you might not have gotten all the way but you're getting there and you're putting all
the pieces together. And together they've probably already established reasonable doubt. - Well got an answer for me? Take that smart guy. - Well as the attorney
he doesn't have to answer any questions that you ask him. - You got nothing on me pal. - No he's got lots against you. But also the defense attorney
here isn't trying to show that the witness in particular
committed the murder, all he has to do is show that there's a reasonable doubt that his client did. There's a big difference,
that's often why defendants actually don't take the stand, because it's not their burden to show that they are innocent. All you have to do is
show that the prosecution hasn't met their burden or that
there is a reasonable doubt associated with the prosecutors case. The defense and especially
in a criminal case bears no burden what so ever. - If you have nothing further
I have no other option than to release Mr. Sahwit from the stand. - I take time out of my
day to relive this horrible experience and you call me a murderer? You might want to reconsider
your career Mr. Wright. - And as with defendants if
there's no question pending the witness should not be speaking. And also if you need time
to look into something, or to recoup then you
would just ask the judge for a short recess, that's very common. So you're gonna have time
to put things together, it's not going at the break
neck pace of this anime. - According to her passport the victim had just been over seas, the time difference between
Japan and New York is 14 hours. So when it's four p.m.
here, it's two a.m. there. Two is four. - That's two hours difference. - So this is not something
you would wanna bring up with this particular witness
but there is a vehicle to bring in evidence that is
basically incontrovertible and it is called judicial notice. If you have evidence of
something that you don't want to bring in a particular witness, for example if you wanted
to say the time difference between New York and Tokyo is 14 hours, you wouldn't want to have to go through the expense of calling in
an expert in date and time. It's a fact that's so incontrovertible and easy to ascertain that the
judge should allow that fact in without requiring someone to lay what would normally be proper foundation. So here though he should
not be making an argument he would be able to ask the
judge to take judicial notice of the fact that the time
difference is 14 hours, that's something that would
come in virtually at anytime. - The victim took the
clock with her on her trip but she hadn't set it to
reflect local time yet. - Well that's speculation. - That's why the time you heard
was exactly two hours off. The truth is Sahwit did it! (crying out) - Man I really wish I was
allowed to bring in evidence when ever I felt like it and make argument when ever I felt like it but there are lots of laws and rules that prevent me from doing that. But with your help we can change that. (cries out)
(thudding) (banging) - Arrest Mr Sahwit immediately. - The judge is not responsible
for arresting people. And in fact if the prosecutor
had seen this kind of evidence he probably would have referred
the witness to the police to arrest that man but that is not the pre view of the judge in any case. - I must say you've done
an incredible job today. In your first trial you
defended your client and discovered the true culprit. - Thank you. - Did he? - And now it's time to
deliver the verdict. (dramatic music) Not guilty. (cheering) - Well there shouldn't
be a verdict at all, the case just should have been dismissed. The prosecutor should have realized that it's crazy to continue
prosecuting this guy so therefore he should just go home. - [Man] All rise. - So that was Phoenix
Wright, Ace Attorney. Man I don't even know
what to do with that. I don't know if that's accurate
from a Japanese perspective but man from an American perspective that is just all completely wrong. The US constitution gives
the benefit of the doubt to criminal defendants because
the founders recognized that it was better for
a guilty man to go free than an innocent man to be convicted of a crime they didn't commit. All of those things were
a due process violation that probably would have
been overturned on appeal. But it never should have
gotten to that point, and frankly the lawyering on
the defense side was terrible, he wasn't objecting when
he should have been, he was allowing the other
side to make argument when they shouldn't have been. So all in all I would give
Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney a D-, it is all over the place, it's all completely wrong and it's a terrible example
of lawyering in general. If you liked this video please
click like and subscribe so you don't miss the
next lawyer reacts video. And by the way I put together
a play list of all my prior videos including my reaction
to the Good Wife and Suits. I think you'll love it.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
It took him 8 minutes and he's already telling Larry to shut up lol
This was quite a bit of fun! Seems like a nice guy and he did his research on the series beforehand. This could've easily been pretentiously trashing on the series, happy to see it wasn't.
Just what I expected from an actual lawyer, though I believe being familiar with the Japanese system would make it less insane.
I hope he continues just to see him flipping off at the mere idea of a 3-day trial.
Can’t wait to see this guy react to Phoenix’s completely illegal investigations.
You know, having the coroner go to the bar could be quite useful actually. Like if the autopsy report might be outdated or something.
I had followed this man's channel for a while, but I never expected him to take on AA. Happiest surprise of my day.
Edit: Well, anime AA. Still.
I'm surprised that AA got a D- as opposed to an F.
Awww man i thought that now that i finished the whole Ace Attorney series I was ready to take the bar exam