{"id":760,"date":"2011-02-14T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/blog_news\/?p=760"},"modified":"2011-02-14T06:00:26","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T11:00:26","slug":"justice-denied-or-attorney-theatrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/2011\/02\/14\/justice-denied-or-attorney-theatrics\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Denied or Attorney Theatrics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Criminal
Criminal Defense Attorneys Protecting Your legal rights<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Justice Denied or Attorney Theatrics<\/h1>\n

A very well known attorney<\/strong>, Alan Dershowitz, recently filed an appeal in the New York State Appeals Court, claiming that the Queens Supreme Court Justice (trial court judge<\/strong>) abused his discretion by rushing the defense attorney<\/strong>‘s closing arguments.<\/p>\n

The New York Post<\/a> reports that Dershowitz, who is representing Mazultov Borukhova, in an appeal of a 2009 conviction<\/strong> in a murder for hire scheme which resulted in the death of Daniel Malak.<\/p>\n

According the the appellate arguments<\/strong>, Borukhova, who was convicted of hiring a relative to murder her husband, was denied a fair trial<\/strong>, because the trial judge wanted to complete the trial<\/strong> in order to be on time for his vacation plans<\/strong>.\u00a0 However, the prosecution claims<\/strong> that the defense attorney<\/strong> delivered a “beautiful” two hour closing argument, but the evidence<\/strong> against Borukhova was just too overwhelming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judge Shortens Trial Time to Preserve Vacation Plans<\/h2>\n

There apparently is no dispute that the trial court judge<\/strong> cut the trial time and denied a defense attorney<\/strong> request to extend closing arguments another day because his vacation was scheduled to begin.\u00a0 But, did the judge abuse his discretion?\u00a0 Should the trial have trumped all other plans, as the defense now claims?\u00a0 Bercowitz claims<\/strong> that the defense lawyer was denied<\/strong> an opportunity to properly prepare for his closing arguments.\u00a0 Was it justice denied<\/strong>, or is this a case of attorney theatrics<\/strong> in a desperate attempt on appeal?<\/p>\n

How Long Should a Defense Attorney be Given to Prepare and Deliver Closing Arguments<\/h3>\n

A criminal defense attorney<\/strong><\/a> typically prepares<\/strong> for closing arguments well in advance of the trial<\/strong>.\u00a0 As the criminal trial proceeds the lawyer may need to revise his closing<\/strong>.\u00a0 But, should the judge have allowed the defense attorney additional time to prepare?\u00a0 A two hour closing is longer than average,\u00a0 but was it properly prepared?\u00a0 The trial court in most states is afforded broad discretion<\/strong>, especially in areas such as trial time allotted for closing statements.\u00a0 After all, the jury is charged<\/strong> with weighing the evidence<\/strong> presented.\u00a0 The summation is not evidence<\/strong>, but an opportunity for each side to sway and convince the jury how it should weigh the evidence.<\/p>\n

In this case the appellate argument is primarily focused on the fact that the judge had vacation plans.\u00a0 That it why this case has gotten so much attention.\u00a0 But, what if the judge had made the same decision because another trial\u00a0 was scheduled?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For all of your legal needs, questions, and issues look to the attorneys of Purple Law Firm<\/a>. Chattanooga law firm<\/a> on the mobile web.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is a two hour closing argument sufficient in a murder for hire trial? Did the New York trial court Judge abuse his discretion by cutting the trial time in order to keep his vacation schedule? Read More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,23,28],"tags":[51,53,105,106,110,112,114,207,220,231],"yst_prominent_words":[1487,440,1486,1479,1483,1477,1485,915,1462,912,403,1484,347,1488,464,412,1482,1478,1480,1481],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"has-excerpt","5":"post-760","7":"format-standard","8":"category-criminal-law","9":"category-general-legal-issues-chattanooga-tn","10":"category-off-beat","11":"post_tag-appellate","12":"post_tag-attorney-at-law","13":"post_tag-court","14":"post_tag-court-of-appeals","15":"post_tag-criminal-defense","16":"post_tag-criminal-law-tennessee","17":"post_tag-criminal-trial","18":"post_tag-judge","19":"post_tag-lawyer-legal-professional","20":"post_tag-legal-rights"},"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Todd Couvillon","author_link":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"hoot-small-preview":false,"hoot-large-preview":false,"hoot-medium-preview":false,"hoot-wide":false,"hoot-extra-wide":false,"hoot-boxcontent":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Todd Couvillon","author_link":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Is a two hour closing argument sufficient in a murder for hire trial? Did the New York trial court Judge abuse his discretion by cutting the trial time in order to keep his vacation schedule? Read More →","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}