Aida Spahic, TLC ’10 Grad - May 3, 2012
On April 27, 2012 I went to trial for a client accused of
domestic violence and larceny.
Specifically, he was accused of choking his ex-girlfriend, with whom he
has a child, for 15-20 seconds, picking her up by the throat, and throwing her
to the ground, as well as stealing her phone so that she could not contact the
police. This incident allegedly happened
at a gas station as my client was dropping his daughter off to his ex-girlfriend,
the accuser. From day one, my client
denied that he did any of this to the accuser.
This was my first solo jury trial and boy, was I
nervous. I have been practicing law for
three years now and have done several trials with my boss and mentor, Daniel
Ambrose, and other colleagues; however, never by myself. I was mortified. I wanted a safety net; someone there in the
courtroom, even a law clerk or an intern…just someone…anyone… to sit at the
table next to me, to make sure I don’t somehow destroy my own case. Dan was unavailable as he was out of
town. I tried my best not to show him
that I was beyond mortified but I am pretty sure he noticed it. What made it even more nerve-wrecking was
that the client was a friend from high school.
I have known him for 15 years now and am very close with his
family. His mother and his stepfather
were present at the courtroom, only adding to the pressure I was already
feeling.
There was no physical evidence or any type of injuries to
corroborate the accuser’s story; however, there was an independent
witness. On top of that, the judge
allowed, over my objections, testimony regarding my clients’ two prior alleged
domestic violence incidents, involving the same accuser. This did not look good, even if they were all
false accusations. The jury trial was
definitely a battle! Even before trial
started, a decision was made not to put my client on the stand. Since he was not taking the stand, I had to
make sure the jury loved me. If they
loved me, they would love my client and believe that he truly was innocent.
Trying to get the jury to love me started with voir dire. Jury selection was on April 13, 2012, two
weeks prior to trial. I had to do well
so that the jury members did not forget about my client two weeks later. Throughout voir dire, I just kept thinking
“build a tribe” and get the jury members to open up. As Mr. Spence, another mentor of mine always
says, “you have to show them yours, before they will show you theirs.” I tried to do that as much as I could. A couple of people who were sitting in the
jury pool inside the courtroom, but not picked to be on MY jury, came up to me
and said “good luck.” I figured this was
a good sign. If they hadn’t liked me,
they wouldn’t have wished me good luck. And
if I had built good rapport with them, then I must have built good rapport with
the people picked to be on the jury. I
left the courtroom that day feeling pretty darn good! However, I knew that the battle has only begun.
