Stress and high stakes make murder trials challenging

By Tom Gantert Legal News JACKSON, MI--They are the cases that draw the most media attention in Jackson: "Baby shaken to death by father." "Woman's decapitated head found in man's bathroom." Such high profile cases can be among the most challenging prosecutors and defense attorneys will face. "There is nothing you can't handle once you've gone through a full blown murder trial," said Andrew Kirkpatrick, a defense lawyer for Dungan, Lady, Kirkpatrick & Dungan. Kirkpatrick was the lawyer for Adam Stevens in a murder trial in early 2012. Stevens was found guilty of second-degree murder and second-degree child abuse. He shook his nearly three-month-old son Kian, which led to the baby's death. Because the case is on appeal, Kirkpatrick cannot comment on it. Jerry Engle of Jacobs & Engle represented Leo Kwaske, who was found not guilty in 2012 by reason of insanity by a Jackson County judge. Kwaske was charged with murdering a woman with a hammer and cutting off her head, which was found in his bathroom. Kwaske was committed to a state mental facility. Because of the physical evidence, the Kwaske case may not seem complex at first. But Engle said there was still the mental health issue, which is what the Kwaske case became about. The murder trials play out in a week or two in some cases. But the attorneys say they can work up to 50 hours a week on just one case. "Normally on a murder case, you start at 9 a.m., you do trial until 5 and then from 5 to 11 you are prepping for the next day," Kirkpatrick said. Most murder cases go to trial in Michigan because there is no death penalty to be taken off the table in a plea agreement. A first-degree murder charge carries a life sentence with no parole. A murder case can be much more involved than other felony cases. Engle said the police report on a domestic violence case might be 1.5 pages long, while police reports involving a murder can be as thick as 200 pages. There is also forensic evidence, such as DNA, hair follicles, finger prints and marks that could match the bullet to the gun that all have to be analyzed, he explained, adding: "That's a lot of work." Kirkpatrick said lawyers defending a murder trial must be instant experts on many different topics. "You have to get up to speed on the medical terminology," he said. "As an attorney, you have to morph yourself into different professions. You have to take a crash course in whatever medical issues you are going to be dealing with. There is a lot more prep work that goes into a murder case." Murder trials are also the most stressful of cases, attorneys said. Assistant Prosecutor Mark Blumer quoted retired Circuit Judge Edward Grant as saying a murder case is just an assault case with a dead body. "What is fundamentally different about a murder case is not the complexity," Blumer said. "It's the stress it puts on both parties involved. There is a built-in extra factor when you are dealing with a murder case. You know you are dealing with literally a life and death case." Blumer said not only are the attorneys under stress, but so are the families involved. He recalled a murder case he prosecuted in Shiawassee County while with the attorney general's office. Blumer traditionally uses a fountain pen when in court. Just before the jury came back with a guilty verdict, the family of the victim surrounded Blumer outside the courtroom. They presented him with a new fountain pen as a gift in appreciation for his efforts. "The family of the victim watched me so closely, realized that I was a fountain pen user," Blumer said. But not everyone in a murder trial is as supportive to the prosecution. Blumer said witnesses have hindered prosecutions of crimes, particularly those occurring on the south side of Jackson. Witnesses who originally made statements to the police will later show up in court and dramatically change their story or claim not to remember what happened, Blumer said. "They lose credibility and it's because of the pressure on the street," he said. Because of the high stakes involved, there are only a handful of attorneys in Jackson who are qualified to serve as public defenders handling murder cases. Jackson defense attorney George Lyons said he "carried the briefcase" of more experienced lawyers for five years and observed them before he took on his first murder trial. "I listened, I learned and I kept my mouth shut for years," he said. Lyons wasn't so quiet once he got a murder case of his own. He was sent to jail for an hour by a judge for refusing to sit down and be quiet during a 2012 murder trial. "It's a lot of work," he said. "You are making damn sure you know the prosecutor's case better than they do. It's a lot of responsibility. It's a lot of pressure. You don't get it right, your client goes to prison. He doesn't get out. It's a calling. It really is. As an attorney, as a trial lawyer, they represent your greatest challenge. And I don't like to lose." Published: Thu, Jun 20, 2013

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