Attorneys

There is only so much that defense attorneys can do. If they have a client that is guilty of murder and all the evidence points to it, the attorney does not have much recourse. Of course the attorneys could file an appeal to lower the sentence, but there are times that a person is just destined to head over to death row. A defense attorney will take a case such as this in an attempt to exonerate the murderer, and many attorneys have actually made a name for themselves by surprising the world and getting a murderer acquitted on all charges. Here are three of the cases where the defense attorney just could not keep their client out of death row.

1. Lawrence Bittaker – Having troubles with the law several times in the past, Bittaker was finally sentenced to death after he and his accomplice raped and murdered five local girls over a period of five months. He was a fairly intelligent man, having an IQ of 138, but he was diagnosed as a sociopath that could not control his actions. Attorneys could not do much for Bittaker since his accomplice, Roy Norris, told his friend Jimmy Dalton about the murders that they committed. Dalton then went to his own attorney and told him everything he had heard, making it fairly simple for prosecuting attorneys to convict them both.

2. Richard Ramirez – A serial killer that murdered nearly twenty-five people, Ramirez was deeply disturbed since childhood. He became involved with drugs and the occult at a young age. His trial began in 1988, during which Ramirez was overheard telling people that he was going to shoot the prosecuting attorneys with a gun in the courtroom. There were over one hundred witnesses that testified during the case. While his defense attorney did file an appeal, the death sentence was upheld. A subsequent rehearing was asked for by the attorney, but was denied.

3. Oba Chandler – This is a case where the client did not listen to his attorneys, and perhaps paid the price for it. Chandler was accused of murdering a mother and her two daughters while taking them on a cruise in his boat. Attorney advice told Chandler not to testify for himself, but he refused. Despite being told by his attorneys not to, Chandler testified in his own defense that the three murder victims simply stopped him to ask him for directions. There is a reason why people use an attorney, and that reason is they know more than you. Some people just don’t know when to keep their mouths shut.

The attorneys in these cases did what they could for their clients, but there are cases when an attorney just can’t help. A word to the wise, if you are going to commit murder, at least listen to what your attorneys tell you when you are in court. Otherwise the prosecution attorney is going to have a field day.