Franklin lawyer mocks prosecutor with demand to be called 'Captain Justice'

[n2doc]

When prosecutors in Williamson County tried to ban a defense attorney from referring to them as “the government” in court, defense attorney Drew Justice had a demand of his own:

From now on, call me “Captain Justice.”

A war of words broke out in an attempted aggravated burglary case in Williamson County Circuit Court between prosecutors and Justice, who is defending one of two people in the case. In May, fed up with Justice referring to prosecutors as “the government,” Assistant District Attorney Tammy Rettig filed a motion to ban Justice from using the term in trial.

“The State has noticed in the past few years that it has become commonplace during trials for attorneys for defendants, and especially Mr. Justice, to refer to State’s attorneys as ‘the Government,’ ” she wrote in her motion. “The State believes that such a reference is used in a derogatory way and is meant to make the State’s attorney seem oppressive and to inflame the jury.”

more

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131101/NEWS03/311010139/2066/NEWS03

[rrneck]

1. I smell a libertarian with political ambitions. nt

[trumad]

2. Other attorneys are doing it as well...

Pure legal strategy. Making big bad government into the bad guy might work for some juries.

[dairydog91]

3. Captain Justice, Leader of the Resistance and Defender of the Innocent.

Stupid motion on the part of the prosecution, since "the government" is quite literally the plaintiff party in a criminal case.

[gopiscrap]

5. yup

[bemildred]

4. Maybe "the government" should clean up it's act.

Then it would not be possible to use "the government" as an effective insult in trials.

[gopiscrap]

6. yup, most prosecutors are corrupt assholes who will say and do anything

to get their convictions stats up