Legal question for you non-lawyers

[Barrister]

Although you probably don't know, does he has a history witht he investigating officer? He could play the "cop set me up".

You watch too much tv.

hey, if i was a theif and had no other defense they'd be my go to move . Well, first would be staying off the stand.

Also, did he use a van on the robberry he got caught on?

You'd need a lot of very specific evidence before being allowed to introduce similar fact evidence.  It might be worth looking into, but it's extremely unlikely.

If you do end up using it can i get a commision?

"Cop set me up" doesn't make a lot of sense when you consider they had the DNA years ago, but didn't have anyone to match it to until recently.  If they were going to set someone up, you'd think they'd set up someone who they can actually identify.

And no. 

[Razgovory]

Does the guy know all you have against him is DNA?  Anyone check local pawnshops to see if he sold anything recently?  I suppose none of the neighbors recognized him, did they?  Do you have a warrant to search his place?

[Zanza]

A career criminal caught for a similar crime and DNA evidence suggests he was at the crime scene? Is there any other reasonable explanation why his DNA could be there other than that he burglared that home? I can't think of any, so that's good enough for me.

Isn't cases like this exactly what the proponents of national DNA databases want to solve?

[Barrister]

Does the guy know all you have against him is DNA?  Anyone check local pawnshops to see if he sold anything recently?  I suppose none of the neighbors recognized him, did they?  Do you have a warrant to search his place?

He will soon.

Pawnshops are regularly monitored by police.  This seems like too sophisticated for them to make a mistake like pawning the iterms locally.  Neighbors ID after this many years would be useless, as would searching his place.

[CountDeMoney]

Go for it, BB.  DOITDOITDOITDOIT.

[Barrister]

Isn't cases like this exactly what the proponents of national DNA databases want to solve?

[DGuller]

Pawnshops are regularly monitored by police.

  Good to know, thanks. 

[Neil]

Were I on the jury, I would vote to convict and hang from the neck until dead.

And that is without reading anything BB posted.

Naturally 

[The Brain]

Don't do it. Too Machiavellian.

[CountDeMoney]

Don't do it. Too Machiavellian.

What the fuck are you talking about?  Machiavellian?  It's not his boss's DNA he's using, for fuck's sake.

[Barrister]

Go for it, BB.  DOITDOITDOITDOIT.

Oh - it's not as if I'm going to drop the charge. 

I'm just trying to figure out how much of a hard line I can take.

[Eddie Teach]

It's not his boss's DNA he's using, for fuck's sake.

He uses that for making babies.

[Syt]

Unless there's any reason to doubt that the DNA sampling taken from the coke is 100% correct, then I'd say go for it.

And I'm guessing a defense counsel would aim at casting such a doubt on the quality of the sample taken years ago, probably through technicalities like that? Not taken or stored properly, not recorded or analyzed properly, a signature missing somewhere?

[CountDeMoney]

Unless there's any reason to doubt that the DNA sampling taken from the coke is 100% correct, then I'd say go for it.

And I'm guessing a defense counsel would aim at casting such a doubt on the quality of the sample taken years ago, probably through technicalities like that? Not taken or stored properly, not recorded or analyzed properly, a signature missing somewhere?

Yeah, the best defensive bet would be to challenge every aspect of the chain of custody process, and hope somebody fucked it up somewhere along the line.
And knowing cops, there's always a good chance for that.

[Barrister]

Unless there's any reason to doubt that the DNA sampling taken from the coke is 100% correct, then I'd say go for it.

And I'm guessing a defense counsel would aim at casting such a doubt on the quality of the sample taken years ago, probably through technicalities like that? Not taken or stored properly, not recorded or analyzed properly, a signature missing somewhere?

Yeah, the best defensive bet would be to challenge every aspect of the chain of custody process, and hope somebody fucked it up somewhere along the line.
And knowing cops, there's always a good chance for that.

For whatever reason we don't see a lot of cases fought over chain of custody.  But you're quite right that is one possible strategy.

But of course if he takes it all the way to trial we'll attempt to give him the longest possible sentence, and on the other side give him a discount if he enters a plea.  It's just that depending on how strong (or weak) the case is, we give more or less of a discount.