"Max B. Sawicky" wrote:
>
>
> If I'm on trial and the facts favor my case, I don't want
> to make a political appeal, even if the case is political.
> For one thing, the jurors could wonder that the political
> emphasis is meant to cover up for a weak case on the facts.
>
Just a note. I read a pamphlet some 30+ years ago (possibly put out by the Lawyers' Guild) which quoted a French attorney who had defended political prisoners during the Algerian war -- he claimed that any defense which stuck strictly to legal issues always ended at the foot of the guillotine. I doubt there is any general rule however.
The Brown case is so weird from the get-go (particularly the utter absence of motive) that it does seem from a distance that he's probably innocent.
We never did solve in the '60s the question of how to incorporate anti-racism into the anti-war movement, but I do think that is rather central. Almost the _only_ reason a war against Iraq seems even remotely rational to people is if they carry the baggage of seeing those not-quite-white people as guilty of something by defintion. See today's Boondocks.
Carrol