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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

First Ghomeshi witness suffers self-inflicted cuts: DiManno

Personally, I think Ghomeshi may indeed be a colossal douchebag. There's every chance in the world he's guilty of battering women he dated. If so, let's hope he's convicted and gets the appropriate punishment. But his lawyer is doing what a defense lawyer is supposed to do and despite the shrieks and howls of "social justice" wankers, there should be no category of crime where mere accusation is sufficient to establish guilt.

The main lesson from the first day of the Ghomeshi trial is that Marie Henein is a first-rate criminal lawyer. But we already knew that from when she got Michael Bryant's charges dismissed.: 
It’s a wonder the sprinklers didn’t go off from all that smoke roiling off the witness stand on Day One of the sexual assault trial against Jian Ghomeshi.

First testifier: Burnt toast.

That’s what happens when your credibility goes up in flames — the trustworthiness of testimony, of memory.

There was no badgering of the witness by a pugnacious defence lawyer, no traps opening up beneath her feet, no cruel dissection of he-said she-said narratives. Thus far it’s been only she-said and a clinical cross-examination — despite the torrent of appalled tweets from pitchfork heavers, most of whom were nowhere near the packed courtroom.

Marie Henein, representing Ghomeshi, didn’t circle her prey like a hungry shark. If there was thrashing, blood in the water, it originated with cuts the witness inflicted on herself...

NB: Best live coverage of the trial is coming from Sarah Boesveld's twitter feed 

UPDATE: On Day 2 of the Ghomeshi trial, his lawyer, Marie Henein, eviscerated the credibility of the Crown's first witness.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

From what I've read about the first day of testimony, this appears to be one count of sexual assault where there wasn't any actual sex. That could end badly for the Crown, which seems to e overcharging with some regularity.

As for the Bryant case, Henien did ever better than get an acquittal. She got the Crown to withdraw the charges before trial.

Richard K said...

Thanks Skippy - I stand corrected (actually, I did remember that but phrased it incorrectly. Michael was my MPP and I canvased for him during his first run.) Her getting Gerald Regan acquitted was impressive as well.