If you think a criminal-defense attorney who was once a prosecutor (a former DA or U.S. Attorney) will have the best experience to defend you if you're ever criminally charged, you’re wrong! Former prosecutors may have more jury-trial experience than most career defense attorneys, but keep in mind that most of their experience is from trying cases against people accused of committing crimes. It's a very different experience that comes from the same number of years defending people in front of juries against the prosecutors (and sometimes even against the judges who often side with the prosecutors, especially if the judge is also a former prosecutor), and that's the edge that best serves a person accused of criminal conduct. We career defense attorneys pick up every little trick the prosecutors try to pull, and we get to know the inner workings and policies of the prosecutors' offices after defending people for a long time. Every former prosecutor I know against whom I at one time had to defend clients who has since jumped the fence to defend the criminally accused was relentlessly, unreasonably heavy-handed as a prosecutor. What would make anybody think that someone who chose to start his or her career prosecuting people would be able to simply flip a switch in his or her brain such that he or she could then thoroughly and sincerely advocate for the best interests of people charged with committing the same crimes he or she once zealously prosecuted? Once a prosecutor, always the prosecutor's mentality! If you're thinking about hiring a former prosecutor to defend you in a criminal case, instead of a career defense attorney, like me, then ask him or her a few questions first: Why is the attorney now defending the criminally accused when he or she started out prosecuting them? What's your guarantee that he or she will really be looking out for your best interests and will not let old instincts inadvertently take over to the point that you get "sold down the river without a paddle"? If he or she says it's because the money is better, run (don't walk) out of his or her office, then call me. Some former prosecutors I know who are now defense attorneys have themselves been busted for drunk driving and shoplifting (can you believe that?), so they had no choice but to leave the prosecutor's office. Without practice experience in other areas of the law, they are forced to resort to doing criminal-defense work (it's not hard to imagine that they really don't want to be doing what they do now). So do you want one of them defending you?
Click here to view my series of helpful YouTube criminal-law videos!
Attorney Jeff Murrell
(also licensed to practice in New York)
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(Click banner-image above for details about my criminal-defense practice, what I can do for you as far as making affordable payment arrangements and to verify my BBB A+ Accreditation!)
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