tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5945843206427351559.post5608882791150483809..comments2024-01-25T14:51:13.377-05:00Comments on Gamso - For the Defense: One Foot After the OtherJeff Gamsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09869425697771419546noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5945843206427351559.post-88902733815725720402010-08-15T23:41:04.092-04:002010-08-15T23:41:04.092-04:00You've been a salesman, Jack. All I've do...You've been a salesman, Jack. All I've done is teach and practice law. I'll defer to you on selling. But I'll stick with what I said on law. You believe it while you argue it.<br /><br />As for proving a negative - There are negatives and negatives. <br /><br />You can sometimes demonstrate that an allegation cannot be true. Sometimes you can do it with DNA. (No, the blood on the doorknob cannot have been from the cut on my hand.) Indeed, scientists really test their theories by trying to prove them false. That's because all they can do otherwise is show consistency, which isn't really proof.<br /><br />In any event, legal proof isn't scientific proof. As I've said a number of times, legal proof is whatever the finder of fact ends up believing.Jeff Gamsohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09869425697771419546noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5945843206427351559.post-25573252392189033122010-08-12T18:37:00.416-04:002010-08-12T18:37:00.416-04:00That uncertainty, that paranoia, is real. But so...<i>That uncertainty, that paranoia, is real. But so is the need to drink your own Kool-Aid. <b>You can't stand up in front of the jury, the judge, the panel of judges and sell something (and that's what you're doing, you're selling) you don't believe.</b> Ask any actor. (Or any good commission salesman.)</i><br /><br />I don't know where you dredged up this old homily about selling something you don't believe in, but you're wrong. To paraphrase, you are wrong, wrong and wrong. Not right.<br /><br />I know this because, you see, I've done it. I spent ten years doing it - successfully telling lies to people and groups of people. I knew what I was doing. I was, and still am, very believable. The people I worked with did the same thing, and were good at it. Those that were not good at it didn't survive.<br /><br />One of the best confidence men I've ever met told me once, "Jack," he said, "the one thing you shouldn't do is believe your own bullshit. As soon as you do that, you're in fuckin' trouble." His words, not mine. He's right, too. Just as soon as you start to believe your own lies you are sliding right into deep water with a cider block wired to your ankles.<br /><br />I don't agree with everything you write, and from time to time you commit logic fallacies that are the size of a billboard with the same decorum and aplomb of a Presbyterian usher passing the collection plate on Sunday morning. For instance, and this is one of my favorites, you cannot logically prove a negative. DNA testing will not prove Big Willie Dixon didn't rape Mary Whitechild, but depending on test results it could easily prove that the DNA evidence recovered at the scene does not belong to Big Willie, and if that is the only evidence that the prosecutor has then his case will fold up faster than a three-card monte dealer facing a ten man bunco squad. A New York bunco squad. The thing is, being an attorney you know about this logic fallacy as well as a dozen others you could trot out anytime you like, but then you go right ahead and commit the fallacy anyway. This latest, however, goes beyond the pale.<br /><br />People can and do sell things and ideas that they have no belief in, that they know to be untrue and it happens all the time. The prosecutor's behavior that you (and I) find despicable is a prime example. The prosecutor isn't stupid or completely ignorant. He knows what's going on. He doesn't care.<br /><br />Kool-aid my grandmother's venochie. I'll give you Kool-aid.Mad Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06190137186843630543noreply@blogger.com