Cases
Case Study Page:
Below is a select group of criminal case studies. These clients were represented by Chris Klotz in his practice in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama. The number of clients actually helped in 16 years of criminal law practice is much greater. This page is intended to describe a limited number of cases of particular interest. Some have unique facts or unique outcomes. Some cases have web-links to documents or articles that describe the cases in more detail. Out of respect for clients' privacy, only initials are used. However, all of the information contained here is in the public record. They are listed in order of the general type of case.
For the cases below, listed only as initials, I will be adding their stories as time permits. Every one is a unique story and it takes a bit of time to add them. So, please check back.
"Innocence Project" Cases:
As you read this from the comfort of your home, there are thousands of innocent people in jail. For these innocent people, the Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. It was founded to assist prisoners whose innocence could be proven through DNA testing. To date, 223 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing. 17 of them served time on death row. These people served an average of 12 years in prison before exoneration and release. Mr. Klotz has volunteered to assist with several cases in Mississippi. You can learn more about the innocence project at their website, www.innocenceproject.org/.
State v. C.W.
This was a murder client I initially represented at the time of his arrest, but ended up assisting many years later through the New Orleans Innocence Project. The case began very early in my career. It was around 1994. I was a young lawyer in the public defenders office in Jackson, MS. Before the trial, I asked the original trial judge to allow the jury to hear DNA evidence that 100% excluded my client from a series of assaults and homicides. The police theory originally been that one suspect with the same physical description and same gun has committed the string of offenses. This DNA evidence, if considered by a jury, would have left only one choice for the jury; to acquit my client of murder. The DNA proved he was the wrong man. The original trial judge agreed and ruled that if the state insisted in going forward with their very weak case, the jury should be able to hear the DNA evidence. The judge's ruling put the overly ambitious assistant district attorney in the position of possibly having to dismiss the case.
Unfortunately, the original trial judge, who was going to allow the DNA evidence, retired before the trial of this case. A new judge was appointed to the case. The district attorney asked the new judge to reverse the original judge's ruling and to exclude the DNA evidence from the jury. I was shocked that this could even be a possibility. Tragically, the district attorney's office convinced the new judge to prohibit the exculpatory DNA evidence at trial.
My clients family pooled together to hire a private lawyer because many people think private lawyers will do a better job than public defender. So, at that point, just before the trial, a private attorney took over the case. I liked this client a great deal and though I was no longer his attorney, followed his case's progress through his trial.
The private lawyer took the case to trial and the client was tragically convicted of murder. He got a life sentence. Unfortunately, the private lawyer passed away shortly after the murder conviction. In a strange and fateful twist, his private lawyer died before he filed an appeal for the client. The client slipped through the cracks and no one ever filed an appeal for him.
Fast forward to 2006. This client, who I always believed to be truly innocent, has now sat in jail for 10 years and does not realize that no one is appealing his case. A jailhouse lawyer points this fact out and he contacts the Innocence Project in New Orleans, LA (IPNO). IPNO screens the case and realizes the sickening injustice that has occurred in this case. It is an odd coincidence that I am contacted by the Innocence Project to see if I am interested in volunteering to assist with this case. I realize the prisoner is my old client from 10 years ago.
After a great deal of work by the lawyers from the Innocence Project, especially Emily Maw, we are able to obtain a hearing for the client in front of a new trial judge. On the hearing day, I ask the Circuit Judge to grant a new trial or dismiss the charge based on the fact that district attorney kept the jury from hearing the DNA evidence which proved the client was the wrong man. We also proved that that the overzealous police department used illegal and suggestive identification procedures to arrest our client.
In an emotional ruling, the judge ruled from the bench and dismissed the case. She released the client from his handcuffs in the courtroom, apologized to my client, after which he walked out of court a free man after 12 long years wrongly in jail. As of today, the client is doing wonderfully. He is in school and employed in a good job. He is a great father to his son who was born just weeks before he went to jail in 1995. This was a true horror story that has turned into a success story.
You can read more about this case in an award winning article from the Jackson Free Press by Brian Johnson. The link is; Jackson Free Press Article.
State v. R.C.
This is a heartbreaking case. Only a handful of the hundreds of letters and applications for help that are reviewed by the Innocence Project are able to be granted. The screening includes assessment for the existence of DNA evidence, then an evaluation of the potential, based on the case evidence, that the client's story might support actual innocence. Both existed for this client.
The client here was charged with a rape he steadfastly denied he committed. He was convicted in 1983 at trial based on a weak identification. He is incarcerated for life. While there been physical evidence collected at the scene which probably contained DNA from the real offender, it was never tested. When we became involved in the case around 2003, the State Attorney would not agree to allow the client to have the evidence tested. We were forced to file a request with the court to gain access to the evidence. Fortunately, the Mississippi Supreme Court recently ruled that, in some cases, prisoners should have access to potential DNA evidence that was not tested at the time of their original trial. The trial court granted our request to have access to the evidence. We prayed it contained the real rapists DNA.
Court order in hand, we went to the police department's evidence locker. They no longer the evidence. We went to the hospital where some DNA samples in the case were collected. They no longer the evidence. We went to the State Crime Lab. No evidence. After searching high and low, it was discovered that after the trial, the clerk kept the evidence in the clerk's evidence vault at the Courthouse. Several years before our request, a judge signed an order to destroy or burn excess evidence that was stacking up in the clerk's vault. Sadly, the potentially exculpatory evidence in this case was destroyed. It was the only evidence left that could have proved this man's innocence. The client is still in jail with no way in sight to now prove his innocence.
The state is considering passing legislation to make it mandatory to preserve all potential DNA evidence.
Homicide, Murder, Manslaughter:
State v. G.T.
In a case that involved racial tension in Jackson, MS, this older African American male client is charged with the murder of young white woman on the Jackson State University Campus. It is a publicized case followed by the press. Our defense investigation and the evidence prove that the police have botched the investigation and arrested the wrong man.....who also happens to currently be an intelligence informant for the F.B.I.. My client is able to provide a detailed description and drawing of the man who actually committed the murder. The Police make no attempt to find the real murderer.
In the second of his two trials, the Defense is able to show that the District Attorney has placed a jail house snitch in the cell with my client. On the stand, the snitch is shown to have lied about receiving a confession from the client. The snitch got a deal to be released from jail on his own separate manslaughter case if he testified against my client. It turns out that the client never "confessed" to the snitch. The snitch stolen and read the client's private legal papers in the jail cell, giving him enough "knowledge" of the case to fabricate a confession from my client.
I call the jail lieutenant to the stand. The lieutenant testifies that the District Attorney requested a snitch be placed in the cell. We also discovered and called a third inmate as a witness who testifies that he read out loud to the snitch my client's police reports. The "snitch" was illiterate and unable to read my client's paperwork by himself. After two hung juries, the state dismisses the case against the client who is then freed from jail.
State v. K.T.
This is a case that I worked on with my boss very early on in my career. Our client was accused of a shooting spree at the fire station headquarters. He is charged with several counts of murder and the state seeks the death penalty. Several district fire chiefs were killed. This is a tragic case for both the victims and the client. The client was suffering from very serious metal illness at the time of this incident. His untreated and largely undiagnosed mental illness caused a break in reality that led to his actions. Once treated and stabilized, the client is so remorseful and overwhelmed by his actions that he attempts to take his own life several times in jail. During his periods of greatest mental illness in jail, he is on suicide watch and his attempts are stopped.
The State is able to easily prove the multiple murder cases against him and the jury imposes the death penalty. The client remains remorseful for his actions committed while he was severely mentally ill. Ironically, our client dies in jail from a protracted infection.
State v. GB:
State v. D.B.
My client was accused of capital murder and the district attorney requested the death penalty for the robbery of a dry cleaners in which employees were shot. After our lengthy investigation of the client's case, we were able to prove that he was innocent. The facts we gathered were presented to the district attorney who agreed with us. The client been misidentified. The case was dismissed and my client was released after spending almost a year jail.
State v. A.L.
This client gotten into a fight with someone and shot them in the leg. The wound was not life threatening and a full recovery was expected. My client was initially charged with aggravated assault. While in the hospital recovering, the man who was shot died very unexpectedly. The police assumed he died from complications of the gunshot wound. The doctors assumed he an infection that caused heart failure. The charges against my client were increased from assault to murder because the law allows for a suspect to be prosecuted for homicide if the victims dies from a wound, even one that would not ordinarily be life threatening.
I was not convinced that the death was caused by the gunshot wound. During my own homicide investigation, I talked to all of the family of the deceased and to any medical personnel that treated him that I could find. I discovered that there were medical personnel who suspected that the deceased was using dangerous street drugs while in the hospital. A resident student doctor provided the key testimony on this issue.
In the end we were able to show that the man who died was addicted to cocaine. We were able to show that his family members told hospital personnel that it was not fair for the hospital to make him go through cocaine withdrawals "cold turkey". Feeling as if the man was suffering withdrawals, members of his family smuggled cocaine into the intensive care unit for him to use. He died from an overdose. Doctors verified this suspicion on closer examination. The charges were reduced from murder and the client was able to receive a favorable sentence after showing he was acting largely in self defense in the original fight and that the inflicted would was not the cause of death.
State v. D.M.
State v. S.P.
In this case, the client was charged with killing of a young gang member. The client was an older man who been confronted on the street by this young man. Witnesses say that the young man who was shot was about to hit the client with a bottle. The client shot him in self defense being scared for his life and the young man died on the street.
For an unexplained reason, no autopsy was performed on the deceased. The county coroner attempted to offer his opinion as to why the death occurred, but we objected because he was not a physician and no medical training. Anyone can be elected a coroner in Mississippi.
As we investigated the case, we discovered witnesses who said that the young man who was shot was carrying a gun, also. We found witnesses who been reluctant to come forward that stated that people on the street gone through the dead man's pockets and taken his money, jewelry and gun before the police or ambulance arrived. This supported what our client said, that he knew the deceased a gun.
Since we were able to come up with evidence very favorable to the case, that the police not obtained or looked for in their investigation, our client was able to reach a favorable resolution of his case with a charge reduction.
State v. M.R.
The client got into a fight in his house with a roommate. The fight was in the clients room. He grabbed a piece of wood that was propping open a window and hit his roommate in the head one time. Unfortunately, the blow killed his roommate. Client was charged with murder.
At trial, the proof showed that the roommate followed the client into the client's bedroom as they were fighting and arguing. The client did not deny hitting his roommate and was remorseful for hitting him. Client wanted to enter a plea to a manslaughter, but the district attorney would not allow the client to plead to the lesser charge. The homicide was not justified, but was done in the heat of passion, unintentionally during a fight. This is the definition of a manslaughter.
The client strongly believed that he was innocent of murder. He specifically requested that the judge not allow the jury to be instructed on the lesser included offense of manslaughter. This was a risky strategy decision, but the client felt that the jury would not convict him of premeditated murder. The client wanted to take the risk of an all or nothing result.
Unfortunately, the jury no option other than convict him of murder or let him go free. The jury did not want to just set him free, so he was convicted of murder. This gamble by the client did not pay off. However, it was a strategy decision made by the client. The judge and I fully explained the risks to him before he made his decision not to ask the jury to be instructed on the lesser charge of manslaughter. The lesson I took away is to always err on the side of allowing the jury to consider a lesser included charge in their deliberations. However, this is always a client's decision, not mine to make. The client would have been out of jail much sooner he made that decision.
State v. D.S.
This was a case where the client was originally charged with capital murder and armed robbery. The death penalty was being sought. There was a very incriminating statement made by the client to the police. Through our investigation and motions, we were able to show that the police violated procedure in the manner in which they pressured the client to make a statement. Though this error was not great enough to cause the judge to dismiss the case, we were able to convince the district attorney not to seek the death penalty and to reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter. The client accepted a favorable resolution of the homicide case and received what he thought to be a fair deal.
State v. E.S.
This was a homicide case where the decedent did not die of the gunshot that the client fired in the air. The state's expert pathologist testified that the deceased died from the psychological stress experienced while running away from the client as he was firing a gun into the air.
We were able to hire a very reliable pathologist to give a second opinion. Our independent pathologist found that the state's expert was totally out of line and medically wrong in offering the opinion that the cause of death was stress. The state's expert was shown to be a hired gun and, in my opinion, a quack who would testify to almost anything that would help the district attorney. The district attorney in this county no longer uses this pathologist to do autopsies or provide testimony.
The jury did convict the client of an attempted aggravated assault and he received a minimal jail sentence by the judge who apparently did not believe the district attorney's hired gun pathologist either.
State v. M.W.
Assault or Battery:
State v. Versie K
This was a very sympathetic client who made a mistake in judgment. Versie was the epitome of a hulking truck driver. He was a peaceful man with no criminal record who was trying very hard to raise his children to be good people and good students. He worked exceptionally long hours, put all of his kids through school and a devoted wife. He did not allow his children to get in trouble and they were all model students.
Over a period of weeks, his children, who were considered by some kids to be a little book-wormish, were picked on during their ride on the bus to school by a larger older kid who dropped out of school. The bus driver knew the older and larger kid was a troublemaker and many disciplinary problems. But, the bus driver was afraid of the older student and sometimes allowed him to ride the bus to school even though he was no longer supposed to.
Versie complained to the school and teachers about his kids being hit, pushed around and mistreated by this older kid. He went thorough all of the school channels with no success. One day, his kids came home in tears again and Versie got into his truck and went to the boys home to talk to the boys parents. When he got there, not surprisingly, the boy's parents were no where to be found. The boy cussed at Versie and started to make a move toward him on the front porch.
For what happened next, Versie felt very sorry. He lost his composure and instead of walking away and waiting to talk to the boy's parents, he allowed himself to get sucked into a scuffle with the boy. Versie was a mountain of a man who was built like Mr. Olympia. The kid was scrawny in comparison. Versie ended up putting the boy on the ground in short order, sitting on his chest and telling him to leave his children alone. He might have gotten in a punch also. There was no appreciable physical injury to the boy, though. Because Versie was so physically imposing and strong, I was concerned that a jury might find him guilty of assaulting this young man, even though some might say the bully brought it on himself.
Versie admitted he should not have lost his cool, but insisted he was protecting his family and should not have a criminal record because of it. We prepared for trial. During the jury trial, the bully testified and came across as a young thug. Versie testified too. He told the truth about what happed and apologized to the jury for loosing his composure and hitting the much smaller boy. But he also explained to the jury why he did it, that this young man been terrorizing his kids on the school bus.
The jury found Versie not guilty in 15 minutes.
Theft or Receiving Stolen Goods
State v. B.R.
State v. J.B.
State v. K.T.
Drugs or Controlled Substances:
US v. T.J.
US v. K.C.
US v. J.W.
State v. M.L.
State v. V.C.
State v. M.M.
DUI or BUI
State v. F.G.
State v. M.B.
State v. D.N.
State v. K.W.
Robbery or Armed Robbery
State v. W.S.
State v. S.M.
State v. N.S.
Stalking or Domestic Violence:
State v. S.H.
State v. G.M.
State v. E.N.
State v. D.K.
Lewd & Lascivious Conduct, Sexual Battery or Rape:
State v. E.C.
State v. M.O.
State v. J.P.
State v. W.P.
State v. R.L.
Juvenile Justice or Youth Court:
State v. B.
State v. T.
State v. U.G.
Violation of Probation (VOP):
State v. L.F.
Criminal Appeals or Post Conviction Relief
State v. B.L.
State v. W.S.
State v. S.M.
A caution about this page:
Please do not take any of the cases individually or combined to be a promise or representation about the outcome of your particular case. This page is not intended for that purpose. It is not an indication of a possible or expected result in your individual fact scenario. Every case is different. Any attorney who promises you a particular outcome for your case is probably giving you a sales pitch.
While an attorney may have an idea of what to expect in a general sense in your case, no one who is being responsible and direct with you can predict a result in this very unpredictable and sometimes unfair criminal justice system. Approach anyone who does with caution.
When you make your very important decision about who you trust to represent you, hopefully, you will feel that your lawyer has experience, dedication, drive and compassion to pursue your case like it is the most important case in their office.
If there is any way I may assist you with a legal case, please call me. I will meet with you as soon as possible.
