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Murder

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Winning Murder Trials 

Being charged with murder can paralyze even the strongest individual with fear. There is no description that adequately characterizes how unnerving the process can be for those charged with society’s most serious crime.

Because the stakes are so high, only experienced trial judges are assigned to preside over murder trials. And these judges go to extraordinary lengths to ensure the accused a fair trial. Jurors, likewise concerned with returning a just verdict, are remarkably attentive. For the criminal defense lawyer undaunted by the enormity of the stakes, the circumstances have never been so promising for obtaining an acquittal for his client.   

To whom can you entrust your life?

Not every criminal defense lawyer is capable of representing an individual accused of first-degree murder. Homicide prosecutors are tough, shrewd, experienced, and accustomed to the high-pressure atmosphere of a murder trial. The criminal defense lawyer must possess these same qualities – and more. Attorney Mahoney has successfully defended numerous individuals of serious felonies, including 1st degree murder. He thrives in a high-pressure environment, and is comfortable and confident in handling the media. In short, he is battle tested.

Using Forensic Evidence to Exonerate Clients

Increasingly, a prosecutor relies on forensic evidence to seal his victory. At trial, he may call experts in forensic disciplines ranging from DNA analysis, toxicology, pharmacology, crime scene reconstruction, fingerprint analysis, blood splatter analysis, ballistics, bodily fluid analysis to pathology. Now, more than ever, a criminal defense lawyer is called upon to have a working, if not intimate, knowledge of the high tech forensic evidence a prosecutor might use against his client. To the untrained eye, what might appear to be damning scientific evidence, may, in fact, demonstrate the client's innocence or, at least, not be that damning after all. Appreciating the subtle differences between compelling and exonerating forensic evidence can save a client from the abyss.

For example, in Commonwealth vs. Christina Martin, the toxicology evidence appeared to provide the District Attorney’s Office with nearly irrefutable proof that someone had poisoned her boyfriend. Confused and intimidated by the toxicology evidence, Ms. Martin’s original lawyer abandoned any hope of challenging this “overwhelming” forensic evidence and, instead, fingered Ms. Martin’s daughter as the murderer. In short, he conceded that the boyfriend had been murdered. Ms. Martin was convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. After thoroughly educating himself on the toxicology tests performed on the deceased, Kevin Mahoney realized that the District Attorney’s Office had withheld additional toxicology evidence from the defense. After forcing the District Attorney’s Office to come clean, Mahoney used the toxicology evidence to free Ms. Martin.  

Winning the Case With Effective Cross-Examination

In his best selling book, Relentless Criminal Cross-Examination (2008), Mahoney devotes entire chapters to teaching lawyers how to cross-examine forensic experts, eye-witnesses, snitches, and detectives – especially those detectives who elicited a statement from the defendant. While experience, aggression, and communication skills are important assets for every criminal defense lawyer, tactical, disciplined, creative and thorough cross-examination of prosecution witnesses wins trials. Mahoney has earned a nationwide reputation as a consummate cross-examiner. And spending the time to really get to know his client, his particular circumstances, and the details of the alleged encounter, together with innovative investigative techniques and solid preparation, are the foundation of his most successful cross-examinations.

Helping the Client Overcome Fear

Prosecutors habitually charge individuals with first-degree murder when the allegations, at most, support a charge of manslaughter or, at worst, no charge at all. When a prosecutor has a weak case, he knows his most powerful, insidious and persuasive "evidence" is fear. Fear, the prosecutor believes, will drive the decision-making, compelling the accused's lawyer to offer a plea of guilty to 2nd degree murder. In most cases, the prosecutor need only indict and wait. Fear, while real and potentially overpowering, should not deprive the accused – particularly the innocent – of his right to a defense.

A battle tested lawyer knows his responsibility to the client extends beyond the courtroom; he has an obligation to keep his client informed, to advise him honestly, and to try to him manage and overcome his fears while the case works its way through the system. Helping the client maintain his emotional balance before and during the trial is essential to winning the case. After all, at the defense table sit only the lawyer and client. When a witness blurts out something unexpected, and that happens at nearly every trial, it is to the client that the lawyer must turn for clarification. An emotionally stable, well-informed, and engaged client is often a lawyer’s greatest asset at trial.

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Results

Commonwealth vs. Martin, 427 Mass. 816 (1998)
1st Degree Murder – conviction overturned. Attorney Mahoney successfully argued on appeal that District Attorney’s Office withheld exculpatory toxicology evidence and that defendant’s trial attorney had provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to challenge the cause-of-death evidence.

Commonwealth vs. M.L., Cambridge Superior Court
1st Degree Murder -- Not Guilty
Possession of Firearm -- Not Guilty

The still burning remains of an unidentified victim were discovered on a remote road in Fitchburg, not far from the Defendant’s parents' home. The victim had been shot once in the head, twice in the chest, before being discarded on the snow covered road, soaked with gasoline and set on fire. After identifying the victim, the police quickly settled on the home of KF as the likely murder scene. State Police Detectives conducting surveillance on KF's home observed individuals carrying items from the home to cars parked in the driveway and decided to secure the residence. Bursting through the front door, State Troopers swiftly tackled KF and the Defendant to the floor, got them to their feet and hustled them out the door, dressed only in jeans and t-shirts, into a blizzard. Beginning at approximately midnight, two detectives relentlessly interrogated the Defendant. For the first 5 hours of the interrogation, the Defendant maintained that KF and KF's girlfriend, SL, had shot and killed the victim. The Defendant admitted that after the murder, and while the victim lay dead in a pool of blood just down the hall, he, KF and SL smoked the victim's cocaine. According to the Defendant, they wrapped the body in saran wrap, drove to Fitchburg, and burned the body. At 05:00 a.m., the Defendant exhausted and dope sick, confessed to executing the victim with a 9mm handgun provided by KF. Arguing that the police had interfered with the Defendant’s access to a telephone, Mahoney persuaded a Superior Court judge to suppress the most damaging portion of the confession.

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“Aside from its excerpts of cross-examination, the book offers extremely valuable wisdom regarding overarching trial strategies (e.g., defense counsel demeanor; tone, tenor, and timing; why you should not call defense witnesses; etc.) The wisdom offered is alone extremely ..."

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"I know that he had much more important and higher profile cases going on, but I always got the impression that mine was the most important to him."

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