— Chronicle legal affairs writer Harriet Chiang outlines the grounds for appeal in the dog-mailing case.
Questionable calls by the judge, ineffective assistance by Knoller’s lawyer and prejudicial evidence involving the couple’s ties to the Aryan Brotherhood are likely to be the primary defense arguments, veteran lawyers said yesterday.
It’s pretty much what I suspected, plus that Aryan Brotherhood business which sticks out like a sore leftist.
Mercury News legal affairs writer Howard Mintz supports Chiang’s findings.
A defense lawyer, handling her first murder trial, who got down on her hands and knees to argue her case, and who at one point was threatened with contempt of court. An untested legal theory that produces the only second-degree murder conviction for a fatal dog mauling in the state’s history. Glaring publicity and a host of contested and potentially inflammatory evidence, including links to a notorious prison gang.
The dual conviction – for both murder and manslaughter in the same death – is also questionable.