U.S. Capitol Building

On the let-down after a lost DUI trial

Jamison KoehlerTrial Advocacy

I wake up again at 3:00 am but, for the first time in over a week, there is nothing to do but clean up my study.  

There were positives from the trial:  A government expert who could not perform basic calculations, and another expert who messed up the standardized field sobriety test.  Other witnesses were caught in basic contradictions. And, of course, there was our expert, toxicologist Dick McGarry from Roanoke, Virginia, who I thought performed beautifully on direct and even better under cross-examination.

It is amazing how a loss affects your perspective on things:  Every decision you made, every argument, is suddenly suspect.

There were times during the trial at which I hated the prosecutor.  But he came over to shake my hand even before the jury returned with the verdict, and he was even more gracious after the win.

His supervisor attended much of the trial, and there was a crowd of DUI prosecutors there to see parts of the trial.  While I stew in my study, I am thinking that, this morning anyway, he is probably sleeping in.