Thursday, December 03, 2009

U.S. v. Thompson (9th Cir. - Dec. 3, 2009)

How can you delay a fairly straightforward federal drug trial for almost four full years? Play with the rules regarding new lawyers and self-representation, and also feign incompetence.

Though that'll only work for so long. After several years, everyone will catch on, and you'll finally be forced to go to trial. At which point you'll be convicted. And the Ninth Circuit will rightly affirm.

You'll note, by the way, that Thompson was able not only to avoid trial, but also to stay out of custody for two of the four years as well. Pretty sweet. Until everyone caught on, anyway.

My sense is that you'll see a more sophisticated delay strategy in Switzerland by Roman Polanski's lawyers.