We know a great deal about the successful assassinations of American presidents, political leaders and other public figures, but what about those assassinations that failed? There have been several close calls during assassination attempts, leaving the target badly wounded, slightly injured or even completely unharmed. With every failed assassination, we see how quickly lives can be taken away and how dangerous it is to be in the public eye. Here are the 10 most infamous failed assassins:

1. Claus von Stauffenberg was famously known for trying to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, in what was known as Operation Valkyrie. The German army officer was the driving force behind the plot to kill Hitler and remove the Nazi Party from power. On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg entered the Fuhrer’s office carrying a briefcase that contained two bombs. He left the room to arm the first bomb and returned to the briefing room, leaving the briefcase under the table near Hitler. Stauffenberg excused himself again and left the room when the bomb exploded. He was convinced that no one could have survived, but Hitler survived practically unscathed. The bomb killed four people and injured others. Stauffenberg and his co-conspirator, Haeften, fled to a nearby airfield. It wasn’t long after the failed assassination attempt when the two were tracked down and captured during a shoot out. Stauffenberg was executed by a firing squad.

2.Arthur Bremer attempted to kill George Wallace while he was campaigning for democratic presidential primary in Laurel, Maryland, on May 15, 1972. Bremer shot Wallace five times with one bullet hitting his spinal column, which caused him to be paralyzed from the waist down. Wallace was confined to a wheelchair the rest of his life. Bremer’s motive to kill Wallace was fueled by a desire for fame and to be the greatest assassin, as noted in his diary. President Nixon was an earlier target for Bremer. He was convicted of attempted murder and was sentenced to 53 years in prison, but Bremer sought parole after 35 years and was released in November 2007.

3. Richard Lawrence was the first known person to try to assassinate an American president. Lawrence sought to kill President Andrew Jackson inside the Capitol Rotunda in January 1835. The English-born house painter fired at Jackson, but the powder failed to ignite and the bullet did not eject. He fired a second time but it did nothing again. Jackson lunged at Lawrence with his cane, but the shooter was pulled down to the ground by a young army officer who was nearby. Lawrence claimed that he was an heir to the British throne and Jackson stood in his way. He was arrested and found not guilty by reason of insanity. Lawrence was sentenced to a mental institution for the remainder of his life.

4. John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassin President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, in an attempt to win the attention of actress Jodie Foster. Hinkley was successful in shooting Reagan, hitting him under the left arm and puncturing his lung. In a matter of three seconds, Hinkley shot Reagan, a police officer, a Secret Service agent, and seriously wounded Press Secretary James Brady. Hinckley was playing out the role of Travis Bickle, a fictional character from the movie Taxi Driver, in which Bickle protects a 12-year-old prostitute played by Jodie Foster, and he kills her pimp so that he can be portrayed as a hero to her and the media. Hinckley was obsessed with Bickle’s character and wanted to act out his rescue of Foster in real life. In the 1982 trial, Hinckley was found not-guilty by reason of insanity.

5. Sara Jane Moore tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford on Sept. 22, 1975, by shooting at him while standing in a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Moore fired one single shot at Ford while standing about 40 feet away from him and just barely missed his head by a couple inches. When she raised her arm to shoot again, Oliver Sipple, a US Marine, dove toward her, knocked her arm away and pulled her to the ground. Ford was not shot, but a bystander was injured when the bullet ricocheted off the hotel entrance. At the time of the shooting, Moore had been working as a bookkeeper for P.I.N., a charitable organization, and was an FBI informant. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in December 2007 after serving 32 years of her life sentence.

6. John F. Schrank tried to assassinate President Theodore Roosevelt on Oct. 14, 1912 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during a presidential election campaign. Schrank attacked Roosevelt as he was leaving the Gilpatrick Hotel and shot him. The bullet went into his chest after hitting his steel eyeglass case and a copy of his speech that was in his jacket. Despite suggestions, Roosevelt refused to go to the hospital because he wasn’t coughing up blood and decided to deliver his speech as planned. Roosevelt showed great strength when he spoke for 90 minutes and addressed the crowd with all of his might. Doctors later determined that because he was not seriously wounded, it would be more risky to try to remove the bullet than leave it. Roosevelt had the bullet in his chest until the day he died. Schrank’s motive to kill Roosevelt remains unclear, but he was strongly against a sitting President serving a third term in office. Doctors declared that Schrank was insane, and he was sentenced to a mental hospital for the rest of his life.

7. Vladimir Arutyunian tried to assassinate President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on May 10, 2005, when he threw a hand grenade toward the podium where Bush was speaking. The Soviet-made RGD-5 hand grenade was wrapped in a red plaid handkerchief and landed about 100 feet from the podium. The hand grenade failed to detonate because of a malfunction. A Georgian security officer removed the grenade, but Arutyunian disappeared. After the incident, FBI agents were able to identify a suspect from photographs taken during the speech. When they raided Arutyunian’s home trying to arrest him, a gunfight broke out and he killed Zurab Kvlividze, the head of the Interior Ministry’s counterintelligence department. He was wounded and captured by Georgian Special Forces, and admitted on television that he had thrown the grenade. The Georgian man hated the country’s new government and was not regretful of his actions. Arutyunian was found guilty of terrorism, attempted assassination, treason and murdering a police officer.

8. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola tried to assassinate President Harry S. Truman on Nov. 1, 1950, in hopes of calling attention to Puerto Rico and advancing Puerto Rican independence. The two Puerto Rican nationalists prepared to attack Truman at the Blair House where the family was staying during White House renovations. Collazo and Torresola planned to surround the house and shoot Truman inside. Instead, the men got into a gunfight with White House policemen and Secret Service agents outside, but never made it inside the house. Three policemen were wounded, but one of them shot at Torresola and hit him on the side of the head, killing him. Truman was taking a nap inside the house when he heard the shootings and ran to the window to see Collazo on the front steps. He was ordered to get down by a White House guard. Collazo was originally sentenced to death, but Truman reduced the penalty to life imprisonment, which was later commuted by President Carter.

9. Mehmet Ali Agca tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison in which he was sentenced to for murdering Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci. Agca shot the pope and wounded him in the abdomen, left hand and right arm. Although he has never explained his motives, there have been claims made that the K.G.B. and Bulgarian intelligence were involved. Agca was linked to the Turkish ultranationalist group, called the Grey Wolves. Agca was sentenced to 19 years for attempted murder and served his time in Italian prisons, but finished his 10-year term in Turkey for murdering Ipekci. He was released from prison in January 2010.

10. Frank Eugene Corder tried to kill President Bill Clinton and his family by flying a stolen single-engine Cessna into the White House lawn on Sept. 12, 1994. Corder was trying to hit the White House, but the plane’s power shut off and crashed through the branches of a magnolia tree, killing him. The Clintons were not at home and were staying across the street at the Blair House while the White House was undergoing repairs. Corder was a 38-year-old truck driver from Maryland, who had been suffering from alcoholism, financial problems, a drug conviction and a broken marriage. One of Corder’s friends said that he had once talked about flying a plane into the White House as a suicide mission, but Corder’s intent is still uncertain to law enforcement.

* Today’s article courtesy of our good friends at Onlinedegree.net.

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Writers’ Police Academy

Registration for the 2011 Writers’ Police Academy is now open. You do not want to miss this one of a kind event!

Writers’ Police Academy

Guilford Technical Community College and Public Safety Training Academy

Jamestown, N.C.

September 23-25, 2011

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We’ve just added some new workshops and experts to the lineup!

Cold Case Investigations

Bloodstain Pattern Investigations

3D Laser Scanning

(experts show you how it’s done in the field using actual equipment)

How about tours of the local jail?

Ride-a-longs with sheriff’s deputies?

Have we got some surprises in store for you!

Females may make up a smaller percentage of total criminal activity, but some of the most horrific crimes have been committed by women. From infanticide, murdering husbands to robbing banks, these 10 women have become famous for all the wrong reasons.

1. Lizzie Borden: Lizzie Borden was the top suspect in the gruesome 1892 murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. On August 4, 1892, Lizzie found her dead father slumped on a couch and bloodied from multiple crushing blows to his skull and his left eyeball split in half. The Borden’s maid, Bridget Sullivan, was lying down in her room when the murders occurred and was called down by Lizzie when she discovered her father’s body. Her stepmother, Abby Borden, was found dead in the guest bedroom from similar hatchet blows to the head. Lizzie was arrested and taken to jail following the murders. During her murder trial, Lizzie’s stories were inconsistent and suspicious, and much of the incriminating evidence was overlooked. Despite the fact that police found a hatchet with a broken handle in the basement, and knew that Lizzie had attempted to buy prussic acid and even burned one of her dresses days after the murders, Lizzie was acquitted. The maid even provided key testimony at the trials, claiming that Lizzie never mourned the loss of her parents. However, no one else was ever arrested or tried for the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden.

2. Bonnie Parker: Bonnie Parker was an accomplice to Clyde Barrow during the duo’s spree of robberies in the south and central United States during the Great Depression. During this “public enemy era,” Bonnie, Clyde and their accomplices garnered national attention for numerous robberies, murders and their ability to escape police on every occasion. Although Bonnie rode with the Barrow gang for 4 straight years and was often depicted as a cigar-smoking and gun-wielding killer, there is no record that she ever shot a gun or killed anyone. After many attempts to stop the outlaws, police finally succeeded with a carefully planned ambush, in which Bonnie and Clyde were shot and killed on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934.

3. Mary Ann Cotton: Mary Ann Cotton was an English serial killer during the 19th century, who was suspected of killing about 20 people by arsenic poisoning. Cotton took no mercy on her victims, killing her husbands, mother, friend and even her own children. The murder spree began when she married her first husband, William Mowbray. The couple had five children and quickly lost four of them to gastric fever and stomach pains. They had, and lost, three more children, and Mary Ann became a widow after her husband died of an intestinal disorder in 1865. Mary Ann collected his insurance and moved on to her next husband. Mary Ann continued the pattern of marry husband, give birth to child, child dies, then husband dies and she collects the insurance money. By the time she met her fourth and last husband, Frederick Cotton, Mary Ann had lost her mother, friend, three husbands and 11 children all to stomach fevers. After Frederick’s sudden death and the death of the last surviving Cotton boy, Charles Edward, the coroner became suspicious of the cause of death and Mary Ann’s role in the fatalities she had witnessed through the years. When Charles’ body tested positive for arsenic, Mary Ann was arrested and later found guilty for the murders and was hanged.

4. Aileen Wuornos: Aileen Wuornos was a serial killer and prostitute who killed seven men in Florida from 1989 to 1990. Wuornos had a rocky upbringing that led her into prostitution at a young age. It was then when she began having trouble with the law, including DUI, disorderly conduct, assault, armed robbery and theft charges. Around 1986, Wuornos met Tyria Moore, a hotel maid, and the two began an intimate relationship together. Wuornos supported them with her prostitution earnings, but the payments were not sufficient enough. They decided that in order to make more money, Wuornos would have to rob her customers and shoot them. The first victim, Richard Mallory, a convicted rapist, who Wuornos claimed to have killed in self-defense, was found dead along a dirt road in Volusia County, Florida. He had been shot three times with a .22 caliber weapon and wrapped in a rubber-backed carpet runner. Another naked male body was found in Florida woods with similar gun shots that appeared to be made with a .22. Over the course of one year, five other male bodies were found throughout Florida. Witness descriptions of the two women seen driving the victims’ cars and Wuornos’ fingerprints on victims’ belongings pinned her as the murderer. Wuornos was arrested and claimed self-defense in the killings of all seven men, but her inconsistent stories and varied confessions led her to receive six death sentences. She was executed by lethal injection on Oct. 9, 2002.

5. Genene Jones: Genene Jones is a serial killer who killed somewhere between 11 and 46 infants and children while working as a pediatric nurse in San Antonio and Kerrville, Texas. Jones injected children with digoxin, heparin and succinylcholine that caused heart paralysis, breathing complications and often led to death. Her intention was to put children in an emergency state and revive them to receive praise and attention from parents, doctors and the public. However, many children like Chelsea McClellan did not survive the attacks, and their deaths were labeled as SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome. When suspicion rose about the eight children who developed emergency respiratory problems at the pediatric intensive-care unit in Kerrville, and an inordinate number of child deaths at Jones’ previous job at Bexar County Hospital, investigation ensued. Chelsea McClellan’s body was exhumed and the coroner found succinylcholine in her tissues. Although the evidence was compelling, no one had actually seen Jones inject Chelsea or her other victims. After several organized hearings, the Kerr County grand jury found Jones guilty of one count of murder and several charges for injury to seven children. She was sentenced to 99 years in prison and will receive automatic parole in 2017.

6. Andrea Yates: Andrea Yates is responsible for killing her five children on June 20, 2001 by drowning them in the bathtub at her house. Yates had been suffering with a severe case of postpartum depression and psychosis. Andrea and her husband, Rusty Yates, had five children between 1994 and 2000, but it was only after the birth of Luke, her fourth son, that Andrea showed signs of depression. She became suicidal and tried to kill herself on many occasions. After being admitted to the hospital, Yates was prescribed a mixture of antidepressants and anti-psychotic drugs, including Haldol. Although her condition improved, she did experience a nervous breakdown and two suicide attempts a month later. Yates was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis and, ignoring her psychiatrist’s advice to stop trying to have more children, she gave birth to her sixth child, Mary. When Andrea’s father died in 2001, she fell into a severely depressed state by not talking, mutilating herself, reading the Bible loyally and neglecting to feed Mary. Yates was hospitalized again and the doctor informed Rusty that she must be supervised around the clock at home. On June 20, 2001, Rusty did not follow the doctor’s orders and left Andrea alone with their children when he left for work. Within the one-hour span of Rusty leaving and Andrea’s mother’s arrival to the house, Andrea drowned all five of her children one by one. Yates was originally convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison with the chance of parole after 40 years, but it was later overturned when a Texas jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity. Yates currently resides at a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas.

7. Countess Elizabeth Bathory: Elizabeth Bathory was a countess from Hungary, who belonged to the renowned Bathory family. But she is most infamously remembered as a serial killer who tortured and killed hundreds of girls and young women in her castle. As legend has it, Bathory bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth. One witness claimed that the “Blood Countess” and her four accomplices killed more than 600 women, but they were only convicted of 80 deaths. Bathory was sentenced to imprisonment in the Cachtice Castle, where she stayed until she died in 1614.

8. Karla Homolka: Karla Homolka and her husband Paul Bernardo were a team of torturers, rapists and murderers. They raped and murdered two Ontario teenage girls, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as Homolka’s younger sister, Tammy, between 1991 and 1992. In an effort to please Paul and keep him around, Karla agreed to engage in the gruesome acts and even videotape the rape-murders. Police began questioning Karla and Paul in connection with the Scarborough Rapist investigation and tested DNA samples provided by Bernardo. When the test results came back matching Bernardo’s DNA with that of the Scarborough Rapist and he was placed under 24-hour surveillance. Even though Homolka was arrested, she managed to get a lighter sentence of 12 years in prison because she claimed that she was forced by her husband to participate in the heinous crimes.

9. Susan Smith: Susan Smith murdered her two young sons by rolling her car into John D. Long Lake in South Carolina with her children inside on Oct. 25, 1994. Smith told police that she had been carjacked by a black man who drove away with her kids in the back. A nationwide search for Smith’s 1990 Mazda Protege and highly publicized rescue efforts to find her sons came to a halt just nine days after the incident, when Smith confessed to rolling her car into the lake with her kids inside. Smith claimed that she had mental health issues that impaired her judgment, but her alleged motives for the murders contradicted her defense. Smith disposed of her children so that she could mend a broken relationship with a wealthy local man who didn’t want to be with a woman who had children. Smith was charged with two counts of murder and is serving a minimum of 30 years in prison.

10. Diane Downs: Diane Downs is infamously known for shooting her three children, killing one, in order to keep her lover who didn’t want kids. Downs told police a fabricated story that a stranger had tried to carjack her, shot her in the arm and shot her three kids near Springfield, Oregon. She then drove to the McKenzie-Willamette Hospital with her children in the back. Her second child, Cheryl, was already dead when they arrived. Downs had been shot in her left forearm, which was later determined to be a self-inflicted wound used to support her carjacking story. Downs rehashed the events to police and was recorded on camera laughing as she described the traumatic details. Her calm behavior and mannerisms made police very suspicious of Downs’ role in the shooting and murder of her 7-year-old daughter. When police discovered that Downs was involved with Robert Knickerbocker, an Arizona man who did not want children in his life, all signs pointed to Downs as the murderer. Prosecutors strongly believed that Downs attempted to kill all three kids so she could continue her affair with Knickerbocker, but it wasn’t until her oldest daughter, Christie, gave a key testimony that it was in fact her mother who shot her and her sisters that the case came to rest. Downs was found guilty on all charges and was sentenced to life in prison, plus 50 years, on June 17, 1984.

Today’s article is courtesy of our good friends at Criminaljusticedegreesguide.com.

ATF Special Agent Rick McMahan has worked in federal law enforcement for over eighteen years. During the first six years of his career, Rick worked as a civilian Special Agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations where he worked a wide range of person and property crimes.

As an ATF agent, Rick has investigated extremist militias, violent street gangs as well as outlaw motorcycle gangs. In addition, he’s a firearms instructor and has served as an on-the-job trainer for new agents. In his free time, Rick enjoys writing, and he’s had short stories appear in anthologies such as—TECHNO NOIRE, LOW DOWN & DERBY and the Mystery Writer’s of America DEATH DO US PART edited by Harlan Coben.

PARTNERS

Cop partners. What other stereotype of fiction and film is played over and over again to a well-worn track in audiences’ minds? Think of all of the “buddy cop flicks” we’ve all seen—one cop who’s flying by the seat of his or her pants while the other is more conservative. Stereoptypical for sure. Tired. Worn out. But readers gobble up books like this and audiences keep going to the movies.

Why?

Because a good partner is hard to find. I think readers and audiences all enjoy those kind of strong bonds of friendship. They crave those kind of commitments that are bonded beyond blood or marriage. So partner stories always thrive in fiction and film.

In real life, I can tell you this—having a damn good partner is a bond that lasts a long time. I don’t know if it is forever, but the bond with old partners lasts a long time.

A real long time.

Why?

Because a good partner is hard to find.

Cops don’t always get to choose whom they’re partnered to work with. And a bad partner (just like bad bosses) makes work a drag. And good partners make it the best time you’re going to have. And you don’t realize how good of a good thing you have with a good partner until you have a bad one.

I don’t know why this is true. I just know that in my time in law enforcement, which is edging closer and closer to two decades, you have people you work with whom you respect and like, and others—well, others you wouldn’t cross the street to pee on if they were on fire.

In police work, you work day in and day out with someone as a partner. You come to depend on them and they depend on you. I’m not just talking about those times going through doors on warrants and risk-taking, but those times where you take up the slack in paperwork when you’re partner’s overwhelmed or falling behind. You watch out for each other. You take care of each other. You spend more time with each other than you do with spouses and families. And you develop a bond that goes beyond work.

Writers talk of the one ‘bell-ringing’ scene that defines a character or relationship. I can’t adequately explain the depth of what a good partnership is in words, but I do have one event. One strike of that bell…

Several weeks ago, my father suddenly passed away. I was devastated. Friends and co-workers sent cards, emails and called to give their condolences to my family and me. My father’s funeral was out of state and was on a Friday evening. I was standing with my mother and brothers at the front at my father’s casket talking to the folks who came to pay their respects to my Dad. Then, at the back of the room, at the end of the line I saw two people I didn’t expect—ATF Special Agents George Huffman and Tony Zito. George had the dubious assignment as my training officer when I first came on the job. And for most of the I was in Louisville, Tony and I were partnered together. Five years ago, I was reassigned across the state. Though we occasionally emailed or talked at statewide training, I didn’t see George nor Tony on a regular basis.

I never expected them to drive four and a half hours on a Friday night to attend my Father’s service.

Yet there the two of them stood.

Our handshakes turned into heartfelt hugs and I was fighting back tears.

“You guys didn’t have come all this way.” I told both of them. Both of them told me that they wanted to come. I repeated myself, “You didn’t have to drive all this way.”

“Yes I did,” Tony said, “There was no doubt. I’d do nothing less.”

I. Would. Do. Nothing. Less.

Those five words define the meaning of partners.

That’s a true partner.

*Special Agent McMahan is an instructor for the Writers’ Police Academy. Rick’s photo above was taken at a liquor still that had been recently raided. During the raid, Rick was on the side of the good guys, not the moonshiners.

Heather Leonard practices law in both the federal and state courts in the State of Alabama. She has handled numerous appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. While her practices focuses on the area of labor and employment law, she also handles complex litigation cases and criminal matters. She teaches at numerous seminars, and articles she has written have been published in the Birmingham Bar Association Journal and the Alabama Lawyer. She has appeared several times on National Public Radio’s Marketplace, and has been quoted in the New York Times.

But Did He Do It?
Charles Dickens wrote that “if there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers.” Most people assume that everyone accused of a crime is guilty, and that it is only through a ruthless lawyer that the guilty go free. Without question, there are bad people who do bad things. There are also people who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. They all deserve a defense, and their lawyers must provide it, ethically.

Most criminal defense lawyers, when asked how they defend persons accused of unspeakable acts, respond that their job is to defend the system. Under the American system of law, the accused is presumed innocent until the prosecution proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he or she committed the bad acts alleged. In defending the system, a defense lawyer makes sure that evidence, rather than prejudices and assumptions, are used as proof. This insures that fundamental rights are not arbitrarily denied.

The United States Constitution protects individual rights against government encroachment. The Bill of Rights codifies negative rights. It is a list of “thou shall nots” for the government. Key among the “shall nots” are protections against the government depriving persons accused of criminal wrong doing of their liberty without first giving the accused notice of the wrong of which they have been accused and a fair hearing. The Constitution provides that nobody accused of a crime can be forced to give evidence against themselves. This is because the burden of proof lies with the government to prove the wrongdoing, not with the accused to prove his innocence. The Constitution emphasizes that everyone has a right to a defense.

The challenge for the defense lawyer is how to mount the defense. Lawyers are bound by a code of ethics that direct how they do their job. The American Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct provide guidance as to how a lawyer can represent his or her client:
Rule 3.1 – A lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, or assert or controvert an issue therein, unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous, which includes a good faith argument for an extension, modification or reversal of existing law. A lawyer for the defendant in a criminal proceeding, or the respondent in a proceeding that could result in incarceration, may nevertheless so defend the proceeding as to require that every element of the case be established.

Rule 3.3 – (a) A lawyer shall not knowingly: (1) make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false statement of material fact or law previously made to the tribunal by the lawyer; (2) fail to disclose to the tribunal legal authority in the controlling jurisdiction known to the lawyer to be directly adverse to the position of the client and not disclosed by opposing counsel; or (3) offer evidence that the lawyer knows to be false. If a lawyer, the lawyer’s client, or a witness called by the lawyer, has offered material evidence and the lawyer comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures, including, if necessary, disclosure to the tribunal. A lawyer may refuse to offer evidence, other than the testimony of a defendant in a criminal matter, that the lawyer reasonably believes is false.
In plain English, this means that a lawyer cannot knowingly raise a defense which she or he knows to be frivolous or false. This means not only that a lawyer cannot allow his or her client to lie on the stand, but also that the lawyer cannot allow a witness to give false information. For this reason, some lawyers are cautious in the questions which they ask their clients. If the client reveals to the lawyer that she committed the crime, then the lawyer cannot ethically put on a defense asserting that the accused could not have committed the crime because she had an alibi. The lawyer cannot knowingly raise a false defense or allow a witness, including the accused, to lie to the court.

Yet, truth must be the guiding principle. Without knowing the truth about the facts and circumstances surrounding the alleged crime, a lawyer is flying blind in court, unable to adequately prepare the case and address adverse witnesses and arguments. It is for this very reason, that a defense lawyer must know the answer to the burning question, “but did he do it.” Justice requires that the lawyer get that answer.