I found Chernoff's summation to be strangely disjointed and disorganized, actually. There was no clear theory presented at the outset, and the "Michael is responsible for his own death" will probably not rest well with the jury, given everything? At the end, the defense lawyers seemed defeated, and at one point Chernoff had his head down, head in his hands. Compared to Walgren's obvious passion for "the people," and for Michael and his orphaned children, the defense was lackluster, and seemed to have no genuine feeling for Murray, at all.
Attacking Alvarez seemed pointless, to me. He was not a strong prosecution witness, but probably doing the best that he could. He "might" profit from this in the future? White has ALREADY profited from his "junk science," as Walgren put it. Oh, puh-lease? He had a VETERINARIAN do his research? (I'd think the defense team has a case for a civil suit, given that White did NONE of his own research, and didn't seem to know what he was talking about?)
Shafer was another shining star, and the fact that he took no payment, only adds credibility to his testimony.
The moment where Walgren did the "rap number" with White pulling the tubing out of his pocket, over and over again, was. . .priceless. OMG!
During the prosecution summation, Murray didn't seem to look at the jury, at all, and mostly looked at the ceiling or in the opposite direction from the jury.
At this point, a "not guilty" verdict is almost unthinkable. Yes, I agree with Walgren, that what Murray did to Michael was. . just BIZARRE!
uke:
