A former NYPD cop and a young overachiever with a total of only eight years’ experience as lawyers are set to defend the city’s most despised killer.
The young legal eagles are gearing up for the case of their lives as accused killer Levi Aron is set to appear in Brooklyn Supreme Court Thursday on murder charges for snatching and butchering little Leiby Kletzky.
“It’s not about defending his actions,” lawyer Jennifer McCann said. “It’s about defending his rights.”
Aron is accused of murdering the lost 8-year-old three weeks ago, a monstrous crime to which he reportedly confessed. The boy’s feet were found in his freezer, and the rest of the carved-up body inside a Dumpster.
The other half of the team, lawyer Pierre Bazile, said the suspect’s family asked him to represent Aron. He brought McCann along after his associate Gerard Marrone stepped down.
“I’m taking this case because a family asked me for help,” Bazile said. “If you want to be an attorney, you treat the client that’s in front of you.”
In an hour-long interview with the Daily News, the two Long Island-based lawyers would not directly discuss Aron or divulge how much they’re getting paid. Both vowed to see the case through to the end.
The lawyers will be pitted against experienced and aggressive prosecutors. District Attorney Charles Hynes has called the murder the most horrific homicide of his 20-year tenure and vowed to seek the maximum penalty of life without parole.
Justice Neil Firetog, who will hear the case, is known as particularly tough on defense lawyers, even fining those who cross him.
Bazile and McCann say they are ready for whatever comes along. “We were able to come up with a very detailed and unique plan,” McCann said.
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18 Responses
“It’s not about defending his actions,” lawyer Jennifer McCann said. “It’s about defending his rights.”
how true this is . this is america were you are innocent until proven guilty.
now a word for the wise , pray that the accused makes it through the trial , because if something unforeseen were to happen to him before the trial is completed then he will be considered innocent aka as the head of the Enron Corperation.
Ms. McCann, yemach shema v’zichra, let’s hope you see it through till very bitter end, when you watch your case failing in front of your very eyes, and your entire career ruined.
Amen.
mods, PLEASE stop posting pictures of this sick, sick man! It is really horrible to see his face again and again!
Thank you in advance
You left out the last sentenece from the NY News. “The lawyers said they also hope” …. “a desire to shield Leiby’s family from the gory details will persuade prosecutors to consider a deal down the road.” In other words these two scumbags are going to threaten to dwell mercilessly on the lurid details of how and what their client did to Leiby zt”l to get him a deal. Hopefully it will not make any difference and the prosecutors will ignore the desire of these two nobodies to grab the limelight. Anyway I don’t give the butcher more than a year or two in jail before prisoner’s honor sees him dispatched to the morgue.
It’s not about defending his heinous crimes but his rights. Exactly which rights are you trying to defend? Didn’t he kill his rights with his obscene crimes? One who has even one iota of mercy on this ugly animal is considered as bad a rotzeiach OR actually is a rotzeiach like aron himself. he confessed to his heinous actions so what is there to defend?
Notice his trial will take place in the 9 days. I hope Charles Hynes is fully geared for this. HASHEM….yazor.
Unless the District Attorney comes up with a good explanation of how he was in possession of powerful drugs that are prescribed only for people who are serious mentally ill, it might not be hard to imagine the defendant ending up spending the rest of his life in a mental hospital. If the Defense can prove he had been diagnosed as insane already, the Prosecution will have a challenge proving he was sane when committing the murder.
Which leave open a real question, as to how our community can care for members of our community who are seriously insane. Being proud that we usually do a good job of caring for our “village idiot” isn’t enough when the person is potentially criminally insane.
saaiksr says:
July 31, 2011 at 11:52 am
Ms. McCann, yemach shema v’zichra, let’s hope you see it through till very bitter end, when you watch your case failing in front of your very eyes, and your entire career ruined.
Amen.
what do you have against the lawyer , he is just doing his job. if you have a problem with that , then leave this country . there is no place for people like you here . you must kill first and then ask questions later.
There is information yet to be revealed and heard in court that has not been released to the public. The public does NOT have a right to know everything and with all due conscious and respect tof the family, their feelings and the sensitivity of the nature of the murder and the fact that their child was murdered to begin with their needs are so much more important than the public’s need to know and even right to know.
As far as the “lawyers” they do not have to give interview nor be in the public eye at all. The defendant does indeed have a right to be defended and be represented and the family does have a right to hire a lawyer to represent him. However, this whole seeking attention in the press is what sours the public towards them and even more towards their client.
#3
I agree.. at least it can be a pic of a monster etc.
To number 2 saaiksr: What do you have against his defense lawyer for goodness sake?? Speaking badly about her just because she has taken the job of defending him is ridiculous (and using the word ‘Amen’ in such a way is ASSUR in any case – ask a Rav!)
To number 3 MOMof4: People have been begging YWN to stop posting pictures ever since this story broke (and in fact even b4 this story in many other cases) ALAS they seem not to care (hopefully they will care enough to let this message post, let’s see)
Why is everyone so afraid of a trial. In most cases justice gets served. If by some chance he were to be freed then that too is what hashem wants, just as he wanted Leibby near him.
#2: Calm down. She will almost certainly lose the case, but her career will not be ruined. Even those accused of the most heinous crimes have the right to defend themselves with the help of an attorney, however strong the evidence and public sentiment against them, and there is no shame for a lawyer to defend such people.
Thank G-d we live in a country where people are not convicted and sentenced based on the feelings of the mob.
im just wondering how his lawyers sleep at night and if they believe in the one above??
I’m waiting for the day when we all stop jumping on the lynch mob bandwagon, and ask ourselves this hard question: how did klal yisroel produce a Levi Aron? How did we interact with him throughout his life? A lot of 35 year old males from Brooklyn (same age as Aron), and their parents, know the answer. And are we producing more just like him, although not all reach the tipping point….
How did Klal Yisroel produce a Doson and Aviram? A Korach?
I’m not a legal expert, so somebody please correct me if you know that I’m wrong here:
It’s not so much that the lawyers are defending the accused’s rights, as it is that they are defending all of our rights. We live in a society that, thank G-d, has a system of laws that protects all of us from being indiscriminately imprisoned. The minute we take one accused person and say, “this one we’ll exempt from the legal protections of our system”, we do away with the guaranty that any of us will get a fair hearing in case the government chooses to pursue a case against us, be it a reasonable case or an unreasonable one.
So, with that understanding of the system, and the realization that it only works for all of us if we pursue it with zeal in every case, I hope we can all recognize that the lawyers involved deserve our respect for taking on such an unpopular cause; it’s a job that we all need to have done.
“how did klal yisroel produce a Levi Aron? How did we interact with him throughout his life?”
Moreover, how do the monday morning quarterbacks with hindsight of 20/20 have the temerity and chutpa to say after he murdered someone, “yes, I always thought he was creepy”, and “yes, I thought it weird that he was always giving rides to the kids on the block” and similar statementd. Why didn’t anyone concern themselves with his creepiness then? Why didn’t anyone raise the alarm when he kept inviting kids into his car?
When did klal yisroel become a collective lynch mob?
apushatayid #17: You can’t do anything involuntarily to “creepy” looking people that committed no crime.