Will it help if my attorney is a former prosecutor?
Former prosecutors will argue that experience from “the other side” is a valuable asset. On the other hand, many criminal defense lawyers were trained since the beginning of their careers to develop creative defenses that might not occur to a lawyer with a more prosecutorial frame of mind. Defense lawyers that never worked for the prosecution also have no allegiances and may be more comfortable vigorously challenging the opposition. Although it is a generalization, we find that many former prosecutors, especially those that prosecuted for more than a few years and simply left a prosecution office to make more money, still think like prosecutors. They presume their clients guilty and are less creative in filing motions and setting forth defenses. Also, if you look at their “results” page on their websites, many of the “victories” they are claiming are actually victories as a prosecutor. There is a world of difference between a prosecutor obtaining a “guilty” verdict and a defense attorney obtaining a “not guilty” verdict. Clint Broden and Mick Mickelsen have been defense attorneys their entire careers.