Talk about creative lawyering. In a pending aggravated burglary case, a Tennessee DA moved to ban references to the prosecution as the “government” during trial because it sounds too oppressive. The criminal defense lawyer’s response: Judge, if we’re going to let parties ban words (a First Amendment violation) and pick their own designations, call me “Captain Justice, Guardian of the Realm and Leader of the Resistance” (admittedly not as high-ranking as “Attorney General”) and please refer to my client as “Citizen Accused” or “Innocent Man.” Click here for the ABA Journal report, here for The Tennessean article, and Captain Justice for his cheeky response response brief.
Oh yeah. According to The Tennessean, the court denied the DA’s motion. The word “government” isn’t derogatory. 🙂
