Opinion ID: 2598779
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defence Evidence

Text: The defense presented substantial evidence in mitigation. Various witnesses, including family members, testified about his childhood and adulthood and his family life. Many expressed their love for him and testified that he was good to his family and others. He loved and cared for his twin daughters. Some witnesses testified that defendant expressed remorse for his crimes. Barbara F., his original attorney, the one at whom he had thrown the chair, testified that she thought that life without the possibility of parole would be the appropriate punishment. One witness testified that defendant once helped rescue passengers in a car accident, at some risk to himself. The defense also presented evidence that before his arrest, there were many suspects in the various crimes, and the victims' descriptions of their assailant varied. It then played to the jury a tape recording of a statement defendant made on August 16, 1989, in which he confessed to these crimes (a different confession than the one presented in the prosecution's case-in-chief). The purpose was to show that defendant did not confess because he had been caught, but because he was truly remorseful. [2]