Mary Flood did a story on superstitious trial lawyers. There were no prosecutors included in the article, although Joe Bailey and Hinton certainly are illustrious former prosecutors.

Who is willing to tell about their talisman?

Here's the link:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5550713.html

Me, I have a personally autographed picture of RTC...

In law school, my wife gave me a tiny silver hedgehog. It went through the bar exam with me and, for years, I carried it around whenever I expected to be in court. Where is it now? I have no idea. If you find it, let me know. Inmates have been winning some writs lately!!!

JAS

In my locker, I have a shrine to Jobu, in which I offer rum and fine cigars, since I have trouble hitting a curve ball. Oh, wait. You were asking about trying cases, weren't you?

My overriding legal superstition is that it is very, very, VERY bad luck to go into federal court. At all.

I have a pink stone arrowhead given to me by a young victim in one of my cases. He carried a matching white one in his pocket during our trial.

Always reminds me of why I do what I do.

"Bats. They are sick. I can no hit curve ball. Straight ball I hit it very much. Curve ball, bats are afraid."

A classic. You Tube

For many years I made signing briefs a ritual. Had a nice fountain pen and blue ink. I have fallen out of the habit. I also had a pen that I picked up when starting law school that I came to feel was lucky. I had that for many years as well.

[This message was edited by JohnR on 02-25-08 at .]

Never have on a jury someone whose profession begins with the letter P- psychiatrists, psychologists, pastors, pilots, proctologists, professors.....

I use a certain pen to sign briefs. I also have a tiny gold frog pin my mother gave me when I graduated law school. I wear it to interviews and important speaking events, although it was never a trial talisman.

I had a watch that once belonged to a very nice and very special prosecutor, but it has been retired.

I also have my father's old lucky briefcase, which he had repaired numerous times over his 40 year career, but I have not yet entered it into circulation.

I think I'll keep my talisman secret for now as far as the www goes, but any of you can ask next time you see me.

I also think Joe Bailey's shoe routine is right on the money.

I'm in trial right now on a blood draw DWI and I was explaining to my 2nd chair my "lucky lime." Here is the history:

In 1992 there was a article in the chronicle that talked about the courthouse superstitions in Harris County. The article talked about a petrified lime that was the "lucky lime" of then district court chief Robin Brown (now Judge in CCAL# 12) and her #3 Alex Azzo (currently a defense attorney). The article talked about how they won 10 strait jury trials with their lucky lime close at hand.

I was in a DWI trial a while back in CCAL# 12 against Alex Azzo. He brought in the "rebirth of the lucky lime" as a joke to show Judge Brown. This was a DWI total refusal that I ended up winning. Alex gave me the new "lucky lime" saying it must be a prosecutor thing. I haven't lost a trial since. I hope it keeps working.

Alex is one of those fine, fine people that you get to meet in this field of endeavor called the practice of law. Judge Brown is too, for that matter, although I don't know her as well as Alex. Good story, I'd never heard it before. I'll have to send Alex a lime next Christmas.

I don't really have a talisman...but I wear a Civil War dog tag with my name, F Company, 2nd Batt. VMI printed on it...at least if I am killed in court room battle...I want my remains to be identified...how weird is that???

Where, pray tell, does one get a civil war dogtag, Freddy?

Mine was issued to me when I matriculated at the Virginia Military Institute but there is a guy up in Argle NY that can make one up for you if you want.

As I understand it there is no set dog tag...Confederate and Union troops (during the War of Northern Aggression) often sewed their names into their uniforms. Others had a suddler who worked the encampments make one up from usually a coin.

I have a mechanical pencil complete with aftermarket add on eraser that I carried all throughout lawschool and used to pass the bar. I thought it was my good luck charm, so when I started working, I carried it every day in my inside coat pocket, and I never won a trial until I quit carrying it. I guess I used up all the good luck in the pencil. I'm looking at it right now in my pen cup, and I am serious when I say this: if I want to use a pen that's touchig the pencil, I will use a third pen to move the pen I want so I have no chance whatsoever of touching the pencil.

Ben,

Throw the evil pencil away!!! Or, better yet, give it to a defense attorney.

throw it away.

Can't believe I missed this thread.

when I was a baby prosecutor, I always had a Snickers and a Diet Coke for lunch during trial. I thought it was good for me, until I finally realized the reason for my bad headache at the end of the day was lack of food plus thinking too hard.

Now, when I try a murder or serious child injury case, I carry a picture of the victim in my pocket during arguments.

I carry a picture of the victim with me in murder trials as well. One of the first exhibits I will introduce in a murder trial is a living photo of the victim, and often times I gain permission from the court to use the photo during opening. I put it in a nice frame. Often, the victim's family will provide a very nice frame to be used during trial.

On several occasions when I conclude my opening or closing argument and walk away from a framed picture of the victim, the defense attorney show the ultimate disrespect and walk to that picture and turn it away from the jury or place it face down on the table. Several times when this has occurred the jury has chided the defense attorney for his insensitivity after the trial was over and told them they did not appreciate it.

I have a cool, kinda new Talisman for trial.
One of the family members of the 5 victims in the KFC murder case, who happened to be the pseudo family spokesperson, is very into making beaded bracelets and necklaces. When I inherited the case some years ago, I noticed that all the female family members of all the victims had one of her creations and wore it to any and all court proceedings, meetings, etc.

My first couple of years of involvement in the case were kind of tense (funny thing, coming on the scene and telling them that the guy they thought had done it for 20 years is innocent, doesn't initially make you that popular...) so I was nowhere near being a member of the jewelry club.

Finally, right before the first trial in the case, (the aggravated perjury trial), she presented me with my very own bracelet. That's when I knew that they were finally convinced.

That bracelet is big, it's bulky, it's gaudy, it's loud and it's totally not something I would ever wear by choice. But it is now my most cherished trial accessory and, 3 KFC trials later, I wouldn't dream of going to trial without it. I only wear it during opening and closing (mostly hidden by my suit jacket), but it's in the courtroom for the rest of the trial.