(19 Feb 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Irvine, Calif. – 18 February 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Lauren Johnson-Norris, criminal defense attorney:
"If this wasn’t a not guilty, I don’t know what case would be a not guilty. Initially, when I looked at the evidence, I thought that I don’t know how the prosecutor could prove a case without even having the gun. And the allegation that it grazed Relli’s knuckles was just preposterous. It looked like maybe he punched somebody or punched the floor or something. But to have the entire case hinge on somebody who has said that they’re more interested in getting a financial outcome than seeing somebody prosecuted for shooting them, it had to be clear to the jurors what the motive was here."
++BLACK FRAMES++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Irvine, Calif. – 18 February 2025
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Lauren Johnson-Norris, criminal defense attorney:
"Seeing them get to the result unanimously should really send a message to the prosecutor that regardless of who you’re prosecuting, whether they be a celebrity or a regular guy in our community, or girl, you know that everybody, you have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt and to not go forward — without their evidence. And I think in a case like this, what it underscores, because there’s so much media attention to it, it just is more humiliating to the prosecutor because if this was just some regular person, we wouldn’t know about the type of injustice of bringing someone to court and dragging them and their family through a case where the evidence is insufficient as a matter of law. So I think these celebrity cases serve an important role because they show — they bring attention and light to the work of the criminal justice system and that sometimes cases, you know, they should be found not guilty."
++BLACK FRAMES++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Irvine, Calif. – 18 February 2025
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lauren Johnson-Norris, criminal defense attorney:
"From the defense’s perspective, when you are accusing the prosecution’s witness of being the aggressor and saying that your client is the one that had to use self-defense to defend themselves from this person, and then that witness gets up and is argumentative or hostile, it really does the prosecution no favors. It only underscores the argument that Relli was the aggressor, that he had to use self-defense to fire this prop weapon to get him to leave people alone. So I don’t think that he did himself any favors or the prosecution any favors. And if anything, they they got to see the character of this man when he was under pressure when he was on the stand on really the most important day of the case."
++BLACK FRAMES++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Irvine, Calif. – 18 February 2025
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Lauren Johnson-Norris, criminal defense attorney:
"We will see how the prosecution responds to this now. In other high profile cases we’ve seen them not respond so well. But I hope that they get the opportunity to reflect on why these cases should be treated like all other cases and when the evidence is not there, regardless of, you know, whether there is spotlight on you, the true ethic of the criminal justice system is to seek the truth. And once and it’s better to see an innocent man go free, right, and hopefully that informs their decision making moving forward."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
A southern California defense attorney who did not work on the A$AP Rocky case but followed the trial believes the prosecution had insufficient evidence to get a guilty verdict.
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