The trial of the previous CEO of the defunct crypto alternate FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), is quick approaching the decision stage because the prosecution closed its case final week. Following this, Bankman-Fried and his legal professionals are set to open their protection (or perhaps not) this week in what may show very pivotal as to the route of the case and SBF’s destiny.
What Will Sam Bankman-Fried’s Attorneys Do?
Particularly, SBF’s trial will proceed on October 26, when he and his legal professionals might want to inform the courtroom on what step they intend to take subsequent. As to the subsequent steps they’ll take, they’ll both select to open a protection and current witnesses and proof to the jury. They’ll additionally select to waive the case and never put up any protection.
They may most certainly need to put up a protection, contemplating that the prosecution (after 3 weeks of calling nearly twenty witnesses) can arguably be mentioned to have discharged the burden of proving SBF’s guilt past cheap doubt. As such, it will likely be an enormous gamble for the protection to easily waive the case and ask the jury to present a verdict solely on the proof adduced by the prosecution.
Assuming they resolve to open a protection, there isn’t any doubt that they may constrained within the witnesses and proof they’ll put ahead. Concerning witnesses, the protection is already handicapped as Choose Kaplan already excluded the seven professional witnesses that it had proposed to name. He said that their testimonies have been both irrelevant or may confuse the jury.
At this level, additionally it is unlikely that the protection can get anybody who had shut ties to the happenings at FTX to testify of their favor, because the prosecution appears to have exhausted all these witnesses. Nothing appears to be going within the protection’s favor, and it’s comprehensible because the prosecution has been accountable for this case from the get-go.
FTT token nonetheless exhibiting energy | Supply: FTTUSDT on Tradingview.com
FTX Founder’s Attorneys Can No Longer Play It Protected
Of their amended proposed request to cost, SBF’s legal professionals requested the jury to “look at and consider” SBF’s testimony (if relevant) identical to they might for the testimony of different witnesses. This request could be very vital, particularly if the protection decides to take of venture by permitting Bankman-Fried to take the stand, which many would argue that they need to.
The percentages are usually not of their favor, and the legal professionals in all probability understand it. So as to have any likelihood of adjusting the narrative, they could must name the one one that had first-hand information of every little thing that occurred from the start, and that particular person occurs to be Sam Bankman-Fried.
It’s undoubtedly an enormous gamble, however it looks like the one choice they’ve at this level as, barring any flip of occasions throughout cross-examination, Bankman-Fried may assist paint an image that means that he’s not the villain that his former associates have made him out to be.
If SBF takes the stand, the jury should get rid of any type of bias and look at his testimony as that of an harmless man who is just attempting to make a case for himself and never one who’s ‘mendacity’ to save lots of face.
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