Page 15 - Fred Tecce News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

University. welcome to each of you. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. jon: john, to you first. this guy was convicted, he's sitting on death row but now comes, apparently, the claim that his attorneys didn't give the court enough information about his abusive childhood and, therefore, his conviction should be thrown out, he should get a new trial. is that appropriate? >> i think so. i think there wasn't enough mitigating evidence presented. i think the key is whether or not he had a fair trial at the sentencing phase, and without the jurors knowing about his abusive past, specifically tha...

It's clear ineffective assistance of counsel under the washington v. strickland case. they didn't check the red flags. look, we're not saying that strategy wasn't used here, but in order to invest in strategy, you have to know what all your options are. and without the lawyers completing a proper and thorough investigation and at the very least getting a mitigation expert to review the this case, i agree with the court, i think it was ineffective assistance. jon: but, fred, regardless of what led up to all of this, christopher james is dead. i mean, christopher james was an off-duty cop workin...

Pistorius says it was a mistake. however the prosecutors tell a different story saying it was intentional. joining me, fred tecce, former federal prosecutor and diana ice man, a criminal defense attorney. diana, what do you make of oscar pistorius's attorney to have his story, you know, take the stand and testify on his own behalf in this murder trial? good idea or bad? >> great idea, absolutely necessary. he has to get out his state of mind. he was the only other person there. so he has to take the stand and tell his version of the facts. he haste been testifying this entire time. julie: well...

>> well, i mean -- >> certainly helps him. >> i don't think it will help him. julie: why, fred, why would it help his move? >> because what they're trying to do, they're trying to get someone to testify to undermined the prosecution's testimony that woman eden long before pistorius said. it was inconsistent with his story. under the primacy and latency they think that is the most damning fact. they know quite well that the prosecutor is chomping at the bit to examine him and because the physical evidence destroys him and didn't call police or ambulance first and called administrator and makes ...

Grabs whatever was in her reach which was her shoe and starts to attack him with the shoe in self-defense. julie: fred, she said that he grew angry and jealous because when they were at a bar another man offered her to buy her a drink? does that hold water for the defense that he got angry and attacked? >> no. because it was inconsistent with the testimony of the cab driver. maybe that was true for the first 18 puncture wounds. but the other 25, taken out of self-defense. julie: turning on to the motto with nothing worse than a woman scourned here. i mean we're talking about pamela phillips, t...