New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams is back in court today to stand trial on tax fraud charges.
Prior to the trial, Williams rejected a plea deal. According to one legal analyst, that decision may work in Williams's favor. That's because, according to lawyer Dane Ciolino, the prosecution may not prove its case.
"The government's got the burden of proving willfulness, which is a very high mens rea--a very high mental element for the government to prove," Ciolino told WWL's Tommy Tucker. "One of the problems here is that the tax code is largely indecipherable to human beings, even to lawyers."
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Another problem for the prosecution, Ciolino says, is their key witness, Williams's tax preparer, Henry Timothy.
"If anybody has a chance at this, it's a case against the IRS when you've got the case built on one witness who's got credibility problems," Ciolino said.
Ciolino says Williams finds himself with a rare opportunity to be acquitted in a federal trial, where cases are typically open-and-shut.
"The government usually wins criminal trials. The cards are stacked against criminal defendants," Ciolino said. "I've always thought that this is a rare federal criminal case where the defendant's got a fighting chance."