Joe Tacopina UNFILTERED on A$AP Rocky Trial | The Don Lemon Show
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What happened when the A$AP Rocky verdict was read in court?
thank god first you gotta thank god first you know i really want to thank the jury for making the right decision you know and i'm just so thankful this is crazy right now that this whole experience has been crazy for the past four years but i'm thankful nonetheless i'm thankful and it's we're blessed to be here right now to be a free man talking to y'all thank you all praise congratulations this week a los angeles jury found grammy nominated hip-hop artist asap rocky not guilty of shooting a former friend and collaborator if convicted of both charges rocky could have faced up to 24 years in prison now according to courtroom reporters he appeared riddled with anxiety ahead of the verdict leaped into the arms of rihanna his longtime partner once the jury acquitted him and joining me now to discuss the case the jury's decision
ASAP Rockies defense attorney, Mr. Joe Takapina. Joe, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. Hey, Don. How are you, brother? I'm doing very well. So did I get that right? Because I was watching. I couldn't see. I was watching from the back. And I lied as a verdict came in. And I saw you. I was like, I've never seen Joe like this. But I couldn't really see if ASAP was riddled with anxiety.
Yeah, it was look. You know, this is the worst part of my job. I mean, this is my 120th jury trial, both as a prosecutor and defense attorney, and especially when you're defending someone in a fight for their liberty and something that will impact their life substantially, the life of their family. You know, waiting for that verdict is terror. It's complete terror. And there's no way around it, and especially facing what he was facing. You know, so there's nothing... Look, I... you know, could be a cool cucumber throughout the process. But that's a moment where I can't even pretend.
You're always a cool cucumber because you look, you have very, very high profile cases, some of the most important people in the world, if you know what I mean. And so you've litigated and been in the courtroom for just about every kind of person. So I was like, you know, it's usually you're usually cool as a cucumber. You were pretty cool. But I was like,
i've never seen joe like this right you got it are you 100 right i mean and then you know cherry on top the judge did something i've never seen a judge do before and he's a terrific judge i liked him a lot judge arnold but he did something that is unique to him um which is he took the verdict forms and he looked upset and i he had an affinity for rocky there's no question about that um because rocky's a really a terrific person a gentleman and he conducts himself in a great manner and he comes across a really good person and he is um so so he takes the verticals he looks so upset and then what he did was something i've never seen before he asked the jurors to confirm their verdict one by one he said i want to hand this back to the jury i want them to confirm it now first of all it normally happens after the reading of the verdict not before
But even worse, it never happens upon an acquittal. You only ask the jury to confirm a verdict when there is a conviction. So when he did that, I was as supremely confident as I'd ever been in a verdict. I called it the day before. I think it was on TMZ, and I said I'm very confident that the jury's going to find him not guilty. I lived the case for a month. We shredded their evidence, quite frankly. Reasonable doubt was all over this case, and that's what you need. You just need one. I think I gave the jury 100 examples. And a quick verdict after a month trial, having a three-hour verdict is normally favoring the defense.
That's what I wanted to know. So with the three-hour verdict and then him doing what you said procedurally that's different, what were you thinking?
I don't know. I was thinking I was going to have a stroke. That's what I was thinking. I didn't feel good. I felt lightheaded because I was confident. We were all confident. My partner, Chad Siegel, has been with me for 22 years.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What happened when the A$AP Rocky verdict was read in court?
0:13–5:13
2
Why did Joe Tacopina describe waiting for the verdict as 'terror'?
5:13–8:28
3
What unusual action did the judge take when confirming the jury's verdict?
8:28–20:02
4
How did the courtroom react during the two-count not guilty announcement?
20:02–31:36
5
What factual timeline and evidence did Tacopina present about the shooting claim?
31:36–32:31
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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