Accused felons hoping to beat the rap are increasingly using the "nerd defense" - wearing glasses at trial to come off as less menacing to the jury.
Defense lawyers swear by the gimmick, believing the right spectacles can make a sinister-looking murder suspect seem like a perfect gentleman.
"Glasses soften their appearance so that they don't look capable of committing a violent crime," said veteran lawyer Harvey Slovis, who coaches clients on what to wear in court.
"I've tried cases where there's been a tremendous amount of evidence, but my client wore glasses, dressed well and got acquitted."
In Bronx Supreme Court, where juries are considered less predictable than those in other boroughs, a bespectacled defendant can be harder to paint as a cold-hearted thug, prosecutors said.
"If a jury thinks the defendant looks incapable of a brutal crime, then it's certainly an advantage for the defense," one prosecutor said. "The glasses create a kind of unspoken nerd defense."
The last accused killer to pull off the four-eyed legal gambit was Thomas Cordero, a housekeeper hired to work in the buff. A Bronx jury acquitted him last month of the stabbing death of John Conley despite overwhelming evidence.
Cordero, who was represented by Slovis, sported bifocals throughout his trial, but ditched them the moment he was free.
The most famous murder suspect to sway a jury with the help of eyewear was Larry Davis, who was charged with executing four men in 1986, then shooting six cops as they tried to arrest him.
At trial, Davis looked nothing like the gold chain-clad thug police had portrayed. He dressed like a college student, sporting horn-rimmed glasses and sweaters. Separate Bronx juries found him not guilty of quadruple murder and the cop shootings.
"If glasses made a guy like Larry Davis look gentle, they can work for anybody," one veteran defense lawyer said. "I always tell clients to get a pair. The nerdier the better."
The ploy doesn't always work. Bouncer Daryl Littlejohn was convicted in Brooklyn in 2009 of killing sable-eyed beauty Imette St. Guillen despite donning a pair of specs.
His lawyer, Joyce David, said she did not advise him to wear glasses in court but acknowledged it has a benefit.
"A lot of things are conveyed by eyeglasses. They look more intellectual or like someone who goes to school," she said. "I advise clients to dress like they're going to church or to visit their grandmother."
Research has shown glasses generally go a long way with jurors. A 2008 study found specs led to more acquittals.
"We found that eyeglasses tended to make the defendant look more intelligent and less physically threatening to jurors," said Michael Brown, the SUNY Oneonta psychology professor who conducted the study. "It's the whole idea of presenting yourself as intelligent and a little emasculated."
Jurors say the ruse works.
"I don't think of someone with glasses as being a psycho killer," said one potential juror in an upcoming murder trial. "I'd wear them too if I was in their shoes."
on February 17, 2011, 7:29 pm