Jensen's new book is entitled "Winning Criminal Trials- The Secret is Rattlesnakes, Cottonmouths and Poker!"
In what legal scholars are calling a landmark departure from established legal thinking, Jensen tosses out the long-taught maxims of trial advocacy and espouses a new way for lawyers to conduct their trials and win cases.
"Law students and lawyers are taught from day one to 'present alternate theories,'" Jensen said recently. "They're told to advance what is called 'the defense theory.' I explain that I have had remarkable success at trial by doing something radically different. I hold my cards. I don't advance a defense theory."
Jensen said defense lawyers who present a 'defense theory' merely tip off the prosecutor as to how they're going to try the defense case -- giving the prosecutor the ability to adjust strategy.
"It's simple. When you're dealt a poker hand, you don't shout out what your cards are. You hold them close in order to win the game," Jensen said.
In his new book, Jensen explains in detail how poker analogies work in the creation of criminal defense strategies, and he argues that criminal defense lawyers should use his "cottonmouth strategy," i.e. be like cottonmouth snakes, rather than rattlesnakes.
"Rattlesnakes signal that they are about to bite you, so you change tactics and you move away to avoid being bitten," Jensen said. "Cottonmouths don't make a sound. They wait until you blunder by and then bite you."
Jensen said his "cottonmouth strategy" often confounds prosecutors and wins over juries. With a 90% not guilty record, he might be on to something.
"Winning Criminal Trials (The Secret is Rattlesnakes, Cottonmouths and Poker!)" is available exclusively from Amazon.com in Kindle format. The paperback edition of the book is scheduled for release on October 11.
