Drug Trafficker Appeals Over Dog In Courtroom?

If you’re serving 15 years in prison, how better to spend your time than trying to get yourself out of prison? This gent came up with an interesting theory that, though it hasn’t yet succeeded, it at least passed one court’s smell test. As reported in The South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

During trial, the judge’s German shepherd whined, barked and put his paws up on the swinging door between her and the rest of the courtroom, a defendant said in his appeal for a new trial.

So?

Philip Leigh, 52, argued that because his legs were shackled, the jury may have thought the dog was there to protect Broward Circuit Judge Susan Lebow.

Leigh, now serving a 15-year sentence in a Lake City prison for cocaine trafficking, says his … attorney should have objected to the shackles and the shepherd during the July 2005 trial.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal on Wednesday [sent] the case back for a hearing. There may still be a new trial, or not.

Who would’ve thought it’d get that far? Here’s the source.