Defense attorneys and prosecutors have told me that Elizabeth Holmes can’t win; that more than 90 percent of cases like hers are settled by plea because lawyers know that such clients, turned in a heartbeat or a finger prick from symbol of ingenuity to symbol of villainy, cannot overcome the skepticism of a jury; that 1-percenters like Holmes, who grifted her way into a Silicon Valley life of private jets and five-star hotels, cannot win sympathy from the sort of people who can’t get out of jury duty; that it’s almost impossible for a defendant such as Holmes, who left a trail of paper and a stream of video in which she tells every kind of lie about her defunct blood-testing start-up, Theranos, to walk free.
But I’m not so sure. It’s not the federal case, which is strong, that makes me doubt, nor the defendant’s charm. It’s the victims.
