Posted on 06/02/2008 11:58:31 AM PDT by EveningStar
I often find myself wondering how seemingly normal people ever wind up being criminal defense attorneys. When even Harvard law professor and one-time member of O.J. Simpson’s so-called dream team Alan Dershowitz claims that over 90% of all criminal defendants are guilty, why would any sane person want to devote his life to trying to spring hundreds, maybe even thousands, of felons?
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
In this imperfect world, no justice system is perfect.
An adversarial system, with a jury of free men, and state prosecutors who can be voted out of office (or the politicians who appointed them can be voted out of office) is about as fair as you’re going to get. There will always be miscarriages of justice, but fewer than if a gang of tin-pot dictators runs the show and there is no one to oppose them.
I don’t know that criminal defense attorneys (not the Johnnie Cochran types) are trying to “spring” felons. They are trying to insure that this class of the accused has effective representation.
I do not practice criminal law.
However, once early in my career I was court appointed to represent a mother of four who was arrested for a felony (heroin possession). She was a junkie. Her boyfriend was a dealer.
I worked with the ADA to get her into a 6-month drug rehab program where she would have regular visits with her kids while she got clean.
Whether it worked, I don’t know. I do know that the alternative of tossing her in prison and shoving the kids permanently in foster care wasn’t much of an option either.
As an aside, most criminal defense lawyers make very little money in comparison to their civil counterparts. My billable hour rate is more than double what my friends who practice criminal defense law charge. It isn’t about the money for them.
Nice one!
BTTT. Work inside the criminal justice system awhile and you will see defense atty’s in a different light even though you may hate them at times.
That’s why Theocrats are like the left they they don’t believe in the U.S. Constitution. That’s why I could never vote for the second coming from Arkansas.
“...why would any sane person want to devote his life to trying to spring hundreds, maybe even thousands, of felons?”
Money, and a broken moral compass.
It’s nothing more than an amusing rant. We in the US have the best legal system around.
You’re exactly right.
That's a shamefully dishonest and invalid juxtaposition. Gerry Spence is not a scumbag.
Where’s the morality in throwing the accused to the wolves? Seriously.
bttt
Whatever happened to that quaint idea that it was better for a guilty man to go free, than for an innocent man to be convicted ? Dateline on NBC has a number of these stories online, where it evident that a number of innocent people are imprisoned for life, although they are innocent.
When I was young I had a burning desire to be a criminal defense attorney, I felt many people charged were innocent and waiting for me to save them. In Criminal Law I we observed both the cattle call hearings and several actual trials in progress. I began to see that most people in criminal court as defendents are either obviously guilty or sure have the misfortune of appearing to be. I decided I could not defend guilty people day after day- doing my best to get them off and go home and sleep at night. I saw enough prosecutors pull crap that I didn't want to do that either. Tort Law seemed too boring so I decided not to pursue law. I really can't imagine anyone wanting to be a lawyer at all. I still like to discuss and debate law so maybe that is what hooks some of them in.
I do believe most are in it for the money and shot at fame.
Oh yes, you make a great point. I am totally greatful there are people that do want to be defense attorneys. We would all be screwed without them. Defense attorneys are really the only reason our Constitution is not used as toilet paper. I also agree with the premise that everyone deserves the best possible defense- I just could not be the one to give the best possible defense to someone I knew or believed was a murderer or rapist or a lot of other things.
I could discuss and debate legal points of criminal's innocence or guilt all day- and enjoy it; but never would be able to do it in a real courtroom where the consequences are real. The first time someone I thought was guilty of a terrible crime walked away free because of my actions I would get the willies that would never leave me.
Your question is deliberately skewed in a manner to deflect moral responsibility; better to ask what sort of person enters into a career path upon which he will knowingly abet the degradation of society by doing his utmost to keep social predators out of prison? The answer, IMO, is a person with a broken moral compass, for whom money in substantial sums acts as a lubricant for the long slide into acceptance of petty niggling over legalisms as an expression of his contempt for justice and cynical disregard for the pains of criminals’ victims. Not all lawyers are moral degenerates, of course; there are always fine people in any profession. It’s just that a great many are ever ready to subvert justice by deliberately coming to the defense of the indefensible - for a buck.
Indeed he is.
Showbiz TV lawyer.
Right. Explain public defenders, then.
Since it would appear you have a reading disorder, I will repeat: “Not all lawyers are moral degenerates, of course; there are always fine people in any profession.”
Happy now?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.