How can you defend those people
Western Justice, as self proclaimed small town DA, recently asked the question whether defense promoters are lie promoters. The question he posed is whether a defense attorney whose client has confessed to him is promoting a lie when he goes into court and argues for not guilty verdict. You would expect that to strike a cord with a defense lawyer, and it did. My first reaction is how another lawyer cannot know how our criminal justice operates. I'm not aware of any jurisdiction where we ask a jury to find a client innocent or guilty; we ask them whether the state proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. There is a distinction, and its an important one.
Walk into any courtroom in America, and you are probably going to hear the same arguments being made - "the State has not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt." You can be guilty as sin, and if the State's doesn't prove its case, the jury has to find you not guilty (remember O.J.) So can you argue for a not guilty verdict, even if you know your client is guilty? If you can't you don't have any business being a lawyer.
Can you imagine what the situation would be if it was different.? No lawyer would be willing to represent someone they thought was guilty. I guess you would have to defend yourself. Surely, no one would think that process is fair. We have an adversarial system, and for that to work, defense attorneys have to make the state prove their case.
That's not to say there are not a ethical considerations. Sometimes, difficult issues arise, and each lawyer will have to resolve them on their own. You can't point the blame only at defense lawyers though. Prosecutors also have an obligation, which they too often ignore; they have an obligation to see that justice is done. You only have to look at the recent exonerations to see how the system can break down. In many of those cases, there were obvious problems, and the state chose to look the other way. Prosecutors have an obligation too, and it's not to accept what ever they are told, as long as it is consistent with their view of what happened. They carry the weight of the government when the go into court, and most jurors want to believe what they say. Some prosecutors occasionally forget this, and think their only obligation is to present the evidence to a jury, and let them decide. They are the initial gatekeepers, and need to always remember that.
I'm proud to be a criminal defense attorney, and represent the citizen-accused against the power of the government. And I'll continue to make the government prove its case - if they plan on taking away someone's liberty, society should demand no less.
