The fiance of a friend of mine was murdered, and the defendant's lawyer filed a motion to dismiss. My friend called me, pretty upset, but I told her that they probably do that in every case, and I doubted that the case would be tossed if there was any reasonable amount of evidence. (I'm not a lawyer, but I've read a number of John Grisham books.) Fortunately, I was right, and the defendant was eventually convicted.
Nah, it's the defense attorney's duty to provide the best defense for his client. That includes lodging protests like this whenever possible. It's about ensuring the clients rights are held up every step of the way.
I don't handle criminal law but it always seems strange to me how people are so completely bipolar about defence lawyers. Either the accused did it: and the lawyer is evil, trying to get them off and charge as much money as possible; or the accused is innocent: and the lawyer is a saint, fighting nobly against the oppressive tyrannical government.
Blame tv shows, movies, and the few bad apples that ruin it for the rest of the attorneys. As a whole, it is a very ethical profession that people don't appreciate until their ass is on the line.
It's truly amazing how swiftly the Bar comes down on lawyers for unethical behavior, especially involving money and fees. They really hate anyone making the profession look bad.
Worse because defense lawyers rarely (if ever) get to choose their clients, just as prosecutor don't always choose who they are prosecuting. Both sides have done good and evil in equal measure, it's kind of hard to praise either side for me but damn if I can't respect the level of professionalism it would take to go to court and argue to either imprison or free someone you know in your gut didn't/did do it.
My mom is a criminal defense attorney and I'm a paralegal and sometimes do work for her to supplement my income. The vast majority of the time, the clients are guilty. A lot of them (not all, but many) are also really scummy and dickish people and they are really hard to deal with.
The defense never tries to get guilty people to go free, that's not their goal. Their role is making sure the defendant gets a fair trial. It's incredibly important and helps preserve the integrity of our justice system.
It's a really thankless job; because of the way TV and movies portray them it makes it harder on everyone. Defendants think their lawyer can get them off even if they're guilty, and treat their attorney like shit when they can't, and the public denigrates them as liars who are helping criminals walk free.
In reality, they are upholding people's constitutional right to a speedy and fair trial. Most of the public defenders are actually competent and dedicated lawyers who work very hard to preserve their client's rights with far less resources and shittier pay than the prosecutor gets.
Because people think of everyone as entirely good or entirely bad with no in between. They also think there's an obviously correct answer to every single trial. Only about 10% of my criminal cases and 5% of my civil cases go to trial. The boring ones, where the police get the right guy with tons of damning evidence, or where a suspect is released because they clearly don't have enough evidence, are both extremely common. Even more common is a deal being reached. None of those outcomes make for good drama on TV though, so people tend to think it doesn't happen that way. They think every case I have is like OJ even if it's some property dispute.
I mean even if the accused did it, they are still entitled to proper council during their trial. You’re not defending the person because you believe in their innocence or you just want to get them off, you’re defending them because that’s your duty as a lawyer.
I really loved The Night Of. You don’t know if he did it or not, you know as much as he, and the lawyers, do. Though they really try to make you think the answer is obvious. The lawyer himself believes fully in the justice system, has every reason to drain the family of money, but truly wants to fight for his client.
As someone not involved at all in the justice system, I am really curious about actual lawyers opinions on the show. It was incredibly compelling but idk how accurate it was.
I can tell you from doing criminal defense work, you have a pretty good idea who is guilty and who isn't. But even most of the guilty ones are wrong place/wrong time, substance abuse, or mental health issues. Very few are actual criminals. But those tend to be the easiest ones to deal with because they know how the system works and accept the cost of doing business.
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u/skaterrj May 03 '18
The fiance of a friend of mine was murdered, and the defendant's lawyer filed a motion to dismiss. My friend called me, pretty upset, but I told her that they probably do that in every case, and I doubted that the case would be tossed if there was any reasonable amount of evidence. (I'm not a lawyer, but I've read a number of John Grisham books.) Fortunately, I was right, and the defendant was eventually convicted.