Defense Lawyers Brave Undue Criticism

Lawyer Miranda | Blog | May 22, 2010

One of the cardinal principles of law is that a man is considered innocent until proven guilty by proper legal proceedings. Practically everyone pays lip service to this ideal, but many fail to realize that the right to be represented by counsel is a logical and essential corollary of that theory of justice. There is a good deal of criticism of attorneys representing defendants in criminal cases. Much of this criticism is unjust. 

Should lawyers defend in court persons whom they know or have good reason to believe are guilty of the crimes charged against them? A recent scientific sampling of the attitude of the public toward lawyers and law problems shows that more than half of all persons interviewed thought it was wrong for a lawyer to defend such a person.

Such an attitude is rather startling to thinking citizens and members of the Bar. Surely the guiltiest criminal has a right to a fair trial by the law of the land. Such a trial he cannot have without a competent attorney to see that a fair jury is selected and that only lawful evidence is introduced against him.

With reference to this feeling on the part of a sizeable portion of the public, a certain District Judge who tries many criminal cases, and who served eighteen years as a prosecuting attorney before his election to the Bench, recently offered the following comments:

“The result of this survey is no surprise to me, in that during my eighteen years of prosecuting, this feeling has been made known to me by hundreds of persons.

“The feeling on the part of the general public in this regard is brought about to a great extent by the sincere efforts on the part of the defense counsel to see that his client receives the benefit of every legal safeguard to which he is entitled. These legal maneuvers are often misunderstood by the layman as an unethical effort to defeat justice, by delay of the trial, and by taking advantage of certain defenses that to the layman appear to be trivial technicalities.

“Attorneys are the only ones who can correct the erroneous feeling or the general public regarding the defense of one who appears to be guilty as charged. We attorneys should emphatically state to the inquiring person that it is one of the cardinal rights of the individual in a democratic society to be considered innocent until his guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt by legal and competent evidence.

“The public must be brought to the realization that all who are charged with crime are entitled to the expert counsel and aid of an attorney, and that the sworn duty of such attorney is to see that each protective legal right, to which the accused is entitled, is afforded him.”

Now and then a lawyer will overstep the bounds of his duty in defending those charged with crime. When that happens, the legal profession is even more indignant than the public generally, and appropriate disciplinary proceedings are instituted where warranted.

(This column is written to inform-not to advice. No person should ever apply or interpret any law without the aid of an attorney who knows the facts because the facts may change the application of the law.)