People sometimes ask me how defense lawyers can represent all those criminals. My first
thought is to observe that they are not criminals until they have been convicted of the crime; they
are the accused; and then I remind them that no one is going to prison without a defense lawyer.
It’s the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. If you like locking up criminals, therefore, you
should love defenders.
But then I realize that what I’m thinking is not much of an advertisement for my skills.
Love me because I lose cases and my clients get locked up! I figure that you may love me from a
pretty far distance if I make that pitch.
The better and truer answer has several parts:
1. If we don’t want a police state, then everyone should have a real chance to establish
they are not guilty of the crime charged. If there were no defenders, whoever has power can just
lock you away to get you out of their way.
2. Even if the client did commit a crime, was it the crime charged or some other crime
that’s not as bad? A lawyer who gets a charge reduced from murder to manslaughter, or from
manslaughter to negligent homicide, has made sure that people get the punishment they truly
deserve, and not some harsher and more unjust punishment.
3. I have represented clients in capital murder cases for 13 years. The death penalty
should be reserved for the most vicious and violent offenders, in cases where there are few or no
mitigating circumstances to explain how that client could come to kill another human being.
4. In cases where abuse as a child, drug use, or mental imbalances or mental diseases are
a factor, and there is no doubt the client actually killed the victim,
life in prison without parole
means exactly what it says and is a more appropriate punishment. Over the last 11 years, I (along
with attorneys Lynn Burch and Randy Bauman) had represented an Oklahoma inmate at both the
State and federal level, and ultimately helped secure a new trial for him in 2008. This man
was a
foreman at an Oklahoma defense plant, and had 19 witnesses who could have attested to his good
character and generosity before he fell into methamphetamine addiction. His trial attorney used
none of this available evidence, and the jury assessed the death penalty. Now he has a chance at a
new
trial where the jury will be able to hear both sides of the evidence. It’s about fair justice.
5. Criminal defense is challenging and exciting! May the Saints preserve me from
Mergers and Acquisitions!!! |
