After all, the law says that everyone, including the worst elements of our society, has the right to adequate legal representation. Unfortunately, they sometimes get off, but someone has to defend them, so what’s the point in painting their attorneys as bad guys, also?
#1 by Forget War Buy More on 11/22/2011 - 1:27 PM
Our system may state innocent until proven guilty, yet people are usually treated the other way around.
#2 by kalicokitten1 on 11/22/2011 - 1:46 PM
Just the way it is. there are white hat and black hats in the world and someone has got to wear one or the other. it is hard for people to see past their anger to the fact that we all deserve competant council no matter what crime we are accused of committing. sometimes it seems unfair that someone who committed a terrible crime is allowed to have fair treatment but the rules are for everyone not just for the ones we want to have them. the lawyers are just doing their job. many of them take seriously the fact that we all deserve to get the best defense possible.
#3 by billyboy64 on 11/22/2011 - 2:20 PM
Because they are usually looked upon as doing it for the money, not because they believe in their client’s innocence.
#4 by Bret A on 11/22/2011 - 2:55 PM
they get branded because some manipulate the system and endanger the public by getting violent dangerous people off when they are stone cold guilty.
Justice is truth and letting a pedophile off because some piece of paper wasnt filed right is not truth or justice.
#5 by fabian342h on 11/22/2011 - 3:47 PM
Because many times the defense lawyer will lye, display evidence that he knows is fabricated, and do nearly anything to get the client off.
Not all defense attorneys are this way but a small portion are, and they give the rest a bad name.
#6 by ReallyStoopidGirl on 11/22/2011 - 4:08 PM
I could never be a defense attorney… not because of what you say..but because I could never pretend day after day that the people I might represent are wonderful citizens of the USA and have never committed a crime.
#7 by yads on 11/22/2011 - 4:30 PM
it shouldn’t worry them. attention of whatever kind will help in the advancement of their career, moreover, not all “villains” are “unattractive”
#8 by nice_n_easy on 11/22/2011 - 4:52 PM
I see your contention, that those worst kind in society did get off the hook because they have the best legal mind of attorneys. Just like you said they too have the right to adequate legal representation or something in the eyes of the law. Well that is what it is.
The blindfolded lady who holds a weighting scale in her left hand and a sword in his right hand statute is the symbol of it, that everybody should be equal in the eyes of the law. No one should be above the it. For my own opinion, I don’t personally considered the lawyers who defend the scum of the earth as villains themselves who defend the bad guys so to speak, yes there others who do but not all lawyers are the same. Some get off because they can buy the best legal minds in the business, other don’t because they can’t afford the best one. That is not the point, these lawyers are just doing their job. If you are a lawyer and your client told you ‘yes I did it’, would you tell the judge that you want this man to be locked up without defending him? Why are you there in the first place after all? It is your duty to defend the guy, through the fire as they speak, finding loop holes to get him off. But the prosecutor has the edge so to speak that is why your client get to be in jail. Besides the truth shall always prevail in the end.
#9 by Phil D on 11/22/2011 - 5:39 PM
There are people who are always going to feel that way because they assume that everyone that’s arrested must be guilty. Of course, the families of victims feel that way about the lawyers defending the ones being accused of those crimes.
I try to view the rights afforded to people charged with committing crimes as providing a system of justice that assures the continuing preservation of the freedom and liberty of innocent citizens. Making sure that the justice system doesn’t infringe on the rights of the innocent can only be accomplished by good criminal lawyers doing their jobs well.
Criminals that “get off” because their attorneys proved that the police violated some “criminal right(s)” were represented by good criminal lawyers. Those lawyers are seen as responsible for allowing those criminals to go free when in fact it was the police agency that caused the result. But people don’t see it that way. They don’t understand that it is really themselves that are being protected.