Sharp Rubber Duck

A Lawyers view on lawyers vigorous defense of the clearly guilty

August 21, 2006

Garth in Queensland, Australia:

"As a lawyer, I am torn between agreeing wholeheartedly with the absurdity of the defence and supporting the need for it. Indeed, many of the finest legal ethicists in the common law world debate this very issue daily, and have done since the earliest days of British law, upon which the

American system is based. Placing the client's interest above all else is the only way in which the law can work because the alternative -- lawyers indiscriminately choosing when to defend and when not to -- would undermine the entire justice system. What perhaps you don't allow for in your thinking is the idea that the making of that defense by John Gonta probably stuck in his throat and almost choked him. We don't know. However, he was bound by the responsibilities of his professional duty and he did that duty admirably. He did his job. It's not always a very pleasant job. Policeman often have to arrest and jail persons who they would personally much prefer to let run free but the law simply will not allow them to do this. It's a great tragedy. It is easy to criticise the workings of a system but much more difficult to suggest reasonable alternatives. Are you suggesting that Gonta's client has no right to legal representation? I'm certain you're not. So then what? Limited legal pursuit of acquittal? How limited? To suggest that the accused should have plead guilty to the maximum offence the prosecution can charge him with is an absurdity, albeit that it is possibly the 'right' thing to do (assuming of course that the prosecution doesn't willfully charge the accused with an offence of which he could not be found guilty). The common law isn't always -- or even often -- utilitarian. It doesn't pretend to seek to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. In the ideal, it just seeks to ensure that every single client is given an equal right to the most vigorous possible defence. It's not perfect but, to paraphrase the great man, it's still the best worst system we can come up with."

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