Should Attorneys Work Hard to Defend A Client They Think Is Guilty?
April 23th, 2022
Should a murderer be defended by an attorney in the court? In the world, we all hope justice can defeat the evils. Bad guys can get the punishments they deserve in jail; however, suspects still have the right to defend themselves. All people are innocent before a conviction; what’s more, the criminal suspects are guilty or not is decided by a judge, a human but not a god. We can see there is no absolute justice in the world since a judge is a human being with subjective feelings. Therefore, it’s attorneys’ duty to strive for their clients a suitable penalty. In order to follow “the presumption of innocence” and realize the rule of no penalty without a law, attorneys must work hard to defend criminals who might be guilty.
The principle of “the presumption of innocence” is one of the primary reasons that attorneys should do their utmost to protect their clients. In Taiwan, there are several unjust cases in history, and the Jian He Su unjust case is one of the significant cases. Su was accused of a murderer in 1991 due to another suspect’s fake claim. With groundless confession and evidence, Su was sentenced to the death penalty in 1995. And it took Su 21 years to finally regress his grievance. In this case, Su received an unfair treatment in the court because everyone had already assumed him to be guilty before the conviction. Under this circumstance, attorneys should believe their clients are innocent before the judgement and strive for refuting the wrong allegation to realize judicial justice.
However, although the clients have confessed their misdeed to the attorney, attorneys still need to fight for their clients for a justice punishment. Suspects’ punishments are not only judged based on their behaviors but also on their mental state and introspection. Billy Milligan case was a well-known court case that happened in Ohio in the late 1970s. Billy Milligan was arrested for three rapes on the campus of Ohio State University. He was indeed a rapist but diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. His childhood trauma caused him to have 24 distinct personalities in his body. In his trial, Gary Schweickart, Billy’s attorney, claimed that Billy was innocent due to his mental illness. Two of his alternate personalities committed the rapes without Billy’s consciousness. Finally, Billy was acquitted and received treatment in psychiatric hospitals. As a result, attorneys need to fight for their clients for a justice penalty even though they truly did the wrong thing.
While it is the lawyers’ duty to defend their clients, some may think it is unjust to protect and defend the bad guys, especially from the victim’s perspective. Yes, the victim’s great sorrow and hatred toward the victimizer are understandable, and we all wish justice can be served. Therefore, the best way to guarantee fairness and justice is to bring the suspects to the trial under due process. In the court, the judge will take several aspects into consideration, such as evidence, witness, victimizers’ motive, mental state, and introspection but not just a result on the surface. Sometimes, there is more to a murder case than meets the eye. Consequently, we should give the suspects a chance to voice their words to see the real story rather than blame them for their misdeeds emotionally. As a result, putting the suspects under the due process in the trial is the best way to know the truth, measure the suspects’ crime, and offer the victims a justice compensatory.
In a nutshell, attorneys must defend a client who might be guilty due to two reasons. First, everyone is innocent before being convicted. Second, attorneys have to help clients not to be over-punished. Even in the same event, all people have their different stories from their perspectives. And sometimes, people’s reason is blinded by our subjective emotions and feelings which let us cannot see a thing rationally. Wherefore, in order to realize justice, it is absolutely vital that the attorneys help the clients to clarify the truth, voice their statements, and deny the wrong accusation in the court.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Milligan
https://twinnocenceproject.org/
https://www.quora.com/Should-lawyers-work-hard-to-defend-a-client-they-think-is-guilty
