Posted by
Doctor Demex on Monday, January 15, 2007 3:16:58 PM
The following is a redacted transcript of an interview I conducted with a successful criminal trial lawyer.
Doctor Demex: So what's the deal with lawyers today? When I was in law school we used to think up ridiculous arguments just because we could, but we would never consider using such arguments in court for fear of being thrown behind bars for contempt.
Successful Criminal Trial Lawyer: Well, people get offended at the slightest things today, but if you do something that really offends them, sometimes they don't even know what hit them. Even judges let us get away with murder in the courtroom. If that's the way they want to play, fine. When a client comes to me, he might be guilty or he might be innocent. I don't really care. Remember that scene in "The Fugitive" when Harrison Ford protests to U.S. Marshal Tommy Lee Jones that he didn't kill his wife? The marshal says, "I don't care!" It was the marshal's job to take the fugitive into custody, that's all. It's my job to get my clients off. Whether he's guilty or not is not my concern. It's not for me to judge. He's hiring me to be as partisan in his defense as I can be, and if sometimes it means introducing reasonable doubt into the proceedings, then I'll do it for my client. It's the job of the judge and the jury to determine guilt or innocence. My only task is to earn my pay by getting the guy off. If I succeed, it's because I did a better job than my opponents. Frankly, I think I'm better at getting clients off than my opponents are in proving their guilt. The sharpest knives in the drawer don't usually become prosecutors; the job doesn't pay enough, in my opinion.
D. D.: But aren't you concerned that your partisanship "games" the system so that it falters in the pursuit of justice?
S. C. T. L.: Look, the United States has the best system of justice that has ever existed. But it works because each actor in the play is a specialist. I am not the judge. I am not the jury. I am not the prosecutor. I argue for the defense. If I succeed, whether it's because I'm good or because the other actors are incompetent doesn't really matter, does it? Besides, I believe in the system enough to know that whatever result it reaches is the one it probably should reach. And if I keep winning because the other actors in the system are incompetent, then I create an incentive for getting better judges and prosecutors, don't I? When better prosecutors come along, then I have an incentive to improve. It's "free-market" law and very much in the spirit of America, if you ask me.
D. D.: I didn't ask you, but it's an interesting insight nevertheless. So you're saying that if you get a serial killer back on the street and he kills more people, you can sleep at night?
S. C. T. L.: Sure, why not? A serial killer is entitled to legal representation, too, and my job is to get him off. If he kills again, it's regrettable in many ways, but it's not my fault because I was just doing my job and happened to be doing it better than the people who want to put my client away.
D. D.: Forgive me, but you don't see yourself as making the world a worse place, do you?
S. C. T. L.: I think I told you. No, I do not! I view my role in very narrow terms, but I think that by doing that role as well as I do, I make the entire system work better by creating a demand for others to become better at what they do. As I said, my job is to do whatever I can to get my client off, not to help the prosecution make its own case against my client. That would be a violation of my duty to my client, now wouldn't it?
D. D.: Well, yes, but—
S. C. T. L.: But nothing! I have a job to do and I do it. Other people have jobs to do, and it's not my responsibility to do their jobs for them! What kind of society would we have if everyone did everyone else's job? The gap between the competent and the incompetent would widen. If we removed market forces from the equation, society would become even more dysfunctional than it is. No, sir! I'm just doing my part to make society better.