The defense attorney’s job is to defend and the prosecutor’s is to prosecute. It is that simple. It does not matter if the defense knows for a fact that the client is guilty or not. If he wants a European system let him go to Europe. I think he will find that that system has just as many pitfalls as ours.

Thanks for the comment. Taking what you say at face value, will you acknowledge that your view is in the minority?

I am pulled over for speeding. I know I am speeding. The cop tickets me, but the ticket is too high and I don’t want points on my license. So I contest the ticket.

I have a hearing at which I ask the cop about the calibration of the radar gun and can successfully prove that the gun was not properly calibrated and its numbers would have been off by about 15 mph, which would have put me within the speed limit.

Is that wrong?

I don’t think you do your side any favors with nonsense like that.

I can’t speak for every prosecutor’s/DA’s/USA’s office in America, but in my office for every two police reports we charge, we deny charges on one. Stop and think about that ratio for a moment. This simple fact, in my mind, is a compelling response to the tone of challenge in your post. An innocent suspect’s best friend is me reading his police report. So, I think I do more than my share of searching for the truth, thank you very much. Perfect? Of course not. A lot closer than you’d be willing to admit? Absolutely. Feel free to take the credit when I don’t charge your potential client with a crime, but I’m the one who didn’t sign the warrant.

True, some of what we don’t charge is b/c of what we know even a minimally competent defense attorney can do with it to create reasonable doubt. So in that respect, the defense bar plays an indispensible role in the criminal justice system. Please keep up the good work. The more good defense attorneys there are, the easier I find it to do my job. Not necessarily win more of my cases, but do my job. Unfortunately, my job remains quite difficult a lot of the time. And btw, a good defense attorney accepts the difference between “my guy is innocent” and “the prosecutor hasn’t carried his burden.” Those who don’t, and who come up with snarky equivalencies, could probably benefit from being a little more honest with themselves and the precise parameters of their very important job.

But because I’m a biased prosecutor, I will say that there is really no way around the differences between “I seek to do justice and to incapacitate murderers and rapists and the like by putting them in prison where they can’t hurt you” and “I hold the prosecution to its burden.” There are things to be said by all sides about which, if either, is more important. But don’t mistakenly think they are the same. There is no getting around that people murder other people, and people rape people, and the society of which we are all a part has decided that those actual offenders need to be incapacitated. Admit it – you want me to do my job well. To me that includes only bringing cases when I know I can meet my burden.