I do this job because I don’t want to chase down clients for retainers and I like to win. I would not feel comfortable ever working for the other side. Maybe thats why I chose to practice in a state where I have no family or friends, I am detached from everyone involved in the cases and they are nothing more than law school hypotheticals and mock trials to me.

I don’t live in the part of town where most of my clients live or where they are arrested. Each day I get to drive myself into my secluded neighborhood where “those” kind of people don’t dare to enter because they would be profiled and stopped before they crossed the tracks.

Hypocrisy is a luxury we have as attorneys because we are obliged to defend our CLIENT’S best interest without judgment or prejudice. At least thats how I sleep comfortably at night.

Feel free to raid the blogroll – that’s what it’s there for!

You’re absolutely right about our role. It’s not about “helping them get away with it” it’s about making sure that the process runs as fair as possible. And to that end, you fight like a lion for your client, even if you know that they “did it.” Which you don’t! You don’t know anything more than that prosecutor does. You are simply arguing a set of facts and any reasonable inferences or arguments that can be made out of those facts.
Also, it’s not a question of someone “getting away with it” it’s a question of the State not putting together a strong enough case. The obvious analogy recently here in Chicago was the R. Kelly case. I predicted on my blog an acquittal for the simple reason that the victim wasn’t going to testify. And the exit interviews with jurors confirmed this to a T. They weren’t doubting that it was R. Kelly in the video, they just didn’t feel the State had sealed, beyond a reasonable doubt, who the victim was.

R. Kelly’s lawyers didn’t help him get away with statutory rape and child pornography. The State was unable to prove their case. The defense was just there to remind the jurors what their role was, the State that is. And that’s the part of being a defense lawyer people forget a lot. If we weren’t around, pointing the finger right back at the State and raising their burden up, people would convict defendants based on racial prejudice, fear, personal revulsion, or whatever other factors, besides rationality, that they felt like.
By the way, I’m going to have steal bunch of your links…holy christ do you have a blogroll!

Here’s a good analogy. A vet. We’d all think a vet pretty weird who actually enjoyed euthanizing animals. So when you guys get all happy about getting some guy off (as opposed to just doing your job), then you’re like the vet who enjoys putting down animals.