Essays /
"Injustice is the drink that stirs the soul of the defence" [5]
Thank you so much for the reply. I will look for a way to change up the phrase "The guilty would be found innocent and the innocent, vindicated, in a perfect world." but this is my final. :)
Injustice is the drink that stirs the soul of the defence. The course of justice, including the rights and lives of clients, can easily be affected by a lawyer's conduct. "As a society, we understandably condemn the imprisonment of the innocent." (Skurka). All individuals are entitled to a fair trial and should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
The guilty would be found innocent and the innocent, vindicated, in a perfect world. But our world is far from perfection, including our Criminal Justice System. Without punishment, the law often allows the guilty to slip through the system. Everyone has rights, even if they are found guilty. Many argue that the job of the defence lawyer is to achieve the goal of getting his client off and to protect him/her from the consequences of the client's possible misbehaviour, when this is not the case. A defence attorney's job is to protect their client's right to a fair trial. The right to have a fair trial basically means that without following proper legal procedure, the individual's life, liberty, and property cannot be taken away from them. If the client is found guilty, this is to ensure that the result of the presentation of legally admissible evidence accepted by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The defence attorney will look at the mistakes made when their client was originally charged. "For a lawyer undertaking an unpopular case, there must be steely resolve not to be diverted from the task by the outpouring of anger and bitterness that constantly surround them. Whether it be the campaign of stares that greeted me regularly on my way to court or even the threats directed at me in the midst of my jury address, nothing moved me from my spot on the courtroom floor." (Skurka). Even though defence attorneys are constantly belittled, throughout various downsides, they continue to hold their head up high. They continue to try the best of their ability to please the client and to ensure that they protect their client's right to a fair trial.
Not everyone is satisfied with the statues designed by the law of Canada for people's rights and freedoms. In speaking about his personal experience to the Toronto Star, Steven Skurka, a defence lawyer, commented, "I must say that, to the end, I always saw the human side of my client and preferred to leave matters of judgement of my client to a jury of his peers. A lawyer takes on a case, not a cause." When one chooses to become a lawyer - all emotion has to be neglected - and, only the details and facts of the case are to be examined. Some lawyers fail to handle this one aspect of the job description. Only if there reasonable proof in the case/trial that determines whether the individual is guilty. How the lawyer feels about the person or even if the lawyer believes he is indeed guilty, this cannot outweigh what is actually presented in the case. Some lawyers choose not to partake in certain cases such as criminal cases, but this could affect their overall income, experience, etc.
As a defence attorney, their client's future is in their hands when they accept the case. If the defence lawyer fails to succeed in the trial, the client will not lose money such as in a civil case but will lose time out of his or her life. The job of seeking justice is entirely in the hands of the prosecutor but it doesn't always require a conviction. There have been various trials where individuals are charged who are not guilty and these are the cases that justice demands an acquittal. One of the main reasons as to why a large amount of defence lawyers choose to go into that specific field are due to that fact that few feelings are greater than seeing an innocent client vindicated. Based on the defence lawyers' ability to skew judgement before trial, some individuals remain in the community, while others, incarcerated. In certain cases, for example, a case where an individual was killed by an impaired driver, the accused lawyers' ability to skew judgement before trial will determine the victim's consequences at the end of the trial.
The matter of a defendant's guilt is uncertain and this is the reason why both the defence and prosecution exist for excellent reasons. Realistically, defence attorneys should not be seen as an individual who is good or one that is bad, rather a lawyer doing his or her job to protect their client's right to a fair trial. To ensure that the prosecution has proven its case, the role played by the defence attorney will still remain valuable even if the defendant is guilty. Individuals deserve to be considered innocent until proven guilty and if there were no defence lawyers to defend the accused, everyone would be in jail. William Blackstone once said, "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer."
Bibliography:
Source: Skurka, Steven. "Defending a 'Monster'". Toronto Star. 14 June 1999.
Source: Blackstone, William. "Sir William Blackstone". Brittannica Online Encyclopedia. 6 December 2012.