Gideon at  A Public Defender posted a mini-rant about justice versus winning.  That got  Malum started, and he laid his cards on the table.  And as we all know, when Malum gets going, so too must  Norm Pattis and Stephen Gustitis.  Other than Bennett, who is in Paris (France, not Texas), it seemed like everybody has something to say.  Except me.  

It wasn’t that I was feeling left out, or that I had no thoughts on the subject.  It was that this was the subject of my  very first post at Simple Justice.  I generally hate repeating myself (if I can remember that I already did something), so I was reluctant to do another post of the issue of justice.  Instead, I figure that I’ll just repost the original, which may not have been on anybody’s radar at the time, as my coda to the blawgveration.

Justice is a Funny Thing

Most people come to a lawyer claiming that they want justice.  Do they?  They want to win their case.  They want to beat the rap.  But winning often has little to do with justice.  And that’s okay.  As a criminal defense lawyer, it’s my responsibility to represent you, not justice.  This point is lost on many clients.  More often than not, new potential clients will come to me with a story about their innocence.  Perhaps they are indeed innocent (it does happen), but perhaps they are not.  Or perhaps they are not as guilty as the police say, but not quite innocent either.

What a new client needs to appreciate is that I do not care whether they are innocent or not.  It has no impact whatsoever on my efforts on their behalf, even though they may find that hard to believe.  For the purpose of representing a client, I assume that everyone is guilty in order to remove that taint they feel and enable them to speak freely to me about what happened.  This is by far the most important thing they can do to aid me in preparing their defense.  As I frequently tell clients, I don’t want to be the only person in the room who has no clue what really happened.  If a client lies to me to minimize their guilt, they have taken away my most valuable weapon on their behalf:  knowledge.

I’m always straight with my clients.  As some will happily tell you, there are times when they would appreciate a little more sugar-coating and a little less honesty, though in the end they truly appreciate the fact that their decisions are based on a real appraisal of the situation rather than the old “don’t worry” approach, until (of course) it’s too late.  In return, I expect them to be straight with me.  It’s not much to ask, and ultimately empowers me to deal with the real situation rather than some pretend set of circumstances that helps neither you nor me.

Update:  Young Shawn Matlock, who was out sick, felt horrible about being left out of this discussion.  And so, he’s now posted his thought(s) on the subject.  Since I don’t want to be accused of cruelty to Republicans, I would be remiss if I didn’t update this post to include Young Shawn.  But I feel compelled to add that while Young Shawn says that I neglected to answer Gideon’s original question, whether we seek justice or victory, he is mistaken.  I’ve just done so in a subtle way, requiring my young friend to do something that Republicans are so rarely required to do:  Think.