Criminal Defense
When discussing the ethics of a criminal defense attorney, some controversy may be stirred up. There is certainly more than one honest criminal defense attorney out there. In fact, the majority of them are honest people, trying their hardest for their client. Being an attorney at law can lead to some difficult choices though. The criminal defense attorney that makes the wrong decision in this scenario, those are the ones who have their personal ethics questioned. Just being an attorney at law means that the individual is intelligent and highly educated. They all take the LSAT exam, go to law school, and obtain their degrees. The problem is that there are some cases where a criminal defense attorney gets caught up in the allure of big houses, fancy cars, and piles of cash. Here are some of the reasons why an attorney at law may have their morality questioned.
1. Defending criminals – Although everybody has the right to a criminal defense attorney, it is usually the temptation of a fat paycheck that will cause a normally honest attorney at law to defend somebody that they know is guilty. Holding onto your morals should be important to any criminal defense attorney, but for every murderer, rapist, and thief out there, there is an attorney at law right by their side ready to defend them.
2. Community hazard – When an attorney at law steps up to defend a criminal who they know is guilty, they are putting the members of our society at risk. A skilled criminal defense attorney could very well get their client off the hook, putting them back on our streets.
3. Bending the truth – If there is an insufficient amount of evidence to convict somebody, that is completely different from a criminal defense attorney manipulating a jury into believing that the evidence provided does not hold the weight necessary to prove their client guilty. An attorney at law should be working to make our world a safer place, but that just is not important to the criminal defense attorney that is sending murderers back into our neighborhoods. A respectable attorney at law would decline to represent their client further if they found out that they had actually committed the crime they are being accused of.
4. Excuses – Nobody likes it when their profession is being belittled, but rest assured that is not what is happening here. A criminal defense lawyer can be a respectable profession, as long as morality stays intact. An attorney at law that truly believes that they are not being unethical and makes excuses for their actions can not be defended.
Hopefully no defense attorneys out there have been offended, that was not intended. The point is that this matter is discussed frequently by American citizens. It is important to have an open discussion about morality and ethics in a court of law so that some boundaries may be set in the future.
