My answer to "the question"

A friend of mine recently asked me "the question." The one we get at dinner parties.


"I would never be able to deal with the morals and actually draw up a decent case for the accused, how do you manage?"


I may have put him to sleep with my answer. It was something like this, only shorter:

It really boils down to a few things. I truly believe in the Constitution and what it stands for. I was a history/religion major in college and that really is the foundation for my belief. Sort of like a firefighter or a soldier who really believes in what he/she is doing, and has the desire to help people in the way that they know best. Granted, I am helping a different subset of people: those that have been accused of a crime. Not the most popular people. BUT, the Constitution promises that someone accused of a crime will not go unrepresented, and no matter how bad the crime or the criminal, he/she is entitled to a lawyer.


I have a favorite story about John Adams. Most people don't remember that he was a regular old practicing lawyer before he was a "founding father" and US President. John Adams worked in Boston during the Boston Massacre. That was when British soldiers fired into a crowd of civilians, killing some, and inflaming the colonies. Those soldiers were arrested and charged, and someone stepped up and defended the men who were seen as evil, the Devil's own spawn. John Adams was the one who stepped up. He represented them because he believed that everyone was entitled to a defense. It was not a popular move, the people of Boston hated the British, but he followed his beliefs.


Enough history.

I always like to try to have people put themselves into the shoes of someone who was falsely accused, or maybe your brother or sister was accused of something bad. You would want someone on your side who stands up for you, holds your hand, really tries to help. Sounds cheesy, I know, BUT: There have been a lot of cases overturned on DNA evidence since they started testing old evidence. I can't help but think of these cases pretty often in my line of work. Victims and eye-witnesses who swore up and down, "that's the man that raped me." Yet, the DNA turned out to be from a serial rapist in the area, not from the man with no criminal history who was in the wrong place at the wrong time (who then got wrongly convicted and spend 20 years behind bars). Nobody believed that guy when he was getting ready for trial. Only his lawyer was there to help him, but even that wasn't enough.

The clients that I get really have the deck stacked against them most of the time. People who were not raised in a regular family, were poverty stricken their whole lives, many who faced hardships based on race (yes, it still exists here in the US). Most of my clients are not bad people, they just made a really stupid decision, or they are not equipped with the emotional skills or social maturity to deal with issues that end up getting them into trouble. 'Trouble' may be joining a gang to seek that approval and acceptance from someone that they never got from their disaster of a family. 'Trouble' could be stealing food or alcohol because that's how they were raised. Or, 'Trouble' may be something really serious like a street fight (that most of us would never be involved with), suddenly someone pulls a gun and things escalate and then there's a body.

An interesting part of my job is dealing with law enforcement officers. A common stereotype of public defenders is that we hate all cops. I tend to get along with most cops really well, despite the fact that I have to cross examine them all the time. I don't feel like we have to have animosity between us like some lawyers do. Some lawyers hate all cops, like some cops hate all lawyers. My philosophy is that we're all doing our job the way we know how. Of course, there are good and bad in every profession. Last week I was going after a cop who has a very bad reputation as a violent guy, has been suspended 6 times since 2006 for excessive use of force, inappropriate contact with defendants, beating his wife.... etc. That cop, I hate and so should you. But not simply because he's a cop. He's an abuser with a serious problem, and a criminal himself, and he's in a position of power. Those guys are somewhat rare, but it does happen. He has beaten more than one of our clients, and he’s been suspended by internal affairs.


Another common misconception about public defenders is that we're all foaming at the mouth liberals who want to ban all guns, etc. Without getting into the details of those interesting topics, that's just a misconception. I am a supporter of all of the Constitutional Amendments.

The short answer for private lawyers (non public defenders): "I do it for the money" :)

Fixated on me

There is a guy who hangs out in front of a convenience store near our office. He has some serious mental health issues, but generally he's a nice guy who always says hi and makes coherent small talk. He sometimes gets behind on his meds and ends up in jail and we stop seeing him on the streets for a little while. Then he gets out and he's back on the square downtown and we chat about his situation.

Yesterday morning I saw him there and he called me over. He kept thinking I was someone else and asking about what he needed to do on his case. He told me several times that he was heading over to the county's mental health services to get his medication. He also gave me his doctor's name and number and told me that he would be at his appointment, (which is today). He's usually pretty much homeless, or close to it, so I bought him a coffee from the nearby shop. He really wanted a pack of cigs, but I only had $2 in change in my pocket, but he seemed happy with a coffee.

A few hours later he called and said that he was on his way up to my office. He showed up here and started such a delusional rant we were all taken aback at the things he was saying. He kept asking me for money because he thinks that I'm his caseworker. He couldn't get it out of his head that I'm the person that is supposed to give him his SSI check or cash or whatever. His ranting was going on and on until finally my supervisor called me over and told me to just leave him in the lobby. He'd get tired of waiting and leave, which he eventually did. I talked to one of our clinical social workers about him. He has fixated on me for some reason. Who knows why? Maybe my name is similar to some counselor he had in the past? Maybe he really appreciated the coffee that I bought for him?

He called again today and told me that he is over at the mental health center waiting for his appointment for his shot. Hopefully he's telling the truth and will get medicated soon. He also said that he spent the night there last night after I wouldn't give him his money. That started another rant regarding gettnig money from me. He asked if he should come to my office after his appointment to get a couple of hundred dollars... He also asked several times if this was really me on the phone. He sounds really paranoid and delusional, it's so sad to hear him repeating all this crazy stuff. It's also really hard to try to correct him in his delusions. I can only say "no, I'm not your caseworker" so many times. I don't really know what to say after a while. He eventually hung up the phone.

I hope he's getting his shot right now!

"I have nuclear powers"

A defendant came into court for Jail Pleas on Friday. He was clearly crazy in a "holy crap that's some crazy shit he's saying, no, for real, crazy like he actually believes the voices in his head." Not in a, "wow that lawyer asked for a formal arraignment he's crazy" kind of way.

I didn't talk to this guy, but I saw him at the podium talking to the judge and taking a plea. When she asked him how old he was, he answered by asking her to follow the recommendation of the prosecutor. Not so crazy yet. Then when the judge finished getting him through the plea, the real fireworks started. He had several exchanges with the judge and all of them were pleasant enough, there was no yelling, ranting, raving, etc.

He asked if she could do anything about the software in his head. (she said no). He then told her about how nervous he felt in the courtroom because there were a lot of people in there and he felt like they could explode any minute. (She told him he was safe) Then he told her that he had power. Real power. Nuclear power. In fact, he warned everyone that he might go off at any time and they should be careful because he didn't know what might happen. Again, the judge told him that everything would be fine.

Then one of the deputies told him that he was going to have to get back on the spaceship, to which he replied, "OK, let's get going."