Monday, March 12, 2007
This Job is Hard
I never realized how hard it would be to plead a client out to second degree murder. Losing big trials is hard, watching your clients get sent to prison for long periods of time is hard. It never occurred to me how hard it would be to have your client take a plea like this. Should I have pushed him harder to go to trial? What if I really could have gotten a jury down to manslaughter? What if I could have gotten him acquitted altogether? What if? What if? What if? I will never know whether I really helped him or really screwed him over. He thinks I helped him, and thanks me every time I see him. I am not so sure...
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2 comments:
I am glad you really feel for the person you represent so many do not act like this. They have so many cases they just make deals with the DA and has even gone so far as saying on first meet "Your guilty right?" What a jerk. If the Da's didn't keep piling and piling the charges on these people until there only hope is to take a crappy deal, you wouldn't have to feel bad. Like that one smart mouth DA told that kid I can write your life away with the stroke of a pen. If he hadn't been over heard that kid wouldn't of stood a chance. Its the corruption on the inside that has made the justice systems a joke. There is a god and one day these power hungry big headed people will be judged too. Atleast you had compassion for your client. Thanks for that!
It's part of our jobs. "Could we have done better?" is a frequently asked question.
As long as you did the best you could with what you knew at the time, you're giving it your all.
It's the reality of what has happened that leaves that pit in your stomach.
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