It’s interesting how many people pigeon-hole members of
certain professions as holding particular views.
Prosecutors support law enforcement so they must be
conservatives. Or defense attorneys
represent people accused of breaking the law (who are often poor and
mal-educated) and therefore are probably liberals since people on the left are
partial to the downtrodden.
There is some truth to these assumptions, but not
always.
In a formal sense, there is no necessary connection. An attorney is a representative of his
client. His views can be completely
independent of his client -- whether that is the U.S. government or an accused
bank robber.
That said, it is a fair judgment that an attorney who is
personally hostile to the police is not likely to gravitate toward employment
with the local prosecutor’s office.
As for me, I can’t deny that most of my comrades at the
defense bar are not right of center. And
while I don’t generally volunteer my political persuasion, I don’t conceal it
if asked. Almost uniformly the
announcement generates surprise from those inside and outside the
profession. It shouldn’t.
A criminal defense lawyer doing his job well performs a
very important conservative role.
A person accused of a crime has specific rights, in large
part recited in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
The defense attorney’s job, in part, is to make sure his
client’s rights are protected. What
could be more conservative than that?
An equally important task is to hold the prosecutor’s “feet
to the fire”. Make the government prove
its case, subject the evidence to critical scrutiny. Fight the common assumption that only guilty
people are charged by the police.
This approach is founded on the simple fact of human nature
recognized by conservatives; power corrupts.
No matter how well intentioned, people in authority, whether police or
prosecutors, are vulnerable to the belief that what they do or believe is
always right. Experience regularly
reminds us that that’s not true.
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