“How Can You Be a Criminal Defense Attorney?”

That question invariably arises when a fellow lawyer learns that I am a political conservative.  The unspoken assumption behind the question is that a person who defends those accused of crimes must be in some sense partial to them or, at the very least, suspicious of the police who made one’s client a defendant.  In other words, one who represents those accused of crimes is expected to be leery of law enforcers, maybe not an anarchist but at least a liberal. 

I certainly don’t fall into those categories –at least not easily.

My succinct response to the questioner is that the Bill of Rights provides   protections for those accused of crimes such as a trial by jury and the right to remain silent.  What could be more conservative than protecting a client’s constitutional rights?

There is a broad irony to the question posed by fellow attorneys (most of whom consider themselves proud liberals).  Those on the left do, indeed, tend to be suspicious of the exercise of power by government employees who are in law enforcement, including prosecutors.  They see such personnel often as agents of racial prejudice and injustice (the prejudgment by many on the left of the recent police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri is an example).  

Yet liberals eagerly urge other arms of the government to get involved in curing perceived social ills such as income inequality, environmental hazards and health insurance inefficiencies.

But a conservative does not accept the distinction that those exercising powers of government are to be viewed suspiciously in some aspects but embraced in others.

 

Human nature is a constant in human endeavors.  The fact that a person is a “public servant” who considers himself well-motivated does not grant him an exemption from reality.  The ranks of law enforcement or social service agencies, for instance, all contain people – a mixture of good, bad and indifferent.

Power does indeed corrupt.  That appreciation is at the heart of political conservatism and the U.S. Constitution.

Our Framers sought to restrain the exercise of power, while acknowledging that government is meaningless without it.

The essential role of the criminal defense attorney is to serve as a check on the exercise of governmental power in the criminal justice system.  Require the state to prove the validity of its accusations.  Provide a forum and rules to allow the defendant to challenge them.  That is the job of the defense attorney.  The skilled defender, be he liberal or otherwise, oblivious as he may be to the fact, is playing a very conservative role.  Our society would be much better off – and certainly more conservative – if non-law enforcement sections of our government were subjected to the same degree of scrutiny confronted by those who accuse others of crimes. 

I am proud to be a criminal defense attorney because (not despite the fact)  I am a conservative.