hi!! sorry if you've been asked this question before, but as someone who wants to be a lawyer, how do you deal with defending people that morally you really don't agree with? thanks!
I get a lot of versions of this question, and I answer it seriously every time, because itâs both important and not important at all. Anyone who asks respectfully gets my whole ass answer.
Itâs just not really about that. My job isnât about defending the idea of hurting someone else. Itâs about stopping the state from inflicting further hurt, torture, pain. Itâs about pushing back for some fairness against a monumentally stacked system. And itâs about stuff thatâs normal human stuff that counts as crime for some reason.
Yeah, itâs hard to do a sex abuse case. Sometimes the images stick around and it bothers me. But honestly? Mostly those cases have real plausible theories of innocence or theyâre cases that I will lose because the evidence is there, and the question is not whether the perpetrator will go to jail but how long.
Those cases are so rare, though. I get so much pointless bullshit. Felony of a teen taking momâs car without permission. Two kids that try to break into a car and get so scared by the alarm that they run away. Trespassing on dadâs house because his new girlfriend wants you to stop coming around. Itâs just human stuff, and the violence of the state is not necessary or helpful.
I also reject the idea of punishment completely. The state has a responsibility to stop people from hurting other people again. But inflicting pain doesnât do it, we know this by now. So I argue for mercy and for real solutions to real problems. Iâm here to build a future, not get caught up with doing violence to someone because of the past.
So yeah, sometimes itâs hard, but mostly my conscience is dead clear: Iâm not responsible for the crime. The damage has been done. I want to start the healing process, and I want it for everyone involved. When thatâs not possible, I just want to tell the authorities they donât get to just Do What They Want.
The more I do this job, the more I am a genuine pacifist who is against violence in all forms, and actually I donât see a contradiction between that and what I do for a living. State violence is a pervasive evil that tears apart families, communities, and countries, and itâs far more damaging and awful than any individual crime. The average prosecutor has more blood on their hands than a serial killer, but itâs invisible: people who died in jail, who froze to death on the street, who were shot in a drug deal. Their violence begets violence.
When I get blood on my hands, itâs because I put my hands over the wounds and try to stop the flow. Iâm okay with it.
Also: people donât ask doctors how they can stand to treat bad people. Why ask me?
