Do you think defense attorneys who defend cops who unjustly killed Black people—or people in general—are ‘bad people’? Like the lawyer who defended the cop that killed Sonya Massey—were they ‘bad people’?
Do you think defense attorneys who defend cops who unjustly killed Black people—or people in general—are ‘bad people’? Like the lawyer who defended the cop that killed Sonya Massey—were they ‘bad people’?
Defense attorneys are supposed to fight for their clients rights in an impartial way. They may have access to the evidence, but they did not personally see the crime happen.
A lot of this was built around a world prior to surveillance video being everywhere all the time giving a somewhat clearer picture into events, so for a lot of like public defense attorneys only fight as much as they can. Like if there’s clearly video proving it happened (not through video analysis alone but in combination with eyewitness accounts), the defense lawyer can do things like argue for a plea deal but that’s about it. With enough evidence, they have to be honest with their client about how realistic their chances are.
Some people who reject reality do things like say their public defense lawyer is shafting them when the lawyer actually can’t help them because of the wealth of evidence, and then they follow it up with further stupid shit like trying to represent themselves in court. The reality is the evidence is damning and they’re just stupid and irrational to think they can talk their way out of it.
As for people like Johnny Cochran, who represented OJ Simpson. They’re the same as anyone else for whom there is no moral and ethical depth they won’t plumb just so they can get paid a shitload of money. That’s no different than like Trump’s pool guy taking a sweetheart contract to do a job incredibly wrong. It’s just people who are willing to take the money and fuck the consequences because to them money trumps ethics and morals. So yeah they suck shit, but so does everyone like that, not just defense lawyers.
Also there’s the whole two different justice systems thing, which is part of the reason those kind of defense lawyers are so widespread. Hell, one of them is our Attorney General.
Even in a world with surveillance, digital footprints, and advanced forensic evidence techniques, defense attorneys still help keep the system honest: Does the video actually show what the prosecution alleges? Was this digital data obtained with a proper warrant? Is there chain of custody for the forensic evidence, or could it have been tampered?
Demanding integrity is still a key part of the system. The only thing that’s changed is what you’re demanding it of.
For sure, I didn’t mean to imply it isn’t! For exactly the situations when cops beat on someone and claim that they were being attacked or fearing for the lives. While bodycams have a host of privacy implications, on the other hand it’s a great tool (when not abused) to determine whether police are lying or not.