if you have a family or not ,could you go on knowing that you help set a child molestor and child killer loose?i wonder about our legal system when it would protect someone with no care for human life and leave the burden on a defense lawyer to live with it.( and no,i'm not a lawyer )
2006-07-13 04:21:29 · 3 answers · asked by moecanic 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
If I understand your question correctly, you're asking whether a lawyer would be guilty of anything by knowing that his or her client committed the crime, yet continued to represent them? If that's the question, then the answer is no, they wouldn't be guilty of anything. The lawyer is under an absolute duty not to disclose anything the client tells them in anticipation of litigation. That being said, if the lawyer knows they are guilty because the client told them that they were, the lawyer cannot th en allow the client to take the stand and say they are not guilty. The lawyer is not allowed to let his or her client knowingly lie. They can plead not guilty and make the prosecutor meet his burden, or try to show that they aren't guilty because of some other legal reason (usually a constitutional issue, that the police violated the rights of the accused in some way). Personally, I don't take child abuse clients in any fashion, but I do take other violent crime defendants (adult on adult crime, but not sexual assault crimes). Some actually are not guilty.
2006-07-13 07:57:58 · answer #1 · answered by michattorney 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Here and I actually used to be a lawyer so I have some qualification to answer.
A defense lawyer's job is not to "protect the guilty and set them loose back into society".(despite popular opinions)
What the defense lawyer's job IS, is to keep the Prosecution honest, maintain his client's legal rights, so that the jury makes its decision based on the truth.
By the way, the "right to remain silent" applies even when the client is talking to the lawyer. You don't have to admit to the lawyer, whether you are guilty, or not!!
2006-07-13 11:32:13 · answer #2 · answered by DinDjinn 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What would the lawyer be guilty of???
It's all part of the job and all about winning
2006-07-13 12:00:54 · answer #3 · answered by bran 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋