Friday, March 19, 2010

In Defense of Defense Lawyers

Often when people hear about heinous crimes that have been committed and see their subsequent lawyers, negative feelings are leveled at the lawyers for defending such a person. Our laws have been specifically written so every gets a fair trail regardless of the crime or perpetrator.

Stemming back to England and France; where trails were often a farce and people were convicted because they were the wrong class of people, or their neighbor had an axe to grind with them, or someone wanted their land or other belongings, trials were often over before they began with the guilty verdicts. Quickly the punishment was executed sometimes resulting in erroneous deaths and lose of freedom.

The founding fathers wanted to avoid the same problems here and tried in all ways to insure a fair trial for everyone, including the guilty. Every country is a little different in the rights extended to suspects until after their trails where they have been found guilty or innocent by either a judge or jury. These same rights hold true for our neighbors in Canada.

Criminal lawyers play a vital role in keeping the balance in our courts. Yes, on occasion, they twist the law to get the guilty off without penalty but hopefully more often, they protect the innocent who may be in the wrong place at the wrong time or were falsely accused. Better a few guilty go free then to fill up our penal system with the innocent.

The criminal lawyer from Toronto to Texas have the same goals. They have sworn to uphold the laws of their various lands and to have a just and fair system for all classes and kinds of people.

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