Next year will mark forty years since I took my oath as a lawyer.
For the first two years after law school I was an assistant municipal proscecutor.
I was much more worried about prosecuting an innocent person than I’ve been since as a defense attorney.
I absolutely believe in Matthew 25:40. It has been the bedrock of my sure and certain knowledge I follow the Master, since I was a child. I will stand someday before Him at the Last Judgement, and be judged. I don’t think I’m capable of intentionally prosecuting an innocent man or standing by and not preventing it, if in my power. I sleep easy at night as a former prosecutor.
I’ve never once represented a criminal defendant I’d not have lunch with in public, and since I’m a private attorney I never will have to. You can spend an entire career as a defense lawyer and not tell one lie. I’ve done it.
Client confidentially prevents me from discussing my clients.
But there have been a few criminal defendants I’ve represented I’ve proved were mistakenly identified, or a victim of false swearing, and in almost all of those cases the prosecution immediately dismissed charges, and none were convicted.
The average law breaker is like the average sinner, some soul that yielded to temptation, but not evil.
They desperately need a lawyer.
But although I can’t represent a heinous criminal myself, they need a good lawyer the most of all.
I once proved in a probation revocation case there were two people with exactly the same name, and it was the other one that wrote a bad check.
Handwriting analysis showed my client guilty, and a judge and a prosecutor both swore under oath my client plead guilty to that bad check. There was only one such person on record with the name Judy.
My client used Judy as her name, yet the other lady who did wrote the checks was named Judith, but signed her checks as Judy. They didn’t know the existence of each other, and were not related.
She’s dead now, but the judge had a difficult time dismissing the case because of handwriting analysis.
She asked me how I could explain it, and I replied in this case we all have the luxury of knowing the Judy who was aged 59 who lives at the address on the check and is married to the Robert whose name appears on the check wrote the check, and my single 32 year old client named Judy who lives fifty miles away is innocent.
How does the Highway Patrol handwriting expert sleep knowing he almost sent the wrong Judy to the pen?
For the first two years after law school I was an assistant municipal proscecutor.
I was much more worried about prosecuting an innocent person than I’ve been since as a defense attorney.
I absolutely believe in Matthew 25:40. It has been the bedrock of my sure and certain knowledge I follow the Master, since I was a child. I will stand someday before Him at the Last Judgement, and be judged. I don’t think I’m capable of intentionally prosecuting an innocent man or standing by and not preventing it, if in my power. I sleep easy at night as a former prosecutor.
I’ve never once represented a criminal defendant I’d not have lunch with in public, and since I’m a private attorney I never will have to. You can spend an entire career as a defense lawyer and not tell one lie. I’ve done it.
Client confidentially prevents me from discussing my clients.
But there have been a few criminal defendants I’ve represented I’ve proved were mistakenly identified, or a victim of false swearing, and in almost all of those cases the prosecution immediately dismissed charges, and none were convicted.
The average law breaker is like the average sinner, some soul that yielded to temptation, but not evil.
They desperately need a lawyer.
But although I can’t represent a heinous criminal myself, they need a good lawyer the most of all.
I once proved in a probation revocation case there were two people with exactly the same name, and it was the other one that wrote a bad check.
Handwriting analysis showed my client guilty, and a judge and a prosecutor both swore under oath my client plead guilty to that bad check. There was only one such person on record with the name Judy.
My client used Judy as her name, yet the other lady who did wrote the checks was named Judith, but signed her checks as Judy. They didn’t know the existence of each other, and were not related.
She’s dead now, but the judge had a difficult time dismissing the case because of handwriting analysis.
She asked me how I could explain it, and I replied in this case we all have the luxury of knowing the Judy who was aged 59 who lives at the address on the check and is married to the Robert whose name appears on the check wrote the check, and my single 32 year old client named Judy who lives fifty miles away is innocent.
How does the Highway Patrol handwriting expert sleep knowing he almost sent the wrong Judy to the pen?
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