law and disorder

In my "previous life," life before being a mom and moving to the Midwest, I was a public defender. It was a difficult career, thankless and tiring, but my absolute favorite job thus far. I no longer practice because I am not licensed here, but I hope one day to return to it, when trials and hearings no longer interfere with my baby's bedtime. I remember driving with the hub discussing our two very different career paths, when I came to the conclusion that in a career you could either work for the money or work for a passion. The two rarely collide. And my life as a public defender was a passion, so much so that the lack of salary didn't matter all that much.

I bring this up because I was contacted last week by a previous client's new attorney. He goes to trial this week, on a charge stemming from events which I witnessed. Allegedly, my client kicked two police officers who claim they were attempting to remove him from the courtroom as his allegedly disruptive behavior escalated. Now, I say "allegedly" not to be tongue in cheek, but because the story as I have laid it out is as the complaint states. But a criminal complaint never states all the facts - it is simply the allegations that lead the prosecutor to charge a person with a crime.

Some people think that as a public defender I got people "off" for crimes they committed. That I led rapists back to the street and child molesters back to the park. That wife beaters were freed by me to finish the victim off. Because life is ever that simple? The only thing I ever did was hold the prosecution to their constitutional standard in proving a defendant guilty. And in "A Man for All Seasons," a play by Robert Bolt, Mr. Bolt states it better than I ever could:

Margaret: Father, that man's bad.

Sir Thomas More: There is no law against that.

William Roper: There is! God's law!

Sir Thomas More: Then God can arrest him.

William Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication!

Sir Thomas More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal.

William Roper: Then you set man's law above God's!

Sir Thomas More: No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact - I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forester. I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow me there, thank God...

Alice: While you talk, he's gone!

Sir Thomas More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!


Oh, even just re-reading that passage here gives me goosebumps. Because protection of (and sometimes from) the law isn't something you deserve, earn - everyone is entitled to the same rights, same liberties, same processes and procedures. The same laws and the same order. You fight for the crack-addicted homeless jerk's rights because when we begin to pick and choose who is entitled to protection under the law, we cease to have any protection at all. Because someday it might just be you who gets denied the protection of law, and where will you be then?

So, my thoughts this week will be with my previous client and his new attorney. Just let his trial be fair and just.

And of course looking forward to my own (and first!) jury summons next week. What? Am I the only person who has hoped for jury duty? Maybe if we all realized what was at stake, we'd all be excited about jury duty. Remember...

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~Ben Franklin