The San Jose Mercury News is one of my favorite newspapers. I read it when I was a student at Stanford, and it pops up from time to time because they occasionally take on controversial issues, and because they have aggressively cultivated a web presence.
Recently the paper did a 5-part series on criminal justice, focusing on Santa Clara County in California.
The whole series is great, but the most notable parts for me are parts 2-4:
Prosecutors over the line
High cost of bad defense
How judges favor the prosecution
In the part on prosecutors, there's a chilling quote from one of the local prosecutors: "I knew I wanted to be a prosecutor, and be able to do what I think is right, not just what is in the client's interest.''
The client for a prosecutor is the People. I love the "what I think is right" comment. If you don't see why that's disturbing, you might be a prosecutor.
More later -- the baby's awake. :-)
1 comment:
Warren, You might be misreading the prosecutors quote. He said: "I knew I wanted to be a prosecutor, and be able to do what I think is right, not just what is in the client's interest.'' That is absolutely consistent with: "Being a prosector let's me do what I believe is right. Often, as private lawyer or public defender, you have to do what is in the client's interest (if it is within the bounds of ethics), even if you feel it is the wrong thing to do (to achieve justice, fairness, etc.).
That position is surely why I chose to be a Federal Trade Commission attorney, rather than work the defense side of antitrust law. It is also why I represented children in visitation, custody, abuse/negligence cases, and not their parents.
I see nothing in the quote you have given (although I don't know its full context) that means "I'll do what I think is right and not what the Client/Public deserves."
Post a Comment