One of the reasons to vigorously defend someone you know is guilty of murder is to make sure that the police have played by the rules in gathering their evidence and arresting the person they believe is guilty. The outcome of this process is hopefully that the police don't harass, arrest, and search the houses and belongings of innocent people who are just minding their own business. Sometimes the police make innocent mistakes. Sometimes the police go overboard in trying to nail someone who they think is a dirtbag who should be in jail. And sometimes somebody just manages to piss off the wrong person and attract negative attention from a corrupt law officer or from an entire department.
Because of that, everyone deserves a vigorous and effective criminal defense. It's part of the premise that "Better a thousand guilty people go free than one innocent person is wrongfully jailed."
Hell, even confessions can be complete BS. False confessions are often extracted via rubber hose, or under threat of avoiding the death penalty. Based on such a confession, it's possible to "know" that someone is incontrovertibly guilty of murder. (Example: Brendan Dassey from Making a Murderer)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-03-14 02:07 pm (UTC)One of the reasons to vigorously defend someone you know is guilty of murder is to make sure that the police have played by the rules in gathering their evidence and arresting the person they believe is guilty. The outcome of this process is hopefully that the police don't harass, arrest, and search the houses and belongings of innocent people who are just minding their own business. Sometimes the police make innocent mistakes. Sometimes the police go overboard in trying to nail someone who they think is a dirtbag who should be in jail. And sometimes somebody just manages to piss off the wrong person and attract negative attention from a corrupt law officer or from an entire department.
Because of that, everyone deserves a vigorous and effective criminal defense. It's part of the premise that "Better a thousand guilty people go free than one innocent person is wrongfully jailed."
Hell, even confessions can be complete BS. False confessions are often extracted via rubber hose, or under threat of avoiding the death penalty. Based on such a confession, it's possible to "know" that someone is incontrovertibly guilty of murder. (Example: Brendan Dassey from Making a Murderer)