As a criminal defense attorney, I am often asked, “how can you defend those people?” (Meaning, those convicted of crimes.) Normally that question is delivered with a large helping of consternation.
I have been practicing law in Texas since 1993. Most of that time my practice has involved some considerable amount of criminal defense work, and that included virtually everything in state and federal court.
I’ve represented people accused of every crime from serial murder, drug trafficking, cattle rustling (yes I did represent one person in a cattle rustling case), sex crimes, assaults, etc.
I will say from the beginning that while some of those cases were not pleasant, and some of those crimes were sickening, I considered it a privilege to represent every defendant.
Representing citizens accused of a crime in court is not advocacy for the crime.
I think you’ll find most criminal defense lawyers tend to have a heightened view of what’s just and right. It comes with the territory.
But it is advocacy for the constitution, for the rule of law, for our unique criminal justice/court system.
As folks like to say, it’s not perfect, but it’s better than all the rest.
I would go further to say, it is the best criminal justice system in all of human history, and I say that without reservation or hesitation.
In every criminal case in the United States, the citizen accused of a crime is entitled to several things: the right to a defense, the right to have an attorney represent him or her in advancing that defense, the right to remain silent, the right to be presumed innocent, the absolute right to require that a jury of six or 12 persons decide the case unanimously, the right to demand that the state or the federal government prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
If you’re interested to know how high a burden that is, one definition for beyond a reasonable doubt (there is no official legal definition anymore) is “that degree of doubt that would cause you to hesitate in acting in the most important of your affairs.”
Imagine, doubt, the size of a mustard seed, can be sufficient enough, if it’s based on reason, to find a person not guilty.
In other words, if one person on that jury has a reasonable doubt, even if every other juror disagrees, that is sufficient to bar the jury from finding that person guilty. (That’s likely to lead to a hung jury and perhaps a re-trial).
These constitutional rights, sometimes referred to as technicalities, are embedded into the American psyche. We cannot imagine a world in which a person can be summarily arrested, convicted and imprisoned, or in some cases, executed without the benefit of these glorious protections. Without getting too much into another issue, these protections are all based in biblical law, and the understanding that man is a fallen creature, that his perception is at times inaccurate, that his understanding is limited, and sometimes his motives are corrupt.
This constitution, this criminal justice system, is designed with those truths in mind.
Having said all this, I am proud and consider it a privilege to defend citizens accused of a crime.
I considered it a privilege to defend Matt McIlravy, to defend Andrew Ambrosio, to defend one of the J6 defendants, and to defend every other person I’ve had the honor and privilege to defend.
In defending them, I’m defending the greatest constitution, the greatest system, the greatest system of government ever conceived and ever developed in all of human history.
Again, I say that without hesitation reservation, and without an ounce of regret or shame.
In addition to the above, as if that wasn’t enough, I have a theological reason for why I do what I do.
In the scriptures, there is another system of accusation and defense, and in the Scriptures Satan is the accuser and Christ is our defender.
(I’m certainly not throwing any shade on my friends in the DAs office.)
In that scenario, we are guilty of everything that Satan has accused us of. Satan does not bring groundless accusations. We are guilty, and yet Christ willingly defends us. He defends us with a technicality that says that under the law, he has assumed our guilt, and that debt has already been paid and we have been given his righteous life.
That sounds like a technicality I am more than willing to accept.
I can think of a lot of great people to pattern my life after, or at least to try to pattern my life after, but I can’t think of any greater than Christ himself.
In the end without hesitation, without reservation, I am proud to defend my fellow citizens and to thereby defend the greatest nation on earth.
John Haughton is the managing partner of Haughton Law Group. He can be reached at [email protected].
