Comments on: The Question: Seven Answers

By: Gloria Morris

Gloria Morris — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:03:50 +0000

I’m a former public defender. Some of my best friends have been prosecutors or former prosecutors.

My personal favorite answer to the question has always been the flawed system answer.

This was a great post. I would agree, however, with some of the comments here. Prosecutors have to wrestle with issues of guilt and innocence in charging and in plea bargaining, and many appreciate the defense attorney’s position. Indeed, many prosecutors go on to be defense attorneys. Further, I have seen some prosecutors forced to to go to trial by their superiors where the prosecutor wanted to dismiss the case on the basis of lack of proof/innocence. I know of at least 2 such prosecutors who left their jobs over such issues.

And, probably depending upon their locality, prosecutors can get asked a pretty damning version of The Question too. The public is savvy enough to comprehend that there are vast injustices within the system, and prosecutors get hit with that end of the questioning. How can they sleep at night knowing that they might be prosecuting an innocent person?

Great post!

By: Rich Wagner

Rich Wagner — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:05:50 +0000

Love the post: I’ve never thought of it with the labels. I think I am a cross b/w John Wayne and MLK. I love being a defense attorney. Love it!!!!

By: Lee Stonum

Lee Stonum — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:56:14 +0000

definitely a distinction. often, depending on my mood and what i perceive the sincerity of the asker to be, my answer is simply “because fuck you, that’s why.”

By: James McWilliams

James McWilliams — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:47:16 +0000

Responding to Erin: Nearly all Bible scholars, including many who say the adulteress story that Mark cited was not originally in John 8, still agree the story is authentic history from Jesus’ life. Further, the Bible elsewhere says Jesus is our “advocate” before God whenever we sin. If Jesus is a defense attorney, certainly other people can be.
On another note, John 8 doesn’t say whether the adulteress was the woman at the well or Mary Magdalene. My personal belief — after about 20 years researching the topic in Christian, Jewish and Gnostic writings — is that the adulteress was Magdalene, that she eventually married the apostle John, that he didn’t want to discuss her adultery without her approval while she was alive, and that he therefore saved discussion of it for a second edition of John 8 that he released later in life. Either way, Mark’s WWJD answer works.

By: Erin Downs

Erin Downs — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:32:48 +0000

Great post, and great answers. I love the John Wayne answer!

Just as a side note, the reason the woman that Jesus defended (often referred to as the woman at the well) is not in the book you quoted is that it was not in the oldest copies of the biblical texts. Many people believe it is extrabiblical.

By: Kris Howcroft

Kris Howcroft — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:49:53 +0000

I really appreciated the post, Mark, but I too have to question your inclusion of prosecutors as “lay people” less as a nit to be picked with this post, and more as a philosophy that seems to run consistent in your blog in general. Generally, your feelings about prosecutors make me feel sad. Either you’re so painfully irrationally anti-government that you can’t see your commonalities with prosecutors and that there are many who work hard to act in pursuit of the truth with genuine concepts of justice (including the potential for the rehabilitation of your client) at heart, or the prosecutors you’ve experienced are primarily lousy lawyers and people who just show up for the paycheck or are rabid zealots who should be put down. Your otherwise fantastic and intelligent writing seems to deny the former, and encourages me to assume the latter.

Which makes me sad. I saw much of myself and the reasons and the way I choose to prosecute in this most recent post.

By: Clay S. Conrad

Clay S. Conrad — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:28:14 +0000

My answer:

I prefer defending guilty people. Innocent people can’t tell me what happened, they really aren’t much help at all. In some cases innocent people are more likely to get convicted than guilty people. It is also more personal responsibility on me should they get convicted. And they get put through hell, and enormous expense, at no fault of their own. It could happen to anybody.

OK, Flawed System argument. The follow-up:

The only case I almost personally turned down, because it disgusted me, was a dogfighting case. I’m just overly fond of dogs. Then I reviewed the evidence and discovered that my clients (4 of them) weren’t guilty. Eventually, they all got dismissed.

By: Clay S. Conrad

Clay S. Conrad — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:00:05 +0000

Randy Barnett, now a law prof at Georgetown, quit his job with the Cook County, Il. (Chicago) prosecutor’s office for conscientious reasons, because the people he spent most of his time prosecuting were not the “bad guys” but druggies and the like.

By: Mark Bennett

Mark Bennett — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:29:19 +0000

I also omitted Lenny Frieling's our job is to do justice answer because a bad answer is worse than none at all. Please make sure Alex knows how to spell Bennett. Just in case.

By: Brendan Kelly

Brendan Kelly — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:18:48 +0000

You left out the “I really need to pay the Student Loans, and AMEX is calling again, and the car payment is due in a month” answer.

As a side note, I have to say I really really like the Judy Shields answer. When he became a teenager we had a talk with Alex and he was told that if he was ever arrested he was to say “I want to call my parents and talk to my attorney Mr. Mark Bennet.” Laura made him say it over and over till he got it memorized.