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 May 23, 2008 in 

Eight months down the road, this guy is still in jail. (Not the lawyer, though that would be appropriate, but the client he lied to in order to get the case.)

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3 Comments

  1. pro.victims May 23, 2008 at 6:44 pm - Reply

    I have no idea whether the client should be in jail or not (but if I were a betting man, which I’m not, but if I were . . . ), but I do agree that there is a breed of lawyer out there who thrives off people who are in dire straits, when the lawyer is wildly outside his realm.

    It’s not only dangerous for the defendant – it’s dangerous for the State (or the Government) too.

  2. Mark Bennett May 23, 2008 at 7:20 pm - Reply

    pro.v, welcome back! Where’ve you been?

    The moral question of whether the client should be in jail isn’t really part of the story.

    The law put him there; the law was surely going to keep him there for a while; the lawyer lied to him.

    There’s really no danger to the Government. Worst-case scenario, the guy gets writ relief (not bloody likely) and they have to reprosecute him a few years down the road. Ho-hum.

  3. pro.victims May 24, 2008 at 7:51 pm - Reply

    At bars mostly. Some in courtrooms, some in, well, bars.

    I think the story presupposes the moral question of whether he should be in jail. In theory, if he is guilty, he should be there regardless of how good or bad his lawyer was.

    However, I sympathize with the scenario where a person is duped into down-trading counsel (often at great financial expense). Many times I’ve seen a M.Ph. or a P.W. replace an appointed Jim Leitner or somelike. I just shake my head. I’ve never intentionally taken advantage of someone in that situation. But many times, I’ve had a good lawyer point out weaknesses in my case I didn’t see, which inured to a good result for the client. So, when a person in dire straights gets lied to, and they go for the “to good to be true” story . . . Well, that sucks.

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