Why Defense Attorneys Matter By Andrew Cohen

A defense attorney is the advocator to the accused. In his defense, the attorney will advise him or her as well as to make sure their rights are not violated. According to the American Bar Association they must also give quality representation, and not misinterpret any facts or laws to the court or to the accused. Andrew Cohen from “Why Defense Attorneys Matter” explains that even though the accused is unpopular, or despised they need to have representation for our Constitutional principles to succeed. We must try to hold the police and prosecutors accountable, defense attorneys can be related to the Bill of Rights because, the Bill of Rights was designed as a counterbalance to the enumerated power of the government that was listed in the
It’s what our justice system is all about, we are all innocent until proven guilty. The accused are just accused of doing that crime or offense. Having a good defense is needed if you are innocent. Or what if the accused is mentally ill? Going to prison for your offense is doing time for the crime, but you need help medically. If a good defense knows you are mentally ill they can claim “not guilty by reason of insanity”. McNaughton Rule is used for insanity defenses, saying the defendant does not know right from wrong. The defendant does not go to jail, but goes to a mental institution to seek medical help. A defendant can be innocent if they acted only in self-defense. According to NOLO.com “Defenses to Criminal Charges” most self-defense crimes are involved with battery, assault with a deadly weapon, or murder. The defense can argue who the aggressor really was, or how much force the defendant used and if it was reasonable. Matt Ferner from the Huffington Post says that in 2015, 149 people were cleared for crimes they did not commit. 40 percent of those that were cleared was because of misconduct, around 20 percent were false convictions, and over 40 percent were guilty plea bargains (Ferner, HuffPost). Without having a good defense many took a plea bargain which caused them to go to
Many people can’t afford their own lawyer. While we wouldn’t have had public defenders if it wasn’t for Clarence Gideon, most public defenders do not have as much resources as a lawyer in their own firm. Gideon was a criminal but in 1961 was accused of breaking into a pool hall in Florida (Historic Missourians). He could not afford an attorney and Florida only appointed an attorney to defendants accused of capital crimes like murder. Being uneducated, with zero background of law he was found guilty. He later fought to the Supreme Court, which they appointed a lawyer for him. He would later be acquitted of his crime and the Supreme Court ruled that everyone has the right to an attorney, even if they can’t afford one. Public defenders today do not have the same amount of resources that a private lawyer has. They also deal with multiple cases and they cannot focus on every single one of them like a private attorney can. A private attorney can have at most 5 cases but charge a lot per hour for them. People that can afford an attorney normally seek out to private firm because they know what to argue, how to get the charges dropped and that is why they cost a lot. Look at OJ Simpson he had the “Dream Team” of lawyers, and he was found not guilty of murder. Being able to have a public defender is a necessity in a court room, the luxury is being able to afford a good