When I was a law student,
I read an article by a law professor, who is now a friend and colleague of mine.
But the first line of this article is in my mind for twenty-five years.
I have a trace in.
The first line is,
“Can a good lawyer be a good person?”
(Laughter)
I see you laughing, because you think in your mind that it is not possible.
(Laughter)
“Good lawyer can not be a good man”
Most of the time this question comes from the concept
How can you defend the guilty?
How can you defend a person who has committed a crime?
I will now tell you about one of my clients.
This client was charged with assault.
I must tell you that before he became a law professor.
I was a public prosecutor in Washington.
Many years ago. I defended a man accused of assault.
The main witness against him was a man.
John will call him. – I will not tell you his real name.
John was addicted to heroin.
It was a very close issue.
In the end, it was a wrap
Has to do with reasonable doubt.
In a Colombian state, the term reasonable doubt
Is “the doubt that can be built on a reason.”
It’s that kind of suspicion – they’re sticking out here –
(Laughter)
Reasonable doubt is the suspicion on which a reason can be built.
It’s a kind of doubt that makes you stop.
Or hesitate in areas of life of importance.
The kind of doubt that makes you stop or hesitate.
In important aspects of life
Then I said something like this:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the jury
Imagine that you are eating breakfast.
And bring your children to school. You pour some grain and some milk.
Little Johnny and little Sally eat.
It is a day like other days.
Then you take them by their hands and lead them to the bus
As you do every day.
When you leave home, you notice a change.
The bus is not here.
The driver is never late.
You wait and wait.
Suddenly ! You hear tire friction sounds.
At the front
And a trash can of neighbors.
And come to a complete stop in front of your home.
opening the door. But you notice that he is not the usual driver.
It’s John, a heroin addict.
You look at him and say, “Where’s the driver?”
He says to you – and began to feel his hands –
“I do not know, I do not know he is absent today, I am the one who will lead the bus.”
Then you look at him and you say
“Sir, you have a needle in your hand, do you have diabetes?”
He says:
“No, no, I’m not suffering from it, I’m addicted to heroin.
But, but, you can trust me “
ladies and gentlemen
If you stop or hesitate
In placing your child in that bus.
You have reasonable doubt.
You have an official duty of acquittal.
I will ask you a little secret.
The lawyer does not tell a story unless it ends with his victory.
(Laughter)
In that case we get acquittal.
As the LTC said, throughout my academic life
I freed more than 6,000 people who were unjustly imprisoned.
I have worked…
(clap)
As a small lawyer, I have made a great effort in that case.
I have thought about how to convince the jury and then I remembered
A quote said by Oliver Wendell Holmes during my training at the law school.
He said: “The life of the law is not logical
It is experience. “
“The life of law is not logic but experience”
This means that the language of the law
It is the life of individuals and their shared experiences.
I have asked the jury to be aware
There is reasonable doubt
I wanted that because I was sure
My client is definitely guilty.
That is what the Prosecutor is doing.
Sometimes they defend people
In fact they may be guilty.
In that case I was sure of that
This is why I do not remember any names.
But why do we do that?
Why do we do that?
I’m thinking of a young man named Willie Asteki.
It was an issue I worked on two years ago.
A young man was arrested when he was 15 years old.
Twenty-nine years later he and his colleague were acquitted.
It was in New York, they arrested the two boys.
They have been in prison for nearly thirty years.
Eventually they were acquitted.
But Willy Asteki could not leave the prison.
He could not because he died there.
He died at the age of 43 years from a heart attack.
He was innocent.
In order for all our rights to be
The rights of the innocent and the rights of the guilty are protected.
We must live in a system
In which we defend the guilty violently
Many of the extraordinary things have happened in the case of Willie Stocky.
The claim did not provide conclusive evidence
But what I want to highlight now
That his lawyer did nothing
We must insist
It’s our system
Note that lawyers have a bad reputation
In which lawyers do their utmost
Within the limits and scope of the law.
To ensure that everyone, regardless of the means.
Regardless of what they think, whether innocent or guilty.
They must do all they have
To ensure a fair trial.
As you can see, when I think of Willie Aestky
And twenty-one people we have acquitted in New York
Who were already guilty
Reminds me that
Justice does not fall from heaven as you know.
“Justice, ah, she is,” and suddenly he spoke.
Justice does not fall from heaven.
Martin Luther King has said that the arch of ethics of history is long
But he is bowing to justice
I want to adjust it a bit.
I say that the moral arc of history is long if people bend it towards justice.
For justice does not fall from heaven.
It is something that people do.
Justice is something that individuals achieve.
If so, could a good lawyer be a good person?
A good lawyer has to be a good person
Because lawyers have to fight for justice
Sometimes it may mean fighting for justice.
Fighting for people we believe to be guilty.
Otherwise there is nothing that can stop
Many innocent people were unfairly condemned.
I want to seal this.
We had a case in New York
In view of this, we saw it as a clear and finished issue.
There has been a witness who has witnessed:
“I saw
The accused and his group
In the lobby of an apartment building.
I saw the defendant come out with a gun then Boom!
Shoot the deceased.
The deceased huddled and then descended the ladder
He fell on his back,
Then he died unfortunately.
When police arrive. There was a big hole in his chest.
They conducted interviews and then arrested the accused.
That person spent two decades in prison.
They asked me to review the case.
It did not take a Harvard law professor to notice
There is a big problem.
All I did was look at the anatomy.
I looked at the autopsy report.
Do you know the big hole that seems to be compatible with a fire wound?
That was the way out of the wound, friends.
There was a small hole in the back.
That was the entrance to the wound.
There was also a bullet hole in the ankle.
We took him to the New York State forensic doctor.
They said two things, he said two things.
First, that person would have died immediately.
Second, the ankle was broken.
There was no one going down the stairs like a movie.
The way they were described was not real.
Then I looked at the pictures.
Again, a law professor at Harvard does not need to do that.
There was no blood inside the building.
This person was not shot inside that building.
After further investigation we have reached
The witness was not honest with us.
Twenty years later, we cleared that poor man.
But I bet you
I’m not sure
But I bet you that person’s lawyer
He thought the case was over.
Maybe he said, “This is a bad person
This is a guilty person
I will take over this case and I have a hand tied behind my back “
A poor soul spent two decades in prison.
Lack of interest lawyers.
I will end this, friends
Law is nothing
Just in our minds.
It’s not a small set of rules.
Law is something we and you do.
Law is something we – and you – must make.
In our experiences and the experiences of our colleagues.
Then we can get something close to justice.
Thank you very much.
(clap)
”
Be First to Comment