Should Lawyers Work Hard to Defend A Client They Think Is Guilty?

     As a saying goes, “all people are equal before the law.” Everyone is eligible to take a legal action to fight for their rights, including those who have committed crimes. Although some prisoners may have committed horrible crimes which leave victims serious psychological consequences, they still have a chance to vindicate themselves and seek for legal services. As a result, clients are able to apply their own lawyers in a court. This has been a controversial issue regarding: those criminals will receive their due punishments in the end so that those crown lawyers might not have to work hard on the cases. In fact, lawyers should work hard to defend criminals for the following reasons.

            To begin with, fighting for everyone’s rights by the law is lawyers’ most important responsibility. When lawyers detect a case, they should emphasize how they can deal with their clients’ problems efficiently rather than considering whether a client is guilty or not. In addition, a famous controversial question which is related to occupational responsibility is discussed: as a doctor, if your patient is a murderer, do you have to save this murderer? Theoretically, doctors have to save this murderer because doctors need to focus on their jobs, curing the patient before their eyes. Similar to doctors, lawyers’ job and obligation is to provide people with the best legal services. If lawyers do not obey their occupational obligation, they may be considered to cheat those clients’ commission. Therefore, no matter how heinous a person is, lawyers have to treat every criminal equally and help him/her as much as possible.

            The second crucial reason is that, each criminal case should be investigated through a serious and formal process which is called procedural justice. Taiwan has a strict judicial system. According to the constitution of The Republic of China, Article 8, before making a final judgement, judges have to take both prosecuting and defending parties’ accusation and rebuttal into consideration. In a court session, lawyers have obligation to answer judges’ questions towards testimony. If lawyers make an adequate assignment of a case, they can help judges to clarify the details of a case. In this case, judges are able to make a fairer decision towards both victims and defendants, and that is an ideal of procedural justice. Thus, lawyers should make an effort in following procedural justice to help either victims or defendants fight for the fairest judgement. 

     Some may think lawyers working hard for a guilty client is giving criminals a chance to whitewash themselves in a court. Sometimes, a client may not be totally guilty and falsely accused by someone else. In a Korean movie, ”Miracle in Cell No. 7”, a father who had intellectual disability was falsely accused of sexual assault by the pedestrians when he was trying to help an unconscious girl. However, due to his intellectual problem, he could not give his rebuttal. In addition, his crown lawyer did not work hard on his case. Finally, he was sentenced a death penalty. From this movie, we can learn that if a lawyer does not help defendants, a legal tragedy may happen. This kind of judgement does not correspond with the concept of procedural justice. As a result, lawyers helping defendants to whitewash themselves in a court can prevent unjust cases from happening under procedural justice.

     To sum up, crown lawyers should work hard to defend criminals for two main reasons: fulfilling the obligation of lawyers’ works and following procedural justice. Everyone is eligible to seek a legal help when his or her rights are invaded. Those who offer a legal service should be responsible for a client’s request. Everyone has to be treated equally under the law, and nobody has to sacrifice due to inferior legal support.