These are the moments that define your professional identity. These are moments which, if you haven't experienced, I say that you're not a full criminal defense attorney yet.
When I worked in Colorado, I had a really good internship with great people, and wonderful teachers of all kinds. I had a good caseload for someone of my limited experience, and did many, many things. Of those, a regular task was to make sentencing arguments for people who plead guilty to charges, in an attempt to get leniency from the judge who considered whether to sentence to the maximum of the negotiated jail term, or, hopefully, something less. After sentenced, I would regularly ask for a stay of execution for a up to a week or two - time before the jail sentence was to be served. This was often granted. Sometimes because of the facts of the case, or the client's history, the judge refused.
For a criminal defense attorney, this is an all too familiar scene. The judge orders the client remanded at the podium, and the deputies approach with handcuffs, and the client is taken away. I usually tried to get a phone number or someone's name to call to let them know what happened, and why wife, daddy, or daughter isn't coming home for a while. It's a bad feeling, and a bad call to make, but that sick feeling of despair for someone else is one of these moments I call a defining moment for a criminal defense lawyer.
I just found a new one, which is worse. Having the conversation focused on, "I'm not going back. I didn't do anything wrong, and that cop is framing me. I'm not going back to prison. I'm doing everything I can to do the right thing, to get my life on track. I didn't do anything wrong. I can't go back. I'll jump off a bridge first." That conversation is worse when you're looking at a borderline suppression hearing, and a borderline trial at best.
This makes me wonder how many more of these defining moments are out there.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
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