Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1912 — Should Not Seek to Acquit Guilty [ARTICLE]

Should Not Seek to Acquit Guilty

By CHARLES C. HUNTER

A lawyer should only seek justice for his clients. By obtaining an acquittal for a guilty man he has defeated justice. Suppose a lawyer knows his client is guilty, and if convicted the sentence must be imprisonment; but he obtains a verdict of acquittal. The client is turned loose on society, and commits other crimes while he ought to have been serving time for the first crime, is not the lawyer partly responsible for his crimes? The knowledge that they can hire great lawyers to defend them has given encouragement to criminals all over our land. It

is true, a lawyer owes a duty to his client, but if he knows the client is guilty he has fully discharged his duty when he has made clear all extenuating circumstances, if any there be, connected with the crime, and has made a plea for as light a sentence as the court can’pass for the crime committed. While the lawyer owes a duty to his client, he also owes a duty to himself, to his profession'and to society; he can best discharge these duties by laboring to obtain absolute justice for all.