Conflicts, Continued

toxic criminal-defense mindset yes yes yes

I wrote, in an email to a group of PDs:

“Should we do distasteful things because they would help the client” is a really interesting question.

Should we appeal to the base in our jurors' nature, making arguments that in our perfect world would not work? Absolutely.

Should we argue inferences to the jury that we know (because of our access to information that didn't come into evidence) to be false? Certainly.

Should we break the law for the client? Probably not (see Bennett's Law of Rules).

There are three things implicated here.

• We have the law (including the "ethical" rules) which we should generally not violate on the client's behalf (and which we are excused in not violating).

• We have our ethics or morals (generally not encoded in law).

• And we have our aesthetics.

Imagine that a prosecutor offers to dismiss a case in exchange for sexual favors from you. Assume that there are no legal obstacles to your complying. Assume that the prosecutor will hold up his end of the deal, but that…