Conflict of Conscience

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If you were a defense lawyer and had to defend someone you know is guilty, could you do it? How? Now, I'm of the belief that it is, by LEAPS AND BOUNDS, better to let 10 guilty people go free than to punish one innocent. It is that belief that fueled my desire, from 5th grade through 10th, to study law and become a defense attorney. Only a life changing musical experience changed the course of my passion and life and I ended up studying music in college. Anyway, I am listening to the radio and there's this retired defense lawyer who had to defend a horrible, disgusting, monster of a man. And I'm listening to the details and listening to one of the dead victim's mothers tearfully relive this trauma that happened back in '73. And amidst her tears, and while listening to a tired old defense lawyer recount his role in her suffering, I'm scolding the radio - OUT LOUD - saying basically that that role is sacrosanct, and that attorney client privilege is inviolable. I'm listening to this horrible situation in which the police and the DA are trying to solve these cases, and the defense lawyer has to choose what is the greater moral good, or better, the lesser evil. And I can't bring myself to get past the thought "but what if somebody ever wrongly accused me?"...and that seems to be the nucleus of my fear that if a lawyer ever had to sell me out (or compromise ANYONE'S liberty and justice!), that the greater wrongdoing would occur. The Constituion covers this stuff, not least or limited to the right not to incriminate yourself (the Fifth Amendment), and the right to due process (the Sixth Amendment) which includes the right to a speedy trial, the right to confront your accuser, and the RIGHT TO LEGAL COUNSEL. That right disintegrates if defense lawyers have to compromise their effectiveness by considering the victims and even the greater societal impact! Ugh. So glad I studied music!