Section 20.4 Ethical Considerations

• Library: Criminal Practice 2012 Supp

IV. (§20.4) Ethical Considerations

Every lawyer will sooner or later be asked how it is possible to represent someone who is known by the lawyer to be guilty. There is obviously a notion in the minds of many people that only innocent persons should have the right to counsel. In reality, a very high percentage of all criminal prosecutions result in a conviction, and most of those convictions result from pleas of guilty. It is, therefore, a foregone conclusion that representing defendants in criminal prosecutions will entail representing a good many guilty individuals. It has to be kept in mind that Missouri has developed a criminal justice system that starts with the concept that all persons are presumed to be innocent, and the burden rests on the state to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. There is, therefore, clearly nothing unethical in protecting the rights of an accused in a criminal prosecution. The United States is a nation of laws, and over centuries of trial and error, it has been concluded that the rights of the innocent can best be protected by granting the right to a fair trial to all persons.

It is, therefore, the ethical obligation of defense counsel to rigorously guard a client’s rights. See generally David Mellinkoff, The Conscience of a Lawyer (West 1973), for a good discussion of the history and rationale of the trial procedures designed to protect the rights of the criminally accused.

An excellent starting point for an understanding of a lawyer’s...