The job of a defender is to hold the judicial system to a high standard, to ensure the prosecution does its job properly and to provide a counterweight on the scales of justice.
If a criminal walks free, it’s not the fault of the defender, but of the prosecution if they failed to find convincing evidence of his guilt.
Coversely, if an innocent person does get convicted, the defender failed to effectively refute the evidence.
Of course, this idealism doesn’t hold if the system is fucked by crooked courts, biased judges and competent, committed counsel being unaffordable to poor people, but that also doesn’t mean the defender is to blame for playing their part well.
The job of a defender is to hold the judicial system to a high standard, to ensure the prosecution does its job properly and to provide a counterweight on the scales of justice.
If a criminal walks free, it’s not the fault of the defender, but of the prosecution if they failed to find convincing evidence of his guilt.
Coversely, if an innocent person does get convicted, the defender failed to effectively refute the evidence.
Of course, this idealism doesn’t hold if the system is fucked by crooked courts, biased judges and competent, committed counsel being unaffordable to poor people, but that also doesn’t mean the defender is to blame for playing their part well.