IL: when a p.d.'s contorted with hate
Interesting stuff from Eric Zorn's Chicago Tribune blog, Change of Subject:
Standing up for rights isn't always pretty
Here’s a startling passage from author Kevin Davis’ new book “Defending the Damned ---- Inside Chicago’s Cook County Public Defender’s Office.”
“When I’m on trial and we’re in a truly adversarial proceeding, I hate the mother of the victim. I hate the father of the victim, I hate the children of the victim. I hate every part of it. It’s actually a terrible thing, but I can literally hate them when I’m fighting. I have to.”
The speaker is Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placek...
Uh, about that self-justifying "you have to" ...
I have known literally dozens of defense attorneys and have never met one who felt this way. Hate the lawyers on the other side of the aisle? Occasionally. But hate the victim? Never.
And more from the comments:
* Ms. Placek's "hate the victim" view is not the standard attitude for members of the defense bar...
* (G)ive Placek credit for, at the very least, being honest about how she does her job. We need hardworking public defenders, but I don't believe we need them "hating" the children and wives of murdered police (or murdered anyone). I wonder if she reflects on the damage her words cause to a family that's already suffered a loss that no one should experience, or if that's just part of the game she enjoys so much...
* Yes, EVERY litigant--even a guilty defendant--deserves vigorous representation. But they are not entitled to my soul, my conscience, my values. By "hating" the victim's family, the system is compromised. It does not improve representation, it diminishes the attorney, the system and society. All of us are a little bit less when winning becomes so important that one person, one attorney, is willing to hate and revictimize innocent victims...
I'm starting a manslaughter trial on Monday, and somehow I don't feel any hate toward the victim's family at all. I hope you all can still respect me as a p.d.
3 Comments:
Geez, skelly, you're so judgmental. Who cares if you hate the victim or not? This is a damn hard job and if that's how she gets through it, fine. She has your way and you have yours. I don't happen to hate the victims, either, but that's just me.
I don't know, maybe one reason could be because hating the victim and victim's family might not get them on board when you're negotiating for LWOP instead of the DP. Placek sounds like a winning lawyer, and good on her and her clients for it. She's certainly done about 197 more murders than I have, but someone's veered far off the eightfold path here -
"This was the kind of case she loved best -- high-profile, seemingly impossible, full of land mines, epic battles and headlines," Davis writes...
Says Placek: " 'If I lose, I'm devastated because it means I'm not good enough to win... I win for me. My ego is on the line. My whole existence is on the line... Winning is delicious.'"
and here -
Davis watched Placek defend a suspect in one of the city's most gruesome murders in recent history: A husband and wife had killed their baby daughter, dismembered her body and disposed of much of it by dissolving parts in battery acid or tossing them in a blender borrowed from a neighbor. Some body parts were breaded, deep-fried and discarded in a South Side alley for vermin to eat.
(O)ver margaritas, chips and salsa at lunch with Davis and other public defenders -- Placek, in a mixture of gallows humor and impolitic candor, referred offhand to the slaying as the "battered baby case" and the "Kentucky Fried Baby case..."
In an ad campaign for one of the local hospitals, a series of caregivers recite their personal creeds; one goes something like, "I will never forget that I am a part of a greater community." But hey, whatever gets her through it, right.
More on this, including a comment from the author Kevin Davis, at Public Defender Stuff.
Post a Comment