L gets oriented.

Public defense work is hard to justify. 

Consider a world made of simple archetypes: the Good Guys and the Bad Guys. There must be occasions when a Good Guy is mistaken for a Bad Guy, and a public defender does his job and rescues the Good Guy. But these occasions must be rare, a public defender is one who defends a fair share of Bad Guys as well. And a good public defender is one who can set the baddest of Bad Guys free. In this world, then, the public defender must be two men in one: the Good Guy who saves Good Guys, and the Bad Guy who saves Bad Guys. 

But we do not live in such a world; ours is far more nuanced (and, quite frankly, I don't believe in good or bad.) Public defense has a very real purpose: to force the government to meet its burden of proof. The results vary: an innocent man may be set free, but a guilty man may be set free as well. 

I think in reality, though, despite all of this philosophy of rule by law, fair governance and burden of proof, public defense work is all about humanity. It is social work, if anything. 

The work done by the public defense is an expression of faith; whether or not one believes in the innocence or guilt of a client (i.e. defendant or alleged perpetrator) is negligible. The public defender believes not in guilt or innocence, but the dignity of man and the humanity that lies within the client. With that comes respect for the client's rights as a human being and faith in his inner humanity. The work done-research, investigations, evidence gathering, etc-is not done for the court or for the prosecutor, but for the client. The defense work and effort that is demonstrated in a trial shows the client that although he may feel inhumane-alone, alienated, untrusted, undeserving, and unwanted-there is at least one person in the world who has faith in his humanity. The respect accorded to the client is respect for his rights as a human being and the acknowledgement that all humans must be treated with a certain dignity. 

We all make mistakes. And whenever I have made one, I am always reminded of true friendship and love from those who have acknowledged my failings as a mistake and not an fundamental flaw in my character. When we fail, I think we all need someone to honestly say, "I still respect and love you." My friends and family have always done that for me. And I think that's the role of the public defender: to love a fallen man's humanity. 

(One week today exactly, and no J.)