A criminal trial is never about seeking justice for the victim. If it were, there could be only one verdict: guilty.
I tell my students, if you ever become comfortable with your role as criminal defense lawyer, it's time to quit. It should be a constant source of discomfort, because you're dealing with incredible moral ambiguity, and you've been cast into a role which is not enviable.
Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Everywhere among the English-speaking race criminal justice was rude, and punishments were barbarous; but the tendency was to do away with special privileges and legal exemptions.
Hollywood studios bury that stuff - actors who punch directors in the face and try to run producers over with cars - insanity, criminal behavior. But the studios are invested in that star, they can't have that person's name dirtied up.
I'm not sure why, but I seem to be drawn to stories about abuses of power. But I'm also drawn, not so much to victims' stories, as stories that tend to show how power works. Because if you don't understand the criminals, you can't figure out how to stop the crimes.
I never took that stuff personally when people said I was too young, too inexperienced. I get politics. I get attack ads. But they said 'mobbed up family.' That we were criminals. That kills me.
The German government has taken energetic measures against the propagation of the defective, the mentally diseased, and the criminal.
I'm very mindful of the need to ensure we have a criminal justice system in which people have confidence.