Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a lawyer. I joined my high school debate team and even took part in moot court competitions with this goal in mind. I made all the necessary plans to go to law school and practice as a civil or criminal lawyer.  One day when I was with my grandma she asked me “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I didn’t even need to think twice I said lawyer! She told me to be a good lawyer and then asked me “what will you do if you have to defend someone that’s guilty?” To this day I couldn’t answer this question. Therefore, I changed all my plans since the thought of letting someone guilty get away without being convicted didn’t sit well with me.

I wanted to find an answer to this question with this in mind I attended the Rose café with Justice Scott Miller, who was a judge of Tompkins county. He briefly spoke to us about his time at Cornell and how he went from being a defense attorney to a judge. Then he opened the floor to questions. This was when I decided to ask the question “does your conscious keep you awake at night when you defend someone whose guilty?” but someone else beat me to it. I was glad to find out that I wasn’t the only one troubled by this.

Justice Scott Miller said that to him after being a defense lawyer for a while and now a judge what really keeps him awake at night is when the Jury convicts an innocent person. He told us how he had defended many people who he thought were guilty. One client of his had even confessed to him that he was guilty but he still wanted to go to trial because it was his civil right to go to trial. He told us how it’s not up to the defense lawyer to decide whether the person who he knows is guilty should be convicted or not. Unless, the US government can find enough proof to convict someone they are innocent until proven guilty. He also told us how during your career as a lawyer there will be many who you think are guilty or who you know for sure is guilty that you will have to defend and some will get convicted and some won’t. But what will really keep you up at night is when you defend someone who is innocent and you know is innocent but then is convicted.

This was a good enough answer to the question I couldn’t answer for a long time. The idea that a lawyer like any other professional is simply doing their job whether they are defending an innocent party or a guilty party. It’s the job of the government to find enough proof to convict someone whether they are guilty or not.