Another Attack on Civil Liberties

This is from an editorial in the Washington Post. Apparently, if the Republican Attorney General of Virginia had his way, no one accused of a crime would be allowed to retain defense representation.

First, it is a duty of all attorneys to perform Pro Bono work. Every attorney is encouraged to do at least 50 ours of service per year. This is something that should be encouraged, not discouraged by society, and especially our leaders. If you politicize the court system, like Mr. Kilgore is attempting to do, you scare away attorneys who might give their time to defend such clients. Mr. Kilgore is an attorney and fully knows how the system works. Mr. Kilgore knows that a court appointed attorney is not the same as full time criminal defense lawyer. Attacking Mr. Kline for doing what he has sworn to do (represent all clients to the best of his ability and without judgment of his own) diminishes the judicial system.

Second, even if at some times it appears to be disgusting, one of the great things about this country is the fact that everyone accused of a crime is entitled to representation. While most who are accused are guilty, not everyone is. Without this right, our court systems would turn into the Spanish inquisition. The people of Virginia should be very wary of a man who attacks our fundamentals of a fair and just judicial system for political gain. Who knows what he would do for political gain if elected.

Mr. Kilgore's False Start(Link to Story)

JERRY W. KILGORE, the Republican attorney general of Virginia, apparently needs a refresher course on the Constitution. In attacking his likely opponent in the state's 2005 gubernatorial race, Democratic Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the attorney general said last week that Mr. Kaine "not only opposes the death penalty but actually represented death row inmates." As it happens, Mr. Kaine, a fair-housing and small-business lawyer at the time, acted as a court-appointed attorney to represent two Virginia death row inmates -- one in the mid-'80s, the other around 1990. He did so, he says, after much soul-searching and in the knowledge that lawyers are bound by the ethics of their profession not to reject cases simply because they may be unpopular. As an attorney appointed by the state Supreme Court, Mr. Kaine was fulfilling a public service.

Mr. Kilgore's inane accusation is an affront to the principles of justice he is sworn to uphold. It's no great shock that he embraces the death penalty; what's surprising is that, as the state's top law enforcement official, he would imply that there is something wrong with representing defendants or convicts in capital cases. In fact, the attorney general in Virginia, whatever his stance on capital punishment, should be applauding lawyers who agree to represent inmates on death row, many of whom have no defense counsel whatever.

Mr. Kilgore was also once a lawyer in private practice. We assume that all his clients were law-abiding paragons of righteous behavior, but for the sake of argument let's say some of them were not. Should Mr. Kaine then attack him for his former clients' transgressions? Of course not.