Triessl & Morris Thoughts & Views Blog...

HOW CAN YOU DO THAT?

My profession as a criminal defense attorney is definitely a fun cocktail party topic of discussion. Invariably, someone, or two, three or four, says, "how can you represent someone knowing that they’re guilty?"

First of all, let me say that I have never had an ethical problem representing anyone in sixteen years of criminal defense practice and I have represented all kinds of people charged with all kinds of crimes.

Second, if you are one of those people who has ethical pause about what I do, consider that those charged with crimes definitely want a criminal defense attorney who is not going to have any ethical issues about representing them.

And I don’t.

How can I do that? How can I represent someone charged, say, with premeditated murder?

I am charged with keeping all of my clients’ secrets. Everything he says to me is sacrosanct. Everything. Period.

It is the prosecutor’s job to prove that someone is guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Everyone charged with a crime comes cloaked with the presumption of innocence. It doesn’t matter if he was arrested. It doesn’t matter if a search warrant signed by a judge revealed blood in his house matching the DNA of the alleged victim. It doesn’t matter if at the close of a preliminary hearing, the judge decides that there’s enough evidence to hold my client to answer on the charges and that there is enough evidence to show that a trial should be held.

The presumption of innocence remains. In the United States, we are PRESUMED INNOCENT. I do not need to prove that my client is innocent, or anything else, for that matter. The U.S. of A. has already done the work for me in that regard.

Like other presumptions in the law, that of innocence is a rebuttable one. The prosecutor can rebut the presumption of innocence by proving that someone is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by budge or jury. If there is reasonable doubt, all that remains is the presumption of innocence.

Criminal defense attorneys ensure that the United States Constitution and the California Constitution are not ignored. We ensure that the prosecutor doesn’t cut corners. We ensure that the police don’t get to do whatever they please just because they wear a metal badge. We ensure that the judge and jury hear ALL the evidence and listen to the WHOLE story.

Think about it.

It would be a scary place indeed if criminal defense attorneys acted as pawns of the government, straw men and straw women, puppet attorneys with no teeth, no meat and no muscle. Criminal defense attorneys need to act to ensure, assert and orate your rights.

Do you have an ethical problem? You probably won’t talk about it with me in my office in Sherman Oaks after you’ve gotten arrested.

Instead, you’ll talk to me about how you are happy that you found me and that you feel comfortable knowing that I am protecting you through OUR side of the law.

The side that keeps everyone honest.

That’s how I do what I do.

STARBUCKS FRIENDS

So, I’m torn. A new Starbucks opened right down the street.

It’s convenient. There’s great parking. No one has made the switch yet so I don’t have to budget an extra 15 minutes into my morning if I want a **!!@@#&& skinny vanilla latte before court. In short, it’s lovely.

However.

I have been going to "my" Starbucks for about seven years. And, after a brief interlude with Coffee Bean when I was upset by the utter commercialism and cliché of Starbucks and decided that I was more of a Coffee Bean person, I realized.

I have Starbucks friends.

Now mind you, I don’t socialize with these people outside of my brief morning stints at Starbucks. I don’t send them holiday cards. I don’t invite them to my kids’ birthdays. They don’t know my husband.

But they know a lot.

They lived with me through both my pregnancies (don’t worry I drank decaf then). They are interested in my job and in what I do. We discuss politics and current events. When one of them was sick with clinical depression I entered his cell phone number into my phone and checked up on him periodically.

They are my Starbucks friends. And I’m loyal.

HOW CAN YOU MORALLY JUSTIFY DOING CRIMINAL DEFENSE WORK?

I get asked this a lot by people and they aren’t necessarily conservative Republicans.

We live, thank goodness, in a country where people arrested are presumed innocent, not in a police state. (People v. White (1954) 43 Cal.2d 740, 745, fn. 2). This presumption means that the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person arrested is guilty: IT IS THEIR JOB TO PROVE IT. The attorney client privilege means that anything that is told to me is totally confidential. (People v. Ledesma (2006) 39 Cal.App.4th 641, 694).

So, even if I know certain things, that doesn’t mean that everyone else, including the prosecutor, gets to hear about it. The prosecutor has to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt independent of what I know. The police have to do everything appropriately and properly, not searching and seizing anything they want to without regard for the bounds of the law. That’s why if I get a case dismissed, I get it dismissed because the state couldn’t prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, not because of a "technicality."

There is nothing immoral about what I do every day. I actually am the most legally moral since I make sure that everyone does what they are supposed to do within the law.


DOES THE SEX OF MY ATTORNEY MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

We believe that the fact of our sex works to our advantage in handling your case. We find that we are more compassionate, more caring, more global thinking in terms of your family situation. We find that due to this, we are able to more passionately and zealously represent you throughout your criminal case. (People v. Perez (1979) 24 Cal.3d 133, 148).

Also, there are certain cases where you should truly consider the sex of your attorney as an important factor. If you are a man charged in the rape of a woman or domestic violence against a woman, think about hiring a woman. If you are a woman, charged in a child abuse case against her kid, think about hiring a woman.


WE DON’T WANT YOU TO HIRE US IF YOU DON’T THINK THAT WE’RE THE ATTORNEYS FOR YOU.

We’re serious here. You must be completely and totally comfortable and happy with the criminal defense attorney that you select to represent you throughout your case. And if we’re not the ones, don’t hire us.

There are only a few protected relationships recognized by California. Wife and husband. Priest and penitent. Psychotherapist and patient. Attorney and client. You are hiring someone that you can tell everything to. You have to be comfortable and happy.

Do not hire someone that you are not completely sure about. And remember, money shouldn’t be the driving decision: it’s important, to be sure, but it shouldn’t be the only factor.

If it is, you won’t be comfortable and happy.


WHAT IS A CRIMINAL DEFENSE "MILL"?

I worked for a couple and it’s not fun. Waking up at 4 a.m., driving to Needles, driving to Barstow. Believe me, I don’t mind driving to those places, when I’m not working for a mill.

A criminal defense mill is a law firm who is in the business not of developing good relationships so that clients will come back if the need should arise again but of taking as many cases as possible and resolving them as quickly as possible so that the cycle can repeat: money in, case out, money in, case out, money in, case out. Think of the term "run of the mill." Two meanings: the running of the mill, the day to day grind. The second, average, whatever.

We are not a mill. We work a case for as long as we need to, in the best interest of the client. And if the need arises in the future, we get the phone call due to our handling of the last case. We take pride in the referrals we get because we know that we are getting that phone call for a reason.

Gives new meaning to "run of the mill," doesn’t it?


I AM A TYPE A PERSONALITY: I WANT TO HAVE ALL THE CONTROL. HOW DO I RELAX NOW THAT I AM GOING THROUGH THIS?

It is time to sit in the back seat and let us drive. We know that it is very difficult for you to let go. But we also know that you need to conduct your affairs, your business and your family while this case is going on. Be Type A in your affairs. But with your case, let us show our A. You ride in the back. We tell our clients to give us 95% of the stress of the case because we can take it. You have enough stress as it is.

You, as the client, are not objective: we are. This happened to you. We can look at the whole picture with a bird’s eye view, seeing it globally and determining what to do based upon everything and based upon our knowledge and experience in criminal law.

We are wonderful at keeping you abreast of what is happening at every moment in your case and we always take your calls and questions with pleasure. And you can rest assured that you have hired attorneys that you are comfortable and happy with and who will, at every step, protect your interests and only your interests.

Should you feel that your case is interfering with your life, if you are overly stressed and anxious to the point where you are not experiencing life as you normally do, if you have sleeping or eating disturbances or if you feel that you are just going through the motions of life without feeling any joy, think about calling your physician to assist you through this difficult time.


IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE THAT WHEN THERE IS A HUNG JURY THE D.A. CAN RETRY ME: WHY IS THAT?

Don’t get me started. It is totally against common sense, in my opinion. The Constitution requires that a UNANIMOUS jury find a person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. That means all twelve people sitting on the jury have to agree, together, that the person accused is, in fact, guilty.

If they don’t do this, they don’t do it. Twelve people have tried and have told the judge that it is impossible, that more deliberations would not get them anywhere: they are "hopelessly deadlocked." THIS IS NOT A UNANIMOUS JURY: this is not a jury wherein all twelve people, selected by both the prosecutor and the defense lawyer, found the accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This should, in my opinion, be the beginning and the end of the story: the jury should be thanked for their service, appreciated for their honesty and their hard work and the person accused should be released and the case against them dismissed. Instead, they are asked to try again, to try harder, to go back into the jury room. They are told, subtly and silently, that they have failed and to do better.

When there is a hung jury, the prosecutor gets to try again with a brand new jury to see if they can convict the second time. The defense doesn’t get the same courtesy: we don’t get to try the case again before a different jury should our result be less than favorable the first go round.

I ask you, how is this constitutional?