Being a Christian in Criminal Work

Criminal law and criminal lawyers often get a bad press. The criminal law is seen by the public as failing to provide the total protection from burglars, rapists and murderers that the public as individuals would want, while, on the other hand, it is thought to introduce so many restrictions on speeding, singing in the street or paying of income tax as to interfere with their individual enjoyment of life. Criminal lawyers are seen by the same public as turning black into white, portraying criminals as honest men and earning a fortune in the process. By contrast, criminal lawyers are seen by other lawyers as over-worked, under-paid and therefore last choice as a speciality.

So, in all this, can there be room for a lawyer with a Christian belief in a loving and redeeming God and an application of Christian standards? 'Physician, heal thyself', I hear you cry!

Let's look first at some common questions and misconceptions about lawyers and the criminal law.

The first great misconception is that criminal lawyers only defend. That cannot possibly be true. 50% of each criminal case is the prosecution of it and in England and Wales most criminal lawyers do both prosecute and defend. And it follows, that if a barrister or solicitor undertakes a prosecution then he must conduct it to the best of his ability. To prosecute, though, does not mean to persecute and get a conviction at all costs. It means being fair and reasonable, presenting difficult evidence where necessary but not relying on evidence that other statements suggest is unreliable. It means on occasion balancing public interest in a prosecution against the effect of prosecution on an individual, as in the case of an elderly lady caught shoplifting or a young person bullying others. Above all, a prosecutor must remember the old adage: 'The prosecution win no victories and suffer no defeats'.

The first question asked of a lawyer who defends is always: 'How do you defend someone you know to be guilty?' Let me try to give an answer.

A barrister defending in the Crown Court gets copies of the statements of the prosecution witnesses, a solicitor defending in the Magistrates Court gets either those statements or a summary of them. That gives a picture of the strength of the prosecution case. For example, a burglar has been caught on the premises with his finger-prints on the safe and later when interviewed has admitted burglary. In those circumstances the only possible advice can be that on the evidence he will be convicted and that if he is guilty he should plead guilty. And in overwhelming cases such as that he, or she, usually does.

In other cases however the evidence may not be so overwhelming. There may be fingerprints on the safe and after the man has been arrested in his own home and taken to the police station he has made admissions. The evidence looks strong and hearing only that most people would say 'Guilty'. To his barrister he may say: 'Look, my fingerprints are on the safe because I work there and I only admitted burglary because I was frightened and I thought that if I admitted burglary I would get bail and so get home more quickly'.  That explanation may or may not be true but it must not be for the barrister or solicitor to decide whether it is true - that is the function of the jury in the Crown Court or the Magistrate in their court.

So the role of the lawyer is to advise where a case is overwhelming and to present the explanation where a defendant says 'Not Guilty'. In the words of the question, a lawyer does not know that a defendant is guilty, only the defendant knows that, but if the evidence points overwhelmingly to guilt then the lawyer's duty is to tell him so.

The next question most commonly asked of a defender is: 'Can you defend if you find the crime repugnant?'

My answer is yes, unashamedly and in all circumstances yes. There are those who may say: 'I could never defend a rapist or a child-molester'. For that matter they may say: 'I could never prosecute a shoplifter'. But if a lawyer has freedom to pick and choose clients or cases in that way there is a danger that a person charged with an unpleasant crime may find no-one prepared to defend him. And by leaving a particular defendant without representation lawyers would be practising a form of discrimination every bit as ugly as one based on colour, creed or sex. Remember too that a person charged may not have committed the crime. How terrible to find yourself rejected by those who could advise and represent you merely because of their personal emotions.

In all this, there has been no talk of witness, repentance or conversion, and for very good reason. A defendant in court is concerned about his case. He is not concerned about the weather, football dr the state of his lawyer's soul. However many cases there may be in the court list that day, he has not the slightest interest in any but his own. His future may very well depend upon his lawyer's abilities and he knows it.

The greatest witness that a lawyer can give is to do his best. It may by that afterwards there can be talk of other more spiritual things. Not always, not even often, but on occasions an opening is provided.

Is there any job satisfaction for a Christian in a world of criminals and crime? Most certainly there is. Our Christian understanding is based on our own personal failure and unworthiness of God's love. We know that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Yet we also know that as individuals we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and that he is the propitiation for our sins.

A Christian defender with the spiritual understanding that man fails to keep not just God's standards but human ones as well has the rare opportunity to represent another human being. He can, by his ability to tease out the complexities of evidence or to mitigate for a more lenient sentence, affect the future of the person he is representing. Of course, lawyers do not serve the sentence as Christ did for us but their very role of representing others seems to me to be one of the highest callings known to man.

There is inevitably a price to pay.  Exposure to the worst in human behaviour makes one unshockable.   It becomes easy to disbelieve what others say, purity is sullied.  Thankfully the same God who redeemed us is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless in the presence of his glory; even a criminal barrister like me.

The writer is a Barrister at Law with a criminal practice.