Jailing Attorneys For Doing Their Jobs

In many countries, lawyers, targeted by police and government agents, are jailed and even murdered for doing the same work we do. 

Every job involves working with people you like and some you don’t like.

As criminal defense attorneys, not only do we have to deal with snarling judges and smug prosecutors, but also with clients who present a gamut of challenges like anger issues, poor impulse control, volatile personalities, mental illness, poverty, and limited intelligence.  To make matters worse, our job is to help them at their nadir when they face criminal charges and imminent loss of liberty.

Some clients are hostile and untrusting.  Yet even when there’s hostility between the lawyer and his client, that doesn’t mean the lawyer can get off the case.  In one recent example, the New York Appellate Division found that even where the defendant and his attorney were openly hostile, the lawyer could not be relieved because the hostility was “unjustified toward his competent attorney.”  (People v. Ventura, 1st Department)

In other words, no matter how unpleasant a client may be to his lawyer, that lawyer might still have to stay on the case.  I suppose judges think the client is just as likely to treat the next attorney the same way, so rather than forestall the adjudication of the case indefinitely, the attorney assigned keeps the tough defendant.

I’ve rarely had clients so nasty I asked to be relieved.  I think it’s all a matter of approach, but in the couple of times it’s happened, I managed.  After all, tough clients go with the territory. They’re annoying but not fatal.

Lawyers in less democratic parts of the world have it a lot worse.  Their clients can be tough, too, but they have another fear — the government itself.  In many countries, lawyers, targeted by police and government agents, are jailed and even murdered for doing the same work we do.

In Manila, Philippines, last fall, 56-year-old attorney Benjamin Ramos was killed by motorcycle-riding shooters on his way out of the office.  His crime was helping poor people and political prisoners.

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In a speech to police, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that lawyers investigating the deaths of drug addicts and dealers were obstructing justice.  He then added, “If they are obstructing justice, you shoot them.”  Ramos was the 34th lawyer killed since Duterte became president in 2016.

Then there’s Pakistan.  According to a Washington Post article, 60 lawyers, all from Baluchistan province, were killed during an explosion at a hospital in August 2016.  The attorneys were there to visit another colleague who’d been shot and who later died.  According to the article, an entire generation of lawyers from Baluchistan’s capital city, Quetta, were killed in that one blow.

What can we do from our position of relative ease to assist other lawyers not so fortunate — attorneys who stick their necks out to represent political prisoners, alleged terrorists, and civil-rights crusaders?

I learned about PEN America several years ago through a friend when they were hosting a reading of prisoners’ writings from around the country. PEN works to support writers from all nations, many of whom are incarcerated for daring to express their opinions.

In a recent newsletter wrapping up the year 2018, PEN focused on writer and human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, imprisoned in Iran.  Sotoudeh was arrested in June 2018 for what the government called “propaganda against the state and assembly and collusion to act against national security.”  She was sentenced to five years in prison.  Her crime: she’d been working on politically sensitive cases like defending journalists, writers, and other artists who, the government said, spread anti-government propaganda.  Her work also included defending prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were under 18 and representing women charged with violating Iran’s law compelling women to wear veils.

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To support Sotoudeh and others like her, PEN has facilitated a letter-writing campaign, “Freedom to Write.” They encourage people like us to click the link on their website and write something to Sotoudeh to let her know she’s not alone. A multitude of letters could also persuade the government to release her.

We criminal defense attorneys in the U.S. may not be well paid.  Our egos get bruised (we often lose). Our clients are treated with the presumption of guilt rather than innocence. We sometimes are disrespected by the very people we represent.  But considering the freedom we have to do our work without fear of reprisal or even death, I’d say we’re pretty lucky.

It’s a nice idea to help other attorneys who don’t have it as good.


Toni Messina has tried over 100 cases and has been practicing criminal law and immigration since 1990. You can follow her on Twitter: @tonitamess.