I just noticed that he wore the same shirt on the past three court dates.
He drives me absolutely insane, but he wore his nice shirt. Because he probably has only one.
He tap dances on my last nerve, but I'm so proud? humbled? pleased? to be his lawyer. I'm glad that something pushed through the barrier of my annoyance and tapped me on the shoulder to remind me that yeah, he's a huge pain in the ass, but he's a human being who has a lot of life battles, and I'm so glad that I could stand by him. Because the prosecutor with the shiny shoes and the judge with his season tickets and the detective with his nice suit and badge will come in, and I get to be the only one privileged enough to fight for the guy with only one nice shirt.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me be your lawyer.
I only have one nice suit.
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7 comments:
This is terrific. I want to repost it everywhere. I know you've been wondering if there is some other work out there for you, but maybe you're right where you need to be. I doubt any attorney in my office could have written this, could have felt it. We -- public defenders, our clients, society -- need more people like you. How about you send this to NPR and you can be our anti-Slameka?
Yes! Please send to NPR.
I only have 2 nice suits. Makes me worry when I have to report a trial out for more than 2 days.
Short but sweet. Great post!
Thank ou for reminding me why I'm a public defender and proud of it!
ditto what all of my colleagues above have noted.
Cook County, Illinois assistant public defender checking in, here. Well said! That's a very succinct statement of what it means to be a public defender.
Yeah, we don't get paid really well. Yeah, our clients have a hard time presenting well for court (or even brushing their teeth and taking a shower, sometimes). Yeah, it's going to be a tough climb up that mountain to fight the police officers' statements, to contest the chemist's findings, and to require that the state actually *prove* the case.
But we're going to do it, anyway. That's why we're here.
Aaah, yes. Right on. What everyone else said.
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