25 Attorneys Talk About The Most Sickening Criminals They Were Forced To Defend
"A guy who killed another person in a road rage incident and shot his dog. Strafed bullets across the windshield to scare the guy's wife then went home and went to bed."
Defense attorneys are forced to deal with heartless murderers and child rapists. Here are some of the worst cases these attorneys on Ask Reddit have ever been given.
1. He raped his stepdaughter and recorded it
“Worst had to be the ‘gentleman’ who spent years raping his stepdaughter. He videotaped it, so we had to watch at trial. We knew the reason he insisted on going to trial because he wanted to see video again.” — gettinareallawyer
2. He pointed an AR-15 at a police officer
“Oh. I also had a guy stand out of a sunroof and point an AR-15 at an undercover cop. Guy was on probation when this happened.
Co-worker represented a guy that beat and burned a kitten and recorded it. She had to watch the video and she came to my office crying after. Fuck that guy.” — schubox63
3. He beat his partner to death with his fists
“Lawyer who did criminal work experience whilst training:
I was part of the legal team that defended a man who killed his partner by beating her to death his fists in their living room. We argued diminished responsibility ie he was only guilty of manslaughter not murder as at the time of the assault he lacked the relevant mental capacity. Jury found against him and he was sent down for 25 years. Last thing he said to me was that he hopes he gets to go solitary with his guitar and that he would be better than Eric Clapton by the time he ever got out.
Edit: This is a UK case and the client had been in and out of prison all of his life so I assumed that he would know if he was allowed his guitar whilst inside. I took his word for it at least.
The jury didn’t believe that his previous and ongoing psychological problems well evidenced by expert witnesses had an effect on his mental state to such an extent that he lacked the mental capacity to commit murder. They believed that he committed the murder because he wanted to either kill or cause serious phyical harm to his partner at the time. This is the mens rea for murder in the UK.
No I don’t feel bad about assisting in his case. He was innocent until proven guilty and in the UK we have equality of arms in criminal cases ie his legal team has the same resources as the prosecution’s.” — ELPLRTA
