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Applying Biblical Principles as a Public Defender
“How can you defend those people?” This question is by far the most common response I receive when I tell people I’m a public defender. It’s well-meaning from some but comes with pity or a hint of disapproval from others. After all, it seems obvious my clients are bad guys who’ve done bad things. To some, the guilty don’t deserve an advocate.
Others express encouragement and excitement that I get to defend “innocent” people. These cheerleaders recognize that my clients are poor and often mentally ill or drug-addicted. They’re frequently racial minorities who are victims of circumstances beyond their control that set them up for failure and all but guarantee their entry into the criminal justice system. To some, the disadvantaged deserve mercy.
Neither response fully characterizes the nature of defending the accused.
Gospel as the Starting Point
True, my clients—those people—undoubtedly are wrongdoers who are often guilty, at least of something. None of my clients is naturally righteous; they’ve all turned away, and not one of them does good (Ps. 14:3). They’re sinners. Yet at the same time, they’re fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s image (Ps. 139:14). Their God-given value survives their wrongdoing, just as a crime victim’s dignity withstands the harm she’s suffered. My clients are my neighbors, and they’re entitled to my love.
So how can I defend them? The gospel helps. More than a mere example, Jesus gives the power and strength to love and serve like he does. Jesus calls everyone to seek justice the way God does. And we read in the Bible that Jesus didn’t come to advocate and counsel a bunch of nice, good people who have no need for his perfect service. He came to save sinners who cannot lift a finger to save themselves (Matt. 9:12–13). He did so at infinite cost despite the recipients not deserving it. Borrowing from Clint Eastwood, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” God’s grace does all the work.
So the fact that some, and maybe most, of my clients have committed some wrong isn’t a barrier to them receiving my help; it’s the starting point for why they need it.
5 Biblical Principles for Criminal Justice
What does justice look like practically for the defense attorney? In his recent book Reforming Criminal Justice, Matthew Martens explains that Christians are obligated “to be neighbors to those in need with whom we cross paths when it is within our means.” He identifies several biblical principles—accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality—that guide love within a criminal justice context.
Since my job requires that I be a neighbor to my clients, these principles apply to my work.
1. Accuracy
God is a perfect Judge; he takes accuracy seriously (Prov. 17:15). He never overcharges, wrongfully accuses, falsely convicts, or acquits the guilty. He’s neither too harsh nor too lenient.
People, on the other hand, aren’t as impeccable in judgment. Much of defending the accused is truth-seeking. The government only has God-given authority to bear the sword against true moral wrongdoers, so before the sword is unsheathed, we must ask, Is the accusation true?
The government only has God-given authority to bear the sword against true moral wrongdoers, so before the sword is unsheathed, we must ask, Is the accusation true?
A concern for accuracy is near the heart of a criminal defense attorney’s job. It’s unjust to acquit the guilty, and it’s unjust to punish the innocent. To seek accurate judgments, attorneys must diligently probe for weaknesses or blind spots in an accusation while being honest with the accused about the evidence against him (the vast majority of people in U.S. prisons are men).
Prominent examples of demonstrably false convictions abound in the United States, even in the highest-stakes cases where the accused faces the death penalty. The defense lawyer—usually a public defender, since most criminal defendants cannot afford a lawyer—is the main line of defense against inaccurate judgments.
2. Due Process
It takes a process to get from an accusation to an accurate judgment. Defense lawyers must ensure the processes in place for securing accurate judgments are followed. A pernicious temptation often present in prosecutions or investigations is to dispense with “mere formalities” like constitutional rights, trials, and evidence. After all, the sentiment goes, the person must have done something wrong or he wouldn’t have been accused.
It’s true many of my cases look bad from their inception: sometimes it seems the accused has been caught red-handed. But processes are aimed at ensuring that even wrongdoers are judged rightly—that they’re only held accountable for what they did and that their God-given dignity is respected in the process. Even in history’s first trial, God heard Adam and Eve’s cases before imposing judgment (Gen. 3:8–13).
Process can be unpopular, but it’s good and necessary, especially given the extreme caseloads that public defenders typically carry. Process produces greater justice, not less.
3. Accountability
In nearly all my cases, my clients have fallen on hard times. Many defendants have suffered miserable childhoods, most are poor, some have been abused, and scores are gripped by addiction or wracked by mental illness. These realities make many transgressions understandable, though at times it seems some judges, prosecutors, police, and even defense lawyers are unmoved.
Still, some advocates for the accused can oscillate too far away from condemning and toward condoning. In their eyes, difficult circumstances predestine transgression and eliminate agency and culpability for criminal defendants. They claim the guilty defendant is the real victim.
But God holds truths in tension. And by his grace, so too can his people. Christopher Watkin’s concept of “diagonalization” is helpful here. Watkin says “the Bible disrupts the oppositions” that tend to structure cultural approaches to all sorts of things, including justice.
The defense attorney must avoid the potential blinders of advocacy that tempt one to call evil good. The guilty can warrant just judgment on the one hand and be owed fair and dignified treatment on the other.
My job isn’t to help my clients avoid any consequences for true wrongdoing (nor is it to prosecute them myself). It’s to make sure they’re treated justly; that they receive their due, which is love in the form of justice, even if love sometimes involves consequences for wrongdoing (see Heb. 12:6).
4. Impartiality
God calls people to judge rightly and not tilt the scales of justice based on outward appearances (e.g., John 7:24). Unfortunately, fallen humanity tends to elevate appearance over truth and prejudge disputes based on the parties involved. This temptation runs in many directions (e.g., Lev. 19:15).
God doesn’t judge that way. He looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). The judgments made within the criminal justice system typically don’t run that deep, but the defense attorney seeks to prevent those making judgments from looking only at the surface—appearance, poverty, or the mere fact of an accusation.
As Martens rightly identifies, race can play a role in whether an accused or guilty person receives his due. Partiality appears deep-rooted in our criminal justice system. I have no neat answers for how to combat this persistent problem, but surely the solution must start with prayer, action, and the heart changes that necessarily flow from the Holy Spirit moving among communities over time.
5. Proportionality
“Tough on crime!” “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime!” These sentiments are common, but are they just?
Process produces greater justice, not less.
Venting the retributive urge doesn’t reflect God’s justice (James 1:20; Rom. 12:19). Miroslav Volf reminds us that sin can twist today’s victim into tomorrow’s perpetrator: “If victims do not repent today they will become perpetrators tomorrow who, in their self-deceit, will seek to exculpate their misdeeds on account of their own victimization.” The degrading possibilities of utilitarianism fall short too (stoning for jaywalking would surely deter!).
Justice is about more than convictions. Martens notes, “A punishment is just, in the biblical view, because it is deserved, and what makes a punishment deserved is its correspondence to the severity of the wrong committed.” In wielding the sword, a government isn’t entitled to punish without boundaries. God doesn’t allow us to do whatever we want to wrongdoers, and as a defense lawyer I fight to protect against the temptation to do so. Even a true wrongdoer can experience injustice if he receives disproportionate punishment.
Toward Reconciliation
When God “sentenced” Adam and Eve, in real and profound ways they received the sentence he warned of—death. But with the punishment came God’s gracious offer of hope for future reconciliation and restoration. This proto-evangelium (Gen. 3:15) was an expression of God’s heart for humanity (Ezek. 33:11). He fervently seeks to win sinners to himself (Luke 19:10).
God charges his people with being ambassadors of this good news. The criminal defense lawyer, and everyone else, should seek to keep God’s goals at the forefront of our efforts to do justice. Eventually, cases end and the defendants, victims, lawyers, judges, and communities involved remain. A Christian approach to practicing criminal justice, in the courtroom or the community, seeks to ensure our neighbors can hear the good news more clearly than when the case began.
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