Why do lawyers defend guilty peope and is it easy (conscience wise)?

There are many varying philosophies to answering this question. Some lawyers believe that regardless of the guilt or innocence of their client, that breaches of the 4th amandment are more heinous than the crime the client was ultimately arrested for. For Example: Are you willing to just throw a citizen's civil rights to justify arrests? I, for one, am not ready to cheapen one of the founding rights we are afforded as citizens in an effort to stop Joe Blow from smoking marijauana in his own home. I think the REAL question should be: How is it that we, as a society, let our civil rights get stripped away everyday underneath our noses? My opinion is that we are focusing on the wrong crime. Is it alright for a police officer to break the law to prove another is breaking the law? So in this sense, "guilty" is a relative term. I think personally, you can see where I stand. But I can honestly say this...It is not my job, nor my position, to judge. There are ALWAYS 3 sides to every story, and everyone deserves a competent defense. Just my 2 cents...Please feel free to email or contact my office if you ever wanted to discuss this further.

Everyone deserves a legal defense. The system demands it. Your question specifically asks why lawyers defend guilty people, but the first question to ask is how does anyone know who is guilty and who is not? Witnesses can be wrong, police can be wrong, circumstances can indicate the wrong person. It is the court system itself that determines guilt, so technically a lawyer is always defending someone accused of a crime but not yet found guilty of the crime. Otherwise, we would need only the police, which countless countries have tried over the centuries and have invariably found that the power that holds tends to be a corrupting influence. I assume you really want to know how lawyers defend someone who admits being guilty of the crime. There is a two part answer to that. First, the system demands that the government try to prosecute that person. And that prosecution will be fierce. That means that each and every individual prosecuted, even the guilty, have someone on their side, familiar with the rules and the laws, to ensure that they at least get a fair shot at the system. Someone ugly, or poor, or in a minority should not be treated any different that someone who has assets or who is from a more accepted class. Who does this? Lawyers. Lawyers have to defend as hard as the government prosecutes in order to be even close to the person getting a fair shot at the system. The second reason is a bigger picture reason. Historically, police powers tend to expand. Political enemies are targeted, etc. By defending everyone, defense lawyers act as a check on the system. They keep cops honest (well, at least as honest as we can!), they remind courts of the person's rights, they make prosecutors double check what they do before they do, and if possible, after they do it as well. Who else would perform this function?? The question is not: do criminals have too many rights? The question is: do you or your neighbors have too many rights? Of course, the answer to that second question is no. Anyone arrested is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and so they are just like you and your neighbors. They deserve a defense. They deserve fairness from the system. They deserve the laws that help them as well as the ones that convict them. Similarity, the police need to know that if they break the law, by entering your home without a warrant for example, that some lawyer will call them on it. Defense lawyer perform all these functions. Hopefully you will never a defense lawyer, but if you do, you will suddenly find that they are the only people willing to listen to your side, and to stand up for you against those who are trying to condemn and incarcerate you. Do you deserve that defense? Yes. Are you guilty? I don't know, so I will defend you and let the system work. And if I know that you are guilty, I will ensure that you are not unfairly treated or punished even as you get convicted. That is always a worthy thing to do and I sleep well at night knowing I do it to the best of my ability every day. Of course, the system does indeed convict those who are innocent from time-to-time. To catch those folks, we defend everyone - how else are we to know who is lying to us when they say they didn't do it? Who knows what is in someone's soul? The system says it doesn't matter: once a prosecutor makes the decision to go forward, a defense attorney is needed to keep things fair. For each and every person accused. Our system is far from perfect - but it is the best in the world and I believe that. If you think you can improve upon it, I urge you to do so. Until then, defense attorneys are a key ingredient to ensuring a functioning system with the fewest hiccups, fairest outcomes, and the least injustice humanly possible.

I always said I would not practice criminal law. Then I came across a case with four constitutional violations for a misdemeanor crime. Now I know why it's important to have criminal defense attorneys.