To me, this essay betrays an embarassing lack of understanding of our adversial system of justice. If he was proposing another system of justice, fine, we can evaluate it. But to say that defense lawyers are personally responsible for their clients that are found not guilty shows a complete lack of understanding of our system.
"...shows a complete lack of understanding of our system.I disagree. I think it shows that many lawyers, as individuals, are willing to be accessories to crimes.
Defense attorneys are generally scum, UNTIL YOU COMPARE THEM TO PROSECUTORS who hide evidence favorable to the defendant, lie, overcharge crimes in order to convince an innocent person to plead guilty to a 'lesser crime' rather than risk conviction, stack charges, put witnesses on the stand whom they know will lie, trade the perjurous testimony of prison inmates for promises of lesser sentences or favors while in prison, and the list goes on.
A defense attorney's job is not to get a guilty person off; his job is simply to make ensure the prosecutor does his! If a guilty person gets off, it is almost always because the prosecutor failed to do his job properly.