In several democratic countries, the accused are protected by the law that they have the rights to ask a favor of lawyers. However, this situation will result in a controversy. The question is whether lawyers should help defend the guilty person. Some people cannot accept that lawyers help these guilty accused, while others believe that lawyers should work hard to defend. In fact, we can see that some lawyers help those who may be considered guilty in the society. For example, the brutal

criminal Wang, who killed the little girl “small bulb” in 2016,

still had an attorney to help him.  To protect the human rights

of the defendants and to comply with their professional ethics,

lawyers should work hard to defend a client they think is guilty.

       

    

    

 

    First, Human rights is one of the primary reasons that lawyers should work hard to defend the accused. According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone should have human rights which can be protected equally by laws. Hence, the guilty person can also ask attorney for help. In addition, the defendants are just like the minority group in the society. In comparison with general people, minority group has fewer resources to express their thoughts and strive for their rights. For instance, Zheng Jie, who killed four people on the MRT in 2014. Even though this crime resulted in the anger of the public, we cannot limit his human right to look for lawyer. As a result, lawyers still have to help the accused to fight for the rights.

    What’s more, professional ethics is another significant point that lawyers should work hard for their clients. As a lawyer, they should maintain a fair as well as open attitude to face any cases. In order to analyze the situation objectively in any case, lawyers don’t believe the whole statements from others. To be more precise, they will spare no effort to investigate related evidence and to infer the probable situation from their investigation. In the report, written by詹婉如 (2018), she interviewed a lawyer, Huang. According to the interview, Huang said that a

lawyer must think independently and find out the

reasonable judgement. Sometimes the defendants are

even attacked by the false accusation. At this

moment, the duty of lawyers is to defend the accused.

Even if the accused is guilty indeed, lawyers have to

try their best to defend before the judgement.

After all, the professional ethics of attorneys not only

strive for the rights of people who are falsely accused but also the defendants who need for help.

    Some people may consider that lawyers don’t need to waste their time on the accused who was guilty. One of the important reasons is that the guilty people should be responsible for their behaviors. If someone commits a horrible crime today, he must face the music within the bounds of the law. However, the reality is not true as people imagined. According to Ministry of Justice in Taiwan, the accused must spend money hiring a lawyer. Without the attendance of the attorney, the court won’t be held by principle. Therefore, lawyers still have to defend the accused they think is guilty. Additionally, the defendant is a weaker role in the court. The existence of lawyer doesn’t help the accused escape from the punishment. Instead, they remind the judge to focus on the due process, such as fact-finding. Consequently, lawyers should spare no effort to defend their clients before the sentence.

    No matter who you are, people have the equal rights to be protected by the law. Even though the accused and their behavior cannot be accepted by mainstream opinions, the defendant’s lawyer still has to defend their clients. In addition,

the professional ethics doesn’t allow lawyer to make false

evidence or lie in court. They will need to be objective and

remind the judge to make an appropriate sentence. As for us, we

cannot just focus on whether the attorney should defend the

guilty person. After all, it cannot prevent the similar crimes

from happening again. Therefore, we can try to think about

what results in the crime. Meanwhile, we can also consider how

to enhance our legal system. Although the majority of people

may criticize the justice system, it is still necessary for lawyer to defend the client base on human right and professional ethic. Living in the democratic country, people should not only help each other solve the problem but also analyze any situation with objective angles.