According to the email sent by the DUI defense lawyer:
“they won’t have anyone there to testify how much you had to drink. You won’t be charged with perjury. I’ve never seen them charge anyone with perjury, and everybody lies in criminal cases, including the cops. If you want to tell the truth, then we’ll just plead guilty and you can get your jail time over with.”
(Nate Morabito, “Tri-Cities Attorney Arrested For Contempt Of Court”, News Channel 11/Tricities.com (Tenn./Va.), Nov. 30). It’s almost unheard-of for lawyers to be prosecuted for telling clients to lie on the stand — see here, for example — but it looks as if it may happen this time. (via Volokh who got it from CrimLaw)
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They’re applying the law…? To LAWYERS??!??!? What IS the world coming to?!?
They aren’t mad because he told his client to lie. They are pissed because he told the truth “everybody lies in criminal cases, including the cops.”.
The highest duty an attorney has is “candor toward the tribunal” or honesty to the Court. As officers of the Court, we cannot lie to the Court and we cannot instruct our clients to lie. Our system of justice, as flawed as it may be, would implode if perjury or the subornation of perjury went unpunished.
Duqlaw98,
The only problem with what you said was the verb tense.
(Hint: notice above, “It’s almost unheard-of for lawyers to be prosecuted for telling clients to lie on the stand”)
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