Is it hard to maintain your moral convictions as a criminal prosecutor?
I want to become a lawyer in the criminal prosecution field, but I am also a devout Catholic with strongly held morals. I know that as a lawyer you may have to deal with controversial situations on which you are not always on the "right" side. How do lawyers reconcile this or practice successfully without compromising themselves? #law #lawyer
4 answers
N’s Answer
Kim’s Answer
Joie,
I'm not sure what part of being a prosecutor would possibly go against your religious convictions - can you explain?
I'm not an attorney. However, as a police officer, it was my job to enforce laws I did not always agree with. I arrested people I thought should be set free. But that was not my decision to make. We all have a role to play. Police arrest, prosecutors prosecute, defense attorneys defend, juries deliberate, and judges rule. There is a psychological term called "compartmentalizing." You step into a role, and play that role, and while doing so, are not also being a parent, spouse, religious person, etc. You are just the prosecutor. Nothing more. All of your other identities are put aside. It's a way of focusing 100% on what you are doing.
Compartmentalization allows these conflicting ideas to co-exist by inhibiting direct or explicit acknowledgement and interaction between separate compartmentalized self states."Tangney. Leary, Mark R. Leary and Price, June, eds. Handbook of self and identity Guilford Press. pp. 58–61. ISBN - 978-1-4625-0305-6 cited on Wikipedia. I recommend you do some reading on compartmentalization. The human mind is a wonderful thing!
Warren’s Answer
Remember that we have an "adversary system," meaning that it was decided long ago that pitting the prosecution against the accused (represented by effective counsel) is the best method of searching for the truth and arriving at a just outcome. As a result, there really is no right side or wrong side to a controversy, because lawyers for both sides are doing their jobs well if they investigate, prepare, and advocate vigorously and honorably for their respective sides. That being said, a prosecutor who screens the cases carefully and declines to bring weak cases is performing a great public service. A defense attorney who fights hard but within the bounds of the law for a guilty client is not only serving that client, but also holding prosecutors to a high standard, one that might save an innocent person down the road.
Sonya’s Answer
'Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.” ― Sandra Day O'Connor First Woman on the U.S Supreme Court