[valkyrie]

Oh, who knew the day would ever come where I would agree with UF Pike?

Seriously, people, plenty of men (it's mostly men in my experience) are wrongly accused of crimes, either because of mistake or because the police are just plain wrong and want to get SOMEONE for a crime.

It doesn't bother me personally because I hear it all the time, but do we need the lawyer slamming? It's been very subtle in this thread, but I feel it lurking beneath the surface of some posts (and I've seen it in plenty of other threads recently). For real -- it is an attorney's job to do her best for her client. We're not all a festering blob of maggots writhing on a pile of shit looking for loopholes to get our scumbag clients out on the street again to abuse more children. If YOU were accused of a crime (especially one you didn't do) wouldn't you want an attorney who is going to do the best work for you? Whether or not you did it, it is the state's JOB to PROVE it beyond a reasonable doubt. Without safeguards (like good attorneys) in place, we wouldn't have a free society at all because the police could just round up people and throw them in jail whenver they felt like it -- and that could happen to YOU. Even when a defendant *is* guilty, defense attorneys are the ones working to ensure that the sentence is just. Believe me, sometimes state's attorneys want to impose sentences that are completely out of line for the crime committed. I see it every day.