Trumped-up justice

At this week’s presidential debate, Donald Trump invoked a child rape victim named Kathy Shelton and attacked Hillary Clinton for defending Shelton’s attacker, Thomas Alfred Taylor, in court. This is a pretty important case, but not for the reasons the Trump campaign claims.

The facts are these. Back in 1976, when Clinton was a young lawyer, the trial court ordered her to defend Taylor in his criminal case. Once she was appointed as his counsel, Clinton did her best to provide her client with a vigorous defense. Eventually, Taylor pleaded guilty to a lesser offense and was sentenced to five years, with four years of that suspended. Several years ago, she did a taped interview describing the case and her involvement with it. 

{mosads}First, let’s tackle the easy one: Trump’s claim that Clinton can be heard laughing at the victim in her taped interview. It’s simply false. She can be heard mildly chuckling at the some of the odd things that happened during the case, but she never laughs at the victim. 

Second, Trump attacks Clinton for asking difficult questions and for asking the court to order a psychiatric examination for the victim. What Donald Trump doesn’t appear to understand is that when you become the defense counsel for someone facing a criminal charge, you have an ethical duty to vigorously defend your client. 

This isn’t some vague notion of providing “good service” — it’s expressly written into the rules. You are required to act in the best interests of your client and you aren’t allowed to balance that best interest against the interests of the prosecutor, the witness, the victim — or even yourself. This sometimes means you have to ask uncomfortable questions and do uncomfortable things. Sometimes, it breaks your heart. But that’s the way the system is designed to work and it’s your sworn duty, so you put your personal feelings aside and do the best job you can.

But the most serious charge leveled by the Trump campaign is that Clinton agreed to take the case when she knew the client was guilty. And that is why this case is important. What I’m about to explain is one of the big reasons why the United States is the finest country in human history and not some third-rate banana republic, so pay attention.

The charge is simply unfair. The court appointed Clinton to the case, she didn’t ask for it. As an officer of the court — which all lawyers are — when a court orders you to do something, you do it. Period.

But more fundamentally, defending “guilty” people is one of the most noble things a lawyer can do. In America, everybody deserves a lawyer when they are charged with a crime, guilty and the innocent alike. When a defense attorney takes an unpopular client, he or she is acting in the very finest tradition of American justice. Public defenders — who often end up taking the worst of the worst cases — are some of the finest, most ethical, most committed attorneys around. Even prosecutors will tell you so. They take these clients, not because they think they are innocent or because they want to help child rapists get back on the streets, but because they know that by forcing the system to respect the rights of even the worst of us, they are defending all of us.

Donald Trump doesn’t seem to understand this, even though it is a principle so basic it is enshrined in the Bill of Rights. This worries me. It worries me a lot. Time and time again, Trump has demonstrated either ignorance or contempt when it comes to our legal system. Just tonight, he was insisting that, if he were to become president, he would make sure Clinton, his political rival, was prosecuted and sent to jail. But in America, the president does not have that kind of power. And if I have anything to say about it, he never will.

I detest Hillary Clinton. But in this case, she cannot be faulted. As a practicing lawyer myself who has, at times, defended indigent clients like Thomas Alfred Taylor, I can tell you that it is no fun working with criminal defendants, even under the best of circumstances. But no one is guilty until they are convicted. It is a great thing for a lawyer to guarantee that the legal system treats even “scumbags” fairly. That’s one of the things that makes America great already.

Truax is a practicing attorney living in San Diego, and is editor of HoldingOurNosesForHillary.com.

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