Gisele Pelicot said she was reacting to remarks by Guillaume De Palma – one of the lawyers for the defence – who told the court that “there’s rape and there’s rape” in a possible attempt to back up some of the men’s claim that they assumed they were participating in a libertine couple’s sex game.
Don’t feel too bad for them now.
Lawyers are legally obligated to be advocates for their clients. They have to pursue arguments which may strength their cases.
This may be their only avenue for a defence strategy.
IDK about “legally obligated”, but certainly professionally and ethically obligated.
If someone commits a heinous crime, and you want them to rot in jail for 100 years, then you need them to have the strongest possible defence. Otherwise, they might be able to appeal their conviction, or the family of the accused may feel vindictive.
Basically, if you want justice you need the best possible defence.
If they don’t defend their client to the best of their ability, they are guilty of perverting the course of justice. It’s a legal obligation.
The reason… is everything else you wrote.
Based on what criteria ? By legal definition, all the clients of a defense lawyer are initially innocent until it’s proven to be otherwise during trial.
Even the worst piece of shit is entitled to a defender, that’s one of the few things that keeps a small amount of fairness in the judicial system.
What you’re saying amount to saying that anyone accused of rape should not be entitled to a lawyer or that you think there’s some kind of good rapist that deserve a defense and bad rapist that don’t… Which is weird.
I think most places would view such a refusal as grounds for disciplinary action against the lawyer.
New Zealand for example has legislation to address this: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2008/0214/latest/DLM1437864.html
There can be good causes to refuse a client, conscientious objection is not one of them.
