Editorial - So You Think You'd be Tough on Crime?

My client sits at a small conference table and weeps, his hands covering his face.  It's always difficult when this happens but after so many years as a criminal defense attorney and after seeing what I have seen, I guess you start to get a little used to it.  We're in a conference room attached to a courtroom somewhere in Minnesota.

However, you should know that my client technically committed a crime.  He knew what he wasn't supposed to do and he did it anyway.    My question is, would you defend him?  What should happen to him?  If you think you know the answer, not so fast! 

I wait for him to compose himself.  I don't really understand.  I should add that it doesn't help that I need a translator in order to communicate but I do my best to stare straight into his eyes while we speak rather than to the translator.  After all, the conversation is between me and this man. 

"Its a long story," he said.  That's how he started. Seriously. 

He apparently lived in another state with his wife and his daughter.  For some reason, he wife decided to move to Minnesota and the two separated. At the same time, she filed for an Order for Protection against him.  He didn't contest it even though, he told me, that he would never hurt anybody.  He had never ever been charged with a crime or even been in a courtroom. 

Some months ago, his wife left with their daughter.  He missed then terribly but didn't bother them.  Then he received a phone call. It was his wife.  The wife that filed the Order for Protection. 

"Our daughter is sick.  Very sick.  I need you come to Minnesota so we can talk.  Its really important." 

What was he to do?  Was there an Order for Protection?  Well, she got it so maybe she got rid of it?  What made it more difficult is that he couldn't speak English and didn't have a computer.  Regardless, it didn't matter.  His daughter was sick, very sick, and his wife and daughter needed him. 

So he came.  He picked his wife and daughter up and was taking them to a small cheap restaurant.  He didn't have much money but he wanted to show them that he cared.  That he still loved them. 

On the way, a police officer stopped the car.  It had a broken taillight.  After that, what was the officer to do?  "You have an Order for Protection.  You are under arrest." 

After spending a couple of days in jail, he was released and given a court date, which takes us back to this little conference room next to the courtroom. 

He drops his hands and looks at me.  "She died.  My little girl died and we bury her today.  What do I do?".  Tears fall from his face and land on the table.  I stare at them and then back at him. 

You see, his wife called her husband to explain that their little girl was dying. 

I recognize how serious violations of protection orders can be.  These were originally designed to provide some protection to this who felt threatened.  Further, the violation of  these same ordered have also occasionally led to injury and even death.  As a result, the court takes violations very, very seriously.  But the blanket application of the law is misguided. 

As I look and listen to my client, I try to act like it doesn't impact me.  That I'm a professional and that I focus on my job.  I fail.  I'm a father who has children and a daughter about the same age.  I wipe my eyes.  I cough.  I try desperately to pull it together.  I say I will do what I can.  To be honest, it makes me mad! 

I walk into the courtroom and up to the prosecutor.  He looks at me across a pile of cases.  "What do you want?" he asks. 

"Dismiss the case," I say.  I explain what's going on.  After all, who wouldn't have gone with a phone call like that?  I defy anybody, the prosecutor, me, the Judge, any member of a potential jury to ignore that call and not see my dying daughter. 

We set the case on for more appearances and I prepare for trial.  What else am I going to do.  I'll be damned if we are just going to roll over. 

Finally, after a couple more appearances, the prosecutor does the right thing. Case dismissed!!! 

Sometimes, people think that criminal law is simple.  You do the crime, you do the time.  That's it.  But is it?  My client committed a crime.  The facts are clear.  He knew what he was doing and he did it anyway. 

What would you do?