MovieChat Forums > O.J.: Made in America (2016) Discussion > Legal question...?

Legal question...?

posted 8 years ago by Topsy_Turvy_van_Gogh
3 replies | jump to latest

I know the defence team is doing their job but as it seemed clear to me that simpson's legal team believed he did it... Don't they still have some moral or ethical responsibility to make sure a killer is served justice?

I guess my question is... If you know your client is guilty of a double homicide is it your job to find a loophole or manipulate the jury to 'win' or to ask for a plea and work towards getting the best deal you can get for your client with respect to the crime they had committed?

[–] eisfresh-70871 8 years ago

No, they're morally obligated to defend their client. If they don't defend their client properly it could lead to a mistrial.

[–] snowleopard 8 years ago

Correct. Hence Robert Shapiro's recent comments that there's a difference between legal justice, and moral justice.

Interpret that how you like, but I think it's pretty clear he felt on the pure legal side, he and the "dream team" tried the case with the evidence given at that time enough to have Simpson found not guilty of what he was charged with.

Morally, he likely felt Simpson committed the murders. The prosecution just didn't prove it well enough in court with the evidence and testimony given.

[–] LetThemEatCake01 8 years ago

You are absolutely correct, there is an ethical responsibility for every defense attorney and it doesn't include the horrors that this team did. An ethical lawyer would have advised O.J. to confess and would have tried to make a deal for him, possibly for a lesser charge but with definite jail time, or at the very least they wouldn't have represented him. The alleged dream team obviously had zero ethics.