Josh Powell and The Evil That Men Do

Most of us are now aware of the horrific events surrounding the Josh and Susan Cox Powell family over the last 48 hours. “Disturbing” doesn’t even begin to describe the feelings that most of us have experienced as we have learned about these events. The question that I keep asking myself is, “How could our system of justice have allowed this to happen?”

Over and over, my wife and I have turned to each other and said, “Why isn’t this dirtbag in jail yet? How much evidence do they need!?” How long does a person need to be given the benefit of the doubt before we take action to protect other innocent people?

Well, I’m not a criminal lawyer. But I have spent time working with youth in the juvenile justice system during law school, and I have friends and family who work within the criminal justice system. And although I don’t profess to fully understand the ins and outs of that system, I have come to have a healthy respect for it, despite it’s apparent failings.

In law school, I remember a guest lecturer who was highly regarded as the top criminal defense lawyer in the Tucson area. At one point during his remarks, a student raised her hand and asked, “How do you live with yourself knowing that the work you do may put murderers, drunk drivers, wife beaters, child abusers, etc. back on the street only to perpetrate those same crimes again?” I remember thinking, “Yeah! How do you live with yourself? This is gonna be fun to watch him squirm.”

His response resulted in a real paradigm shift for me. In essence, his explanation went something like this:

I don’t defend the dirtbag for his actions. That’s not my job nor has it ever been my job. If that was my job, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t live with myself. For the most part, the people I defend have in fact broken the law and deserve to be punished by the justice system.

In my view, my client is all of you who don’t break the law and deserve to have your rights protected if and when you are falsely accused. History has shown time and again, that if there aren’t advocates who will fight tooth and nail to ensure that every right promised to the citizens of this country is enforced, innocent people will be harmed by a rogue justice system.

Bad cops, rotten prosecutors, corrupt judges, and false accusers will always exist whether we like it or not. And it is my job, as a defense attorney, to make sure that our constitutional rights are protected from those who would ignore or chip away at them if allowed to. There is an unfortunate price to be paid in this system of checks and balances. That price is that, occasionally, bad people go free on what some like to call a “technicality.” What people forget is that those “technicalities” just happen to be the constitutional rights that many brave men and women died for through the wars that have preserved this country.

Now, reasonable people will differ on whether that price is too high. But for me, it is clear. If I don’t defend the rights of even the most despicable person, the time may come when my own freedom is in jeopardy because I failed to stand up for it when I had the chance to.

Whether Josh Powell in fact killed his wife Susan may never be established. The fact that he killed his two little boys is beyond tragic. It’s sickening. But I take some comfort in the fact that the American justice system continues to maintain that tension between dispensing justice and protecting individual rights until proven guilty.

Thomas Jefferson has said, "When one undertakes to administer justice, it must be with an even hand, and by rule; what is done for one must be done for everyone in equal degree." We live in a great country, regardless of it’s apparent failings.