I've been watching this show from the beginnig, and i'm now at season 7, and it's making me scream, because it's always the same: if you're guilty those are your lawyers, they always send them free, but every time i see them having an innocent, i know how it will end: they lose almost every time! Maybe it's not always, but i have the impression that when they have an innocent client they always lose! That's awful!
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“The Pilot Episode” – Bobby’s client was innocent and she was acquitted.
“Betrayal” – Jimmy was charged with solicitation or a prostitute for sex; he was acquitted.
Can’t remember the ep title – the first time Eugene bet on a case, he got an acquittal for his client whom he believed was guilty, even though he wasn’t.
“The Ties That Bind” – Lindsay and Elleanor defend the porn star charged with killing her husband. It’s unclear whether or not she did it on purpose or was an accident. I believe it was an accident, and they got her acquitted.
“Duty Bound” – Jimmy’s Priest is accused of murder, even though he didn’t do it. It never went to trial, but he was innocent and thanks to the firm he didn’t go to jail.
“Body Count” – Jimmy and Rebecca defend a man accused of attempted murder against his wife. He was innocent and they got him an acquittal.
“Reasons to Believe” – Rebecca defends the kid who was accused of stealing the bike. The bike was stolen, but her client wasn’t the one who did it. She got him an acquittal.
“Of Human Bondage” – Bobby, helping a fellow attorney/friend, defends a prostitute accused of murder. She was innocent, and Bobby got he the acquittal.
“End Games” – Elleanor is charged with a crime with the police planted a knife in her desk. Obviously she was innocent, and they got her off prior to a trial.
“Hammerhead Sharks” – the trial in L.A., Lindsay’s client didn’t kill anyone, his wife did. They got him an acquittal.
A 2 or 3 episode story had Ellenor going to Pennsylvania to get a young man on Death Row a stay of execution. The DNA tests prove he didn’t do it. She got him released.
Another 2 or 3 episode story had Bobby defending Scott Wallace accused of killing his wife. He didn’t do it and eventually Bobby got him his acquittal.
“Payback & The Thin Line” – Bobby is arrested after William Hinks is killed by one of the firm’s clients. Bobby is charged with Felnoy Murder, and was acquitted.
These all came within the first 4 seasons. After that, alot of the cases turned more toward the viewers' interpretations of what is right or wrong. Many of the cases deal with somebody who admits he/she killed somebody, but the firm employs a 'Justification' defense - i.e. was the defendant justified killing the person in self defense or defense of others, or duress.
The best you can say is for the most part they're representing guilty clients. But also for the most part, the innocent clients they have do get acquitted, if not in the first trial then in the appeals process. Off hand I can only think of 2 'innocent' clients that went to prison and were never followed up on: The doctor in 'The Trial' and 'Cloudy With A Chance Of Membranes', and the one fiero mentioned where Eugene failed to mention his client was innocent after his roommate committed the crime.
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"She flattened a Dear John with a John Deere." - Douglas Wambaugh
I didn't say they ALWAYS loose qith innocent people, i say that they loose a lot of them, mostly between season 4-7.
shareWell, the justification in the show is that they tend to try harder when the client is guilty out of some deference to the law - the very idea that they might not be trying hard enough to defend a client because they know they're guilty just makes them try harder.
But on the other side, that leaves the innocent clients "out to dry" so to speak because they're innocent and they (the lawyers) don't have that drive.
I don't actually think that's true, the lawyers generally get very passionately involved when they believe in their clients' innocence - certainly not "hanging them out to dry".
Vogelman, the two death penalty cases where they had innocent ppl on death row, Rachel Reynolds in the pilot. I know there are others but I do think they tend to care more when the client's innocent or technically guilty but morally justified in their opinions (like Gerald Braun for Bobby or Pearson for Lindsay or the deaf mother for Elleanor).
It's true, they do tend to lose more when the client's innocent, but I don't attribute that to them not trying hard enough, I attribute it to the writers trying to make some sort of twisted point. Or maybe their emotions somehow lead to a less effective defense in some cases, but it's certainly not because they care less about the innocent clients.
It's true. Their innocent clients sometimes get convicted and sometimes get acquitted.
However, their guilty "scum" clients get off EVERY SINGLE TIME.
The only exceptions are when the client is technically guilty but very sympathetic, like doctors pulling the plug on suffering terminal patients, or a deaf woman killing the man who murdered and raped her young daughter, or loving Christian Scientist parents who denied their kid medical treatment.