Quote Originally Posted by adrianh View Post
Hmmmm...difficult one...

Person A gives person B a note to pass to person C. The note tells person C to hold up a bank. Person C gets caught. Now person A pays a lawyer to get person C off. Person B says he didn't know what was in the note. The lawyer gets person C off. Who is considered to be the criminal - Of course the lawyer is totally innocent because he took money to do a job...but then so did person B & C...
If you become aware of a crime only "after the fact" you need to report it. By not reporting it makes you guilty in the 2nd degree. A lawyers job and mandate is not to judge whether you are guilty or not but to defend you "without prejudice" within the framework of the law. I know what you are thinking already and I agree but morality unfortunately has little to do with it. Take recent violent acts of criminality that have hit the newspapers recently. We all know who is guilty and so does his council but its the duty of his council to defend without prejudice and ensure that his client gets fair sentencing. Sometimes it works and sometimes ambiguities are exploited that serve wealthy defendants.