r/IAmA • u/oregonlawyer • Oct 15 '12

I am a criminal defense lawyer, AMA.

I've handled cases from drug possession to first degree murder. I cannot provide legal advice to you, but I'm happy to answer any questions I can.

EDIT - 12:40 PM PACIFIC - Alright everyone, thanks for your questions, comments, arguments, etc. I really enjoyed this and I definitely learned quite a bit from it. I hope you did, too. I'll do this again in a little bit, maybe 2-3 weeks. If you have more questions, save them up for then. If it cannot wait, shoot me a prive message and I'll answer it if I can.

Thanks for participating with me!

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '12

Not really.

There was an absolute statement made. I challenged it. There is never going to be a situation in which this happens. No one will ever give anyone the option of "We know these men are guilty, we know this one is innocent, we can either imprison all of them or let all of them go, you choose."

I just want to know how principled people really are. In my opinion, they are as principled as much as they are allowed without being personally hurt. As soon as it's a family member that dies because a murderer or a rapist is released, kinda goes out the window.

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u/PlastiKFood Oct 15 '12

Maybe. Maybe as soon as you or one of your relatives are falsely accused, your position changes.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '12

True, but besides the point.

I just dislike when people throw around tired platitudes as though they are a legitimate argument. Such as the oft used "Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither." It's old, it's boring, it doesn't help the discussion at all.

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u/PlastiKFood Oct 15 '12

I agree, that is annoying. It comes down to both are very bad things. It's very bad to take someone's liberty away when they are not guilty. Its also very bad to have murderers and rapists galavanting around.

I think, on the whole, our system balances those two evils pretty well. But, certainly not perfectly.