Story Archive

Quit While You’re Behind

“Somebody’s got to defend — ‘defend’ is the wrong word — represent these people,” said Jerry Guerinot. The lawyer said he got “the sorriest of the worst or the very worst” as clients. And while he represented almost three dozen defendants facing the death penalty, including four who were convicted in a span of seven months, he never got one acquitted. Now Guerinot, 71, has decided to stop taking capital cases altogether: he doesn’t want to keep getting accused of not representing them properly. “You never hear about the ones we pleaded down to murder or aggravated robbery,” he said, or got the sentence down to just a life term. (AC/Associated Press) ...Saving people’s lives so they can rot in prison: why we cherish the right to a lawyer.