Abstract
When he was President of the United States, Richard Nixon created an Enemies List for the purpose of “screwing” those who had displeased him in some way.1 The list included reporters, political opponents, and pretty much anyone else against whom Nixon held a grudge. Singled out as personal and political enemies, these people were to be subjected to the full force of governmental power, including criminal prosecutions based on slim and suspect evidence.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
During Robert Kennedy’s tenure as attorney general, there were more prosecutions against Hoffa than there were civil rights prosecutions in the state of Mississippi, and more prosecutions against officers of Hoffa’s Teamsters Union than there were civil rights prosecutions in the entire country. In view of the fact that Kennedy was said to have had a “commitment” to civil rights, his determination to put Hoffa in jail bordered on obsession. The first product of that extraordinary diversion of government resources was a two-month trial of Hoffa on a mere misdemeanor charge. The prosecutions proliferated from there. See Victor Navasky, Kennedy Justice (New York: Atheneum, 1971), chap. 9.
Irving Younger, “Memoir of a Prosecutor,” Commentary Magazine , October 1976, 66. Younger’s account has been challenged by Robert M. Morgenthau and others.
Robert M. Morgenthau, letter to the editor, “Getting Roy Cohn,” Commentary Magazine, January 1977, 4. Roy Cohn was in fact prosecuted three times, each time unsuccessfully.
Joseph DiGenova, “Investigated to Death,” New York Times, December 5, 1995.
See Abbe Smith, “In Praise of the Guilty Project: A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Growing Anxiety About Innocence Projects,” University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change 13 (2009–10).
The phrase “play the race card” belittles racism (as it is intended to do) when it is used to describe efforts by the defense to counter racism inherent in the prosecution’s case. An interesting variation on this theme is recounted in Steven Lubet, “Storytelling and Trials: Playing the ‘Race Card’ in Nineteenth-Century Italy,” UCLA Law Review 48 (2001) (describing an effort to counter antisemitism in a prosecution).
Kenneth B. Noble, “Many Black Officers Say Bias Is Rampant in Los Angeles Police Force,” New York Times, September 4, 1995, 6.
See John B. Mitchell, “The Ethics of the Criminal Defense Attorney,” Stanford Law Review 32 (1980);
Abbe Freedman and Monroe H. Smith, Understanding Lawyers’ Ethics, 4th ed. (New Providence, NJ: LexisNexis, 2010), 20–21, 306–314.
“With SEVEN things the Holy One, blessed be He, created his world, to wit: knowledge, understanding, might, loving-kindness and compassion, judgment and decree.” The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, trans. Judah Goldin (Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press, 1955), 153.
See Serge F. Kovaleski, “Killers’ Families Left to Confront Fear and Shame,” New York Times, February 5, 2012, A1.
John A. Farrell, Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned (New York: Random House, 2011), 364.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2013 Abbe Smith and Monroe H. Freedman
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Freedman, M.H. (2013). Why It’s Essential to Represent “Those People”. In: Smith, A., Freedman, M.H. (eds) How Can You Represent Those People?. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137311955_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137311955_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-31194-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-31195-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)