Arizona Criminal Defense Attorney Reflects On Independence Day

Tucson, AZ - This forth of July weekend was a time to celebrate, and also a time to reflect on the freedoms and choices that make being American special. I spent the 4th of July in Scottsdale this year. As we sat with family and friends in our backyard waiting for the fireworks shows to start over the city below, a wall of clouds formed over the McDowell Mountains directly to the east. One of our Seattle relatives commented that it looks like rain, and my reply was something to the effect of "we mostly get dry heaves in the Phoenix area."

Sure enough, the one more experienced in rain, the Seattle relative, was correct, and within 10 minutes we were hustling the kids out of the pool and indoors as our sun umbrellas threatened to blow into the wash below our yard. The rain began pelting Scottsdale's mountains within minutes and suddenly everything felt fresh and new. Although the fireworks shows were now in doubt, there was a feeling of something more special in the air, renewal.

For nearly a decade, our country has accepted declining liberties in the name of security. Many of our sacrifices may have been necessary. They may have even kept us safe. But if we don't wake up and renew our sense of freedom, we are now in danger of getting too comfortable living under rules that seem less American with each passing year. Sure, we are at war. Sure, the world is not the same as it was before September of 2001. But our national discourse needs to get back to where it was before that terrible day. We need to start focusing on the positive and let fear (not caution) take a back seat. We must stop trading liberties for feel-good band-aids over our wounds that pus with a diminished sense of security.

As a practicing Arizona criminal defense lawyer, I see the new dynamic almost daily in our criminal courts. I see innocent defendants agreeing to plea bargains that require them to falsely admit guilt in order to avoid the harsh reality of a system that is stacked against both the innocent and the guilty. It sometimes seems that our criminal justice system is now designed to convict the accused, rather than convict the guilty. This is emphasized and perpetuated by the attitudes and actions of certain prosecutors who seem themselves as being above the law, and above regulation for their misdeeds. The most famous example in recent memory is the Duke rape prosecutor, who's reign ended in his own legal demise. Our system now makes it possible for prosecutors to think of behaving this way. Fortunately, most prosecutors act honorably, but as a society we are lost if we depend on them to do so.

The Arizona Criminal process is designed to be fair, but it depends on all involved, from the police to the prosecutor, to the court to the defense lawyer, to the civilian witnesses to the defendant and expert witnesses, to play their role and not try to control portions of the process that separation of powers designates as the responsibility of another.

This fourth of July weekend, I hope I am not the only player in our criminal justice system reflecting on our system and on renewal. A year from today, our nation will either be on the road back towards what made us, and our justice system, great, or we will be at a place from which I fear we may never return. Happy Independence Day, and remember, 4th of July is more than beer, BBQ and fireworks.