Defense lawyers deserve the money

An investigation by the Boston Herald shows that Massachusetts defense lawyers make, on average, twice as much as prosecutors. It seems that many people, from reporters and editors at the Herald (the headline is "Scales of injustice") to District Attorneys to victims' family members to the (mostly) brainless and cruel people who leave comments on the Herald's website, are outraged at this. I don't see anything unjust about it, however.

People who bash defense lawyers need a reminder about the Constitution of the United States. According to the Constitution, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. A founding principle of this country is that it is worse for an innocent person to be convicted than for a guilty person to go free. Defending the constitutional rights of the accused is the most basic part of the Americcan legal system and is one of the noblest jobs I can imagine.

Plus, despite the Herald's use of words such as "whopping" and "megabucks," defense attorneys don't make huge amounts of money. The article cites the sums of money that various lawyers made in 5 years while acting as court-appointed defense attorneys. The amounts are all between $200,000 and $600,000, which is pretty good, but hardly exorbitant for a 5-year period.

The article mentions that the budget of the Committee for Public Counsel Services has gone from $95.5 million in 2003 to $185 million last year. As an ardent opponent of big government spending and taxation, I admit that it's generally not good for any part of the government's budget to increase. However, the Mass. state government spends at least $869 a year for its unjust universal health care program. This, not defense lawyers' salaries, is what people should be complaining about. The government should be spending $0 on health care each year, because people should be responsible for paying for their own health care, just like any other product. I cannot understand why people throw fits over defense lawyers being compensated for the difficult, brave job they do, yet seemingly have no objection to welfare programs that give people free money for doing no work whatsoever.

Defense lawyers' pay should not be decreased. They earn every penny of it. Preserving defendants' constitutional rights is one of the few things I don't mind paying taxes for.