In an ironic twist, American revolutionary and lawyer John Adams took on the job of defending the King’s soldiers accused of murder in the Boston Massacre trials while royal prosecutor, Samuel Quincy, was charged with proving them guilty. John Adams strongly believed that all men were entitled to a fair trial and that they deserved equal justice, and put the rule of law above his personal beliefs.
These principles of justice were later enshrined in the Sixth Amendment in the Bill of Rights:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Years after he became the the second president of the United States Adams remembered the trials:
“The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country. Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right.” –John Adams
If John Adams were running for president today, he would be smeared with attack ads from the Republican Party for having worked as a criminal defense attorney to secure the constitutional rights of the accused against the awesome power of the government to deprive an individual of his liberty, if not his life.
The NRSC is airing an attack ad in Arizona, “exposing Kyrsten Sinema’s dangerous and radical past where she worked as a criminal defense attorney for violent criminals and even bragged about representing ‘murderers.’”
TRANSCRIPT:
ANNOUNCER: Before politics, Kyrsten Sinema was a lawyer.
Sinema made her living defending murderers.
Her firm even represented a meth dealer who killed a young mom and dropped her body in a dumpster.
Note the ad imputes “her firm,” indicating that Sinema was not the lawyer representing this defendant, not that there is anything wrong if she was. So the NRSC is smearing the whole law firm for its criminal defense work.
For good measure, the NRSC incorporates Martha McSally’s false attack ad that Sinema “denigrated our troops” protesting the Iraq War after 9/11 (in a pink tutu!) McSally ad lies to denigrate the First Amendment rights of Americans.
And when she wasn’t defending murderers, Sinema was a left-wing fringe protester.
The Arizona Democrat Party called her radical and too extreme.
Kyrsten Sinema. Now you get the picture.
Radical. Extreme. Wrong for Arizona.
NRSC is responsible for the content of this advertising.
The State Bar of Arizona and the several lawyer associations should be publicly condemning this ad for its attack on the rule of law and the fundamental constitutional right to counsel, as well as insinuating the legal profession is unfit to serve in public office (for the record, most members of Congress are lawyers).
Does the NRSC also condemn the team of criminal defense attorneys representing “Dear Leader” in the Special Counsel’s Russia investigation?
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The smear campaign against Kyrsten Sinema is clearly taking off. This was, of course, as predictable as the rising of the sun in the east.
I hope the Democrats have a plan.
If GOP voters actually read the Constitution that they fetishize they’d know that you get your day in court and your innocent until proven guilty, we don’t have vigilantes acting as judge and executioner.
That’s un-American. A lawyer representing an accused person is about as American as it gets.
Funny thing is, much like HRC, there are real reasons that I am not a fan of Sinema, but the things I don’t like about Sinema and HRC are the things that the GOP supports.
The GOP forced me to vote for Hillary, and I was planning on closing my eyes and screaming really loud while I voted for Sinema.
Now the GOP is giving me a reason to feel better about my vote.
Thanks GOP!
What do you think can be done about the GOP smear campaign against Sinema? I’ve seen one attack ad on TV against Garcia as well. I suspect those two will be the hardest hit.
Attacking back in a similarly vicious manner seems to generate too much of the “both parties suck” attitude. And complacency about voting benefits the GOP in red states.