Pretend you worked very hard through law school, became a lawyer, and you now currently earn a modest living working independently at law.
You are asked by one of your closest friends to defend someone who has been accused of stealing from the PHHS scholarship fund [or another controversial topic]. The people in both communities, Montvale and Woodcliff Lake, believe that this individual committed the crime. The monetary sum of $2,000 was found in the accused individual's bank account the day after the money was discovered to be missing; the accused could not explain why the money appeared in his account.
If you take this case, you will be looked at critically by everyone around you, and you might even lose some of your close friends. People may come to judge you for your choice to defend an individual that looks blatantly guilty.
The accused person is very poor and states that he did not commit the crime. He has no witnesses to support the fact that he is innocent, but he has never been involved in any arrests/suspicious activities before. In fact, his coworkers have only the nicest things to say about him. If you choose not to defend him, no other lawyer will come to his defense.
The question is: Do you take the case? Why/why not? If yes, what would you offer as a defense? If no, what holds you back from this client?
*Challenge*: How is this situation similar to what is occurring in To Kill a Mockingbird?
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