David H. Bodiker Lecture on Criminal Justice

How Can You Not Defend Those People?

Date: Thursday, November 10, 2011

Time: 12:00 - 1:20 PM

Room/Location: Saxbe Auditorium

Archived Webcast: Windows Media Player | RealPlayer

Register Here

"How can you defend those people?" All criminal defense lawyers are asked this question — sometimes with genuine curiosity, but too often with barely concealed contempt. The query is such a part of the criminal defense experience there's a name for it: the Cocktail Party Question. Of course, the cocktail party questioner is not concerned about innocent defendants. It goes without saying that able and zealous lawyers should defend the innocent. The concern is about defending the guilty – bad people who prey on the rest of us. Why would anyone devote their professional lives advocating on behalf of the guilty? In this talk, longtime criminal defense lawyer and law professor Abbe Smith dispenses with the stock answers – that our Constitution requires effective assistance of counsel in criminal cases; the proper functioning of our adversary system requires able lawyers on both sides; criminal defenders serve as important "screens" to make sure the government gets it right – to probe her own motivations for defending the guilty.

Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by Tuesday, November 1 to Chris Marcum at marcum.34@osu.edu or (614) 688-8232.

Abbe Smith
Professor of Law, Director of the Criminal Defense, and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic
Georgetown University

Abbe Smith, professor of law at Georgetown University and director of the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic, will be the featured speaker at the 2011 David H. Bodiker Lecture on Criminal Justice at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

Smith teaches and writes in the areas of criminal defense, legal ethics, juvenile justice, and clinical legal education. She is the author of "Case of a Lifetime" and co-author of "Understanding Lawyers' Ethics." She also is a published cartoonist.

From 1982 to 1990, Smith was a trial attorney with the Defender Association of Philadelphia. She continues to be actively engaged in criminal law practice and frequently presents at public defender and legal aid training programs. Smith is currently on the Board of Directors of the Bronx Defenders and the National Juvenile Defender Center, and she is a longtime member of the National Lawyers Guild.

About the David H. Bodiker Lecture on Criminal Justice

The David H. Bodiker Lecture on Criminal Justice was established at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in February 2008 to honor the spirit, dedication, and passion of David H. Bodiker, who served as the Ohio Public Defender from 1994 until his retirement in December 2007.

Bodiker, a 1963 Moritz graduate and attorney in the private practice of law for many years in Columbus, was a fierce advocate for the poor in Ohio’s criminal justice system and was singular in his tenacious and relentless advocacy for the rights of Death Row inmates.

The purpose of The David H. Bodiker Lecture is to promote, improve, and advance the highest level of academic and professional interest in protecting the constitutional rights of the defendant in the criminal justice system through an annual lecture series at The Moritz College of Law. Each year the featured lecturer will be a nationally known authority who will make a presentation to law students and interested professionals at The Moritz College of Law. The lecture will be published in the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Michael E. Tigar, Professor of the Practice of Law at Duke Law School, gave the inaugural lecture in 2009.