Lived Through This

Why I Defend Guilty Clients

Years as a public defender taught me that guilty people are still people

Michele Sharpe
Human Parts
Published in
13 min readJun 1, 2020

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Photo: gregobagel/Getty Images

“How can you defend someone you know is guilty?” That question was leveled at me too many times when I was a public defender. My answer was usually that I was helping to even up the odds since the criminal justice system’s machinery was…

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Michele Sharpe
Human Parts

Words in NYT, WaPo, Oprah Mag, Poets&Writers, et als. Adoptee/high school dropout/hep C survivor/former trial attorney. @MicheleJSharpe & MicheleSharpe.com