When I was a law student at Hamline, my fellow students and I attended a concert at a local bar when one of us asked for a dedication cover of Warren Zevon’s classic, “Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money.” The bass player looked right at our group, and shouted into the mic, “Kill all the lawyers!” doubtlessly attempting to paraphrase Shakespeare (Henry VI, Part 2). But the Cliffs-Notes bassist whiffed on the context of that quote, which acknowledges that “eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power, and a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government.” (Walters v. Radiation Survivors, 473 U.S. 305 (1985), Footnote 24)
Those of us who practice criminal defense are a different breed, there’s no doubt about that. As a general rule, we don’t take criticism personally, especially from those who fail to grasp the crucial role of an advocate on behalf of the accused. Years ago, when I mentioned to my family that I was representing a defendant in a murder case, my mother winced and said, “Why?” I shrugged. It is true that it’s difficult for a person to see the value of such a defense advocate – until such time as they have been accused of something they had not done or, in the case of so many of my clients, of something far more serious than what they had actually done. When that happens, an accused simply reasons that the accusations should logically disappear. But when they don’t disappear, that person needs a lawyer, and there is no person who the accused values more than their advocate.
I did not see the Dec. 1 MN DFL press release on Chris Madel’s entry into the MN Governor’s race until I saw the many letters to the editor and social media posts criticizing Chair Richard Carlbom. But when I did read it, I was disappointed. That said, I think Carlbom deserves a defense as much as any person who has been accused. I’ve known Richard Carlbom for over 10 years. I know him as a person who values the rule of law, and of the need for advocates who take unpopular positions in defense of the Constitution. He knows that the rule of law is more important than scoring political points, and that due process is not predicated upon whose ox is being gored.
Carlbom endorsed the DFL’s historic changes to expungement law in 2013 and 2021, he zealously promoted the fair pay for our public defenders, and he was a vocal supporter when in 2014 I joined with the Minnesota Innocence Project to pass Minnesota’s first bill compensating those who were wrongfully prosecuted and imprisoned. That bill was met with nervous shifting in seats by many (in both parties) who were loath to acknowledge that our justice system sometimes charges and convicts innocent people – then sends them to prison for years. The original language of my bill included the phrase, “wrongfully incarcerated.” State prosecutors, repped by the Minnesota County Attorney’s Association (MCAA), winced at that language. They objected, “Do we really have to admit that we did something wrong? I mean no one did anything wrong intentionally.” The use of that phrase made them really uncomfortable, even while failing to grasp the irony of their objection. We changed the name of the act to the “Imprisonment and Exoneration Remedies Act.” To their enduring credit, the MCAA endorsed and supported the final version, but that objection always stuck with me, and I recall it every time a person asks me why I would fight for the accused in court.
Think back about a time when you have been accused of something that you did not do or were accused of something more serious than what you actually did. Were you frustrated that the accusations were not fairly examined? Were you perplexed to find that the more serious the allegations, the less you were afforded a fair defense? Don’t forget that feeling, because in an age of cancel culture and soundbite social media, an advocate is the only thing standing between us and a totalitarian dystopia.
John Lesch is a former prosecutor, a former DFL Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and a board member of the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
A link to the December 1, 2025 DFL News Release Can be found here: https://dfl.org/dfl-party-statement-on-chris-madels-run-for-governor/
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