Dear Dad…

My goodness.  After reading Alan Dershowitz’s “The Best Defense,” I became a defender of the legal system.  At the middle of this episode, I was shocked by Davalos’s violation of his client’s rights.  I was with Allison all the way–even if Davolos is your friend, you have to say something, since he sent a man to prison while pretending to act in his best interest.

But after the final reveal of the daughter’s suicide, I was amazed by how quickly my own view of justice turned around.  Maybe in this case, loyalty trumps the legal obligations.  It’s like that Montesquieu quote from Episode 12: “A truly virtuous man would come to the aid of the most distant stranger as quickly as to his own friend. If men were perfectly virtuous, they wouldn’t have friends.”  In this case though, it’s not just friends, it’s family.  We’d respect Davalos less if he perpetuated injustice against his family because of his legal obligations to his client.

I’m not a lawyer, so I think I can say this without ruining a career–if I were in Davalos’s shoes, I’d probably do the exact same thing.