#pointing out every time police assumed that a person they picked up was legally guilty pretrial

[insteading]

This is why public defender is the hottest profession there is. Someone's whole work is defending the public. Which includes you, if you need it and can't afford it. If you don't think that's hot, I don't know what to tell you.

Unpopular opinion but literally not one person in the world should have their human rights violated

[diinofayce]

Who You Sellin’ For? - 5

Pairing: Bodyguard! Steve Rogers x OFC!Musician! Addison Schmidt x Bodyguard! Bucky Barnes | Word Count: 3.5k | Warnings: Alternate Universe, withdrawal, language | A/N: Song in the fic is: Under the Water and then like always there’s the link to the Chapter theme below the graphic  | MASTERLIST

Just Tonight

The next morning saw everyone congregated in the kitchen again. Wanda, Pietro, and Sam were laughing over their steaming mugs of coffee and tea and bowls of cereal when Steve and Bucky rolled out of bed to join the band.

Bucky was still rubbing sleep out of his eyes while he fumbled around for a clean mug to pour the lukewarm coffee into and revitalize him for the day. Steve stuck with orange juice, coffee in the morning gave him acid reflux. Bucky slumped down at the large kitchen table, his fingers tangled in his knotted bed head while he stared contemplatively into his coffee.

“For security detail, y’all sleep pretty late,” Sam teased smirking at Bucky.

Bucky’s icy glare shot up at the man and his lips pressed into a thin line. “My internal clock is still shifting from working for Stark. He lives more of a night life.” He took a large gulp of the coffee praying that the caffeine would kick in quickly.

Steve sat down next to his boyfriend and knocked their shoulders together. “Well, and Buck has never been a morning bird. You guys all get up much earlier than we thought, though. I’ll start setting my alarm for earlier.”

Pietro shrugged and leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs and holding his mug in both hands. “That’ll change come tour time. We’re not normally up so early, but the interview ran this morning so we wanted to see it. It’s the first one for the new band, we were excited.”

“How’d it look?” Steve asked, perking up.

“Where’s Addison?” Bucky asked in confusion at the same time, looking around the open floor plan for the platinum blond.

Wanda and Pietro frowned and Sam grimaced slightly.

“The interview was good, they didn’t warp anything we said or cut anything funny in editing,” Sam said, but still sounded like he was upset.

“So what’s wrong?” Steve asked looking between them all.

“Well, the comments weren’t the best,” Wanda answered softly and pulled her phone out, unlocking it and pushing it towards the two men across from her.

Steve slid the phone over so both him and Bucky could read the small screen.

Both Steve and Bucky read the comments with growing anger and disgust. They had obviously seen their fair share of bad press and nasty comments working in the industry and for every nasty comment there were at least three positive ones, but some of them were so foul. Everything ranging from how she only got noticed because she was pretty and white, to people pointing out that Stark is her uncle so of course, she’d always be on a label, to the ones that were claiming to have been at the house party only days prior and watching her do lines of cocaine and down bottles of booze.

Bucky scrubbed his hands over his face and grumbled about going upstairs to put on actual clothing, he knew what it was like to get speculative and accusing articles. When he left Hydra, Alexander had thrown all the evidence of Bucky’s wrongdoings at the police’s feet. Luckily, Steve had stepped in and talked to Tony managing to secure Bucky a job, a psychiatrist, and the full force of Tony’s legal team. Bucky had been cleared of all wrongdoing when it came to the actions he performed on behalf of Hydra and when it looked like it was about to go public and shed Hydra in a negative light Pierce dropped everything and let Bucky go, but that also meant that none of the heat had fallen off of Bucky’s shoulders.

Just as Bucky was pulling a brush through his hair he heard Steve come into the room.

“Buck?” he heard his boyfriend call for him and Bucky opened their bathroom door.

“In here, Stevie.”

Steve slid into the bathroom next to Bucky and leaned against the vanity counter. “The guys said she locked herself into the recording studio.” Steve said. While they had all been out at Rolling Stone, Tony had a team in to convert the pool house into a recording studio at Addison’s request.

“I’m not great at the hand holding shit, Stevie,” Bucky grumbled jamming a toothbrush in his mouth.

“Sure you are,” Steve countered wrapping one arm around Bucky’s waist and pulling him into his side. Steve leaned down and rested his chin on Bucky’s shoulder, kissing the soft spot behind Bucky’s ear. Bucky let out a pleased rumbling sound and tilted his head to give Steve better access.

Bucky tapped Steve’s hip so he could pull away and spit the toothpaste out into the sink.

“She’s probably not even going to want anything from us. I’m sure she’ll just be snappy and bratty,” Bucky moaned. “Our job is just making sure she isn’t killed by Hydra.”

Steve pursed his lips and looked down at his feet. Bucky watched Steve’s face closely.

“What the fuck is it with you and picking emotionally damaged strays?”

Steve’s passive face broke into a pleased smile. “I like the challenge,” he rumbled softly, quirking his gaze up to meet Bucky’s.

“She’s a good person, Bucky. I know she is. But there’s more to her story, she’s been hurt bad and she’s barely hanging on. Doesn’t that bother you?” Steve asked.

Bucky sighed with frustration and pulled a zip up hoodie off the rack on the bathroom door. “Sometimes, Steve, she isn’t the only one keeping their shit together by a thread.”

With that he left Steve standing in the bathroom as he thundered his way down the stairs and out into the crisp morning air. Bucky didn’t want to argue with Steve, he knew that he had thrown a bit of a low blow back there. Steve was the type to immediately assume that he wasn’t doing enough as a partner when that was farther from the truth. Bucky knew he had the tendency to make their relationship a little difficult, he couldn’t help it, his head wasn’t always in the right space for it. And while Steve hadn’t been wrong back at the Rolling Stone head quarters, they had always shared partners, Bucky still felt vulnerable more often than not when it came to private intimacy and he wasn’t sure he was ready to add anyone else into their mix. There was a tiny hint of jealousy that had never been present with Bucky before now that was throwing him. Was he just not providing Steve with enough that the first dame to walk by with long legs and lashes and Steve couldn’t wait to throw them into the mix?

Bucky knew that line of thinking was incorrect and unfair. The moment Bucky said he wasn’t ready for it he knew Steve would drop it. There was also the weird nagging attraction that he also had to Addison that he couldn’t deny. The fact that she was just so lost and hurting provoked Bucky’s need to protect and shelter, which was the same instinct that Steve had and he knew that.

Just as Bucky was reaching the pool house he felt a strong hand wrap around his elbow and pull him to a stop.

“Buck…” Steve’s soft voice pulled him up from the dark waves that he was starting to drown in.

“Don’t, Steve. I’m sorry,” Bucky whispered and he was immediately enveloped by warm and strong arms.

“I’m not saying let’s do it, Bucky. I’m saying we should just take a little extra care with her,” Steve murmured in his ear and Bucky nodded.

The men separated and Steve tucked an errant lock of hair behind Bucky’s ear making the darker haired man smile before they both turned and quietly entered the converted pool house.

Addison had her back to the men on the other side of the glass partition, her bare feet were tangled in the rungs of the barstool she was sitting on as she lazily strummed an acoustic guitar. Both men noted the red ‘RECORDING’ sign was lit so they silently took seats behind the soundboards to watch. It was probably rude, to intrude in such a way, they could easily keep watch from outside of the pool house, but they were starting to feel like most of their job wasn’t protecting Addison from Hydra it was protecting her from herself.

“Lay my head under the water Lay my head under the sea Excuse me, sir, am I your daughter? Wont you take me back? Take me back and see?”

Her soft voice was laden with sorrow and pain. Her long platinum hair that was pressed down by large headphones fell in front of her face as she brushed her nose against the mesh circle in front of the microphone. Her long fingers moved deftly over the fret board of the guitar and she stretched her left leg down to push a pedal on the floor with her toes and flipping a switch on the front panel of the instrument she brought power to the guitar in her lap, igniting the sound to vibrant electric.

“There’s not a time for being younger And all my friends are enemies. And if I cried unto my mother No, she wasn’t there, she wasn’t there for me.”

“Don’t let the water drag me down. Don’t let the water drag me down.”

Addison took a noticeably shaking breath and her fingers faltered for just a moment before she seemed to rally herself and plug on. Steve and Bucky’s hands had found one another and they held onto each other tightly behind the glass as they watched her back, completely mesmerized.

“Broken lines across my mirror Show my face all red and bruised And though I screamed and I screamed Well, no one came running Oh, I wasn’t saved, I wasn’t safe from you.”

“Don’t let the water drag you down. Don’t let the water drag you down. Don’t let me drown, don’t let me drown in the waves. I could be found, I could be what you had saved.”

Steve and Bucky watched Addison break. As she screamed ‘saved’ over and over in the microphone, her voice cracking and her knuckles white, they watched her tumble and fall. This was the most honest they had ever seen the girl and it became more apparent than ever that they were intruding and they shouldn’t have come in. This was almost religious and extremely intimate and the boys couldn’t help but feel guilty, but they also couldn’t will themselves to stand up and slip out the door. This was a beautiful train wreck, the fall from grace, it was honest and pure and painful.

“Lay my head under the water Aloud I pray for calmer seas And when I wake from this dream with chains all around No I’ve never been, I’ve never been free… No I’ve never been, I’ve never been free… No I’ve never been, I’ve never been free…”

The guitar slipped from Addison’s lap and hung limply at her side, gripped in her left hand by the neck as she swiped the back of her right arm across her face. Reaching up she slid the headphones from her head to dangle around her neck and she half looked over her shoulder at the guys behind her.

“Wanna hit the red flashing button?” she asked hoarsely.

Bucky and Steve blinked once before Bucky managed to reach out and press the large button on the sound board to stop the recording. Addison sniffled a bit and scrubbed at the stains on her cheeks before returning her guitar to the little stand and standing up to stretch her long limbs and rake her hair back into a messy ponytail. She cleared her throat before turning to stare at them through the glass; her silver eyes were still bright despite being red rimmed and puffy, the tip of her nose was red from crying and even though she scrubbed at her cheeks repeatedly Steve and Bucky could still see the tracks of her tears. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and a flowy white t-shirt with an over sized gray cardigan that hung down her knees.

She crossed her arms in front of her as if to protect herself in her sudden show of emotion and levied the men with a hard stare.

“Didn’t you see the red light on the outside? That means don’t come in.” Addison unplugged her headset from the recording box and left the little recording room to join the two men in the sound room.

“There was no light?” Steve asked hesitantly looking at Bucky for confirmation. Bucky just shrugged back unhelpfully, he had been too caught up in Steve to notice anything like that. Which, considering their job, was probably a bad thing.

Addison let out a little noise of disbelief before plugging the jack of her headphones into the sound board and adjusted a few of the sliders.

“Sounded good,” Bucky supplied, nodding his chin towards the other room.

“It’s decent. Not a bad start to a new album,” Addison grumbled, hitting play to listen to the recording with only her left ear cuff on, the one of the right tucked behind the shell of her ear so she could still communicate with her nosy security team.

“New album already?” Steve asked, brow furrowing. He figured the band would want to be practicing the ones on the album so when the tour was ready to take off they’d be good to go.

Addison sighed and rested her chin in her hand as she curled her knees to her chest in the chair. “No…new album totally. Tony sent me an email over from my lawyer…I fucked up in the interview by mentioning working with Wanda on stuff. Pierce put a subpoena through demanding all emails and direct lines of contact between myself and the members of the band during the time I was in contract under Hydra. He’s trying to rip the album out from under us…or take a part of the royalties. We don’t make shit for royalties anyway so really he’s just trying to be an ass.”

She pulled her pony tail around over her shoulder and picked at the ends nervously. “I haven’t told the others yet. They worked so hard on this album and now it’s all gonna end up Pierce’s vault.”

Bucky took a moment to actually examine Addison. Her pallor was pale and ashen, small beads of sweat were sitting on the surface of her upper lip and forehead. Her hands wouldn’t stop trembling as she fidgeted with her hair and the dials of the soundboard, her right leg bouncing anxiously up and down. His lips pursed with his frown and he cast Steve a pointed look that had him examining her closer as well and connecting all the dots.

“I don’t think the others are going to be mad at you, Addison,” Steve said softly, his demeanor instantly switching from abashed at being caught in the studio to over protective of her wellbeing.

“I didn’t say they would be. I just feel like a fucking asshole. Just another fucking thing I managed to screw up,” Addison bit back and it had Steve sitting back in his seat.

“Hey,” Bucky soothed, reaching forward and finding the pause button on the playback. When Addison didn’t protest he reached up and slowly slid the headphones from her head set them on the table. “Why don’t you just step away from this for a minute. Did you eat something this morning?”

Addison shook her head and wrapped her arms around her knees before resting her chin on them. “I’ll just throw it up. I just have to keep working. If I can just…” Addison paused and took a shaking breath. “If I can just work for the next couple of days I’ll be okay. I just can’t focus on it.” She brought her nail up to her mouth and stuck the nail between her teeth, chomping down and breaking the acrylic with a sharp snap that had both men wincing. “I don’t want him to control me anymore.”

She didn’t need to clarify what ‘it’ was or what control Pierce still had over her. Both Steve and Bucky could pin point the signs of withdrawal pretty quickly and both men were just impressed she hadn’t taken anything yet to stem the pain.

“No, I think what would be best is if we got you upstairs to bed. You can bring your guitar if you want, but you should lay down with some water,” Steve pressed and Addison frowned, but nodded.

She unfurled herself from the chair and pulled her cardigan tighter around her as a shiver wracked her body. Addison left the guitar in the recording room as she led the way back up into the house. Bucky and Steve both looked behind themselves to see that there was in fact a light above the door and when recording was happening there probably was a light that flashed.

Bucky followed Addison up to her room while Steve took a detour to the kitchen to fill a pitcher with ice water.

“Everything okay?” Wanda asked, still at the breakfast table with some toast.

“Addison is having some withdrawal. We’re taking her back to bed,” Steve commented, his eyes shooting over to the red head.

Wanda frowned for a second with contemplation and then nodded. “Okay, Piet, you know the drill. Let’s start purging the house.” Wanda and Pietro both pushed their dishes away from them and split up with the intent of scouring the house for drugs and liquor and getting rid of it.

Steve watched as the twins rushed off and quirked an eyebrow at Sam who was reading the paper just like he was the morning before. Sam just shrugged at him. “I don’t know where they keep half that shit,” he commented and turned a page.

On his way up to Addison’s room he sent off a text to Natasha asking her to reschedule any interviews the band or Addison had for the coming week with the promise he would explain later. Pushing open the door he didn’t immediately see Bucky and Addison, but he heard them in the bathroom. He felt a tinge of nausea as he heard Addison wretch into the toilet and was so appreciative over the fact that Bucky was never bothered by that sort of thing. Pouring a glass of water from the pitcher he wrapped his knuckles on the bathroom door and Bucky poked his head out.

“Thanks, Stevie,” Bucky sighed and took the glass of water from him. Leaning up on his toes he gave Steve a quick peck to the lips before shutting the door again, knowing that Steve couldn’t stand vomiting.

Steve sat down on the edge of Addison’s unmade bed and waited for the two to come out. At one point Wanda came bustling in and opened up dresser drawers and her bedside table, coming out with a handful of clear baggies and orange bottles of prescription pills. Wanda smiled brightly at Steve before rushing out before Addison could see that Wanda had her stash.

Just in time for the toilet to flush and the sink to run. Bucky led Addison out into her room where she flopped unceremoniously into her bed, her platinum hair sticking to the sweat of her forehead, but her breath coming out freshly minty as she sighed. Bucky must have force mouth wash upon the small girl. Steve reached out and brushed the hair off of Addison’s forehead as Bucky sat down on the other side of her.

“So, I know I’ve been nothing but a selfish bitch this whole time,” Addison mumbled into her pillow and Bucky quirked an amused eyebrow at Steve. “But can I be selfish again?”

“What do you need?” Steve asked, pulling her comforter up around her.

“You guys are like furnaces and I’m fucking freezing,” Addison noted before trailing off and cracking a red rimmed eye open to look at them both.

Bucky sighed and pulled the comforter back slightly. “Well, budge into the middle then, doll.”

Addison hummed sleepily but managed to drag herself into the middle of the king sized bed where Bucky slid up to her right side. He shot Steve a pointed look, the blond man was the one that got them into this mess to begin with so he’d better pony up. Steve rolled his eyes at his boyfriend and slid into Addison’s left. Addison sighed in content as she rolled over and curled into Steve’s side, absorbing his warmth.

Bucky skooched in closer to her backside and pulled out his phone.

“What level are you on in Candy Crush?” he whispered to Steve as Addison started to drift off to sleep.

“248?” Steve asked, pulling out his own phone.

“Nice,” Bucky smirked and opened up level 249.

[daresplaining]

Do you think Matt is better suited as a prosecutor, or a defence attorney, as he seems to have been most of the time? Which, in your opinion, does he seem to prefer?

    This actually doesn’t come up as much as you might think, so it’s hard to point to a specific panel and say “Hah! Yes, Matt prefers ____”. There’s also not a ton of consistency, and he will occasionally jump from defense to prosecution from one case to another without explanation. But his general trend is toward defense, and since that’s the type of law he’s practiced for most of his career, we can assume that’s what he’s most comfortable with. He hasn’t shown a particular talent for one over the other either. He’s a good lawyer no matter which side he’s on, but overall, he’d rather spend his professional life keeping innocents from going to jail than throwing bad guys in jail– which is part of the reason why he does the Daredevil thing in his off-hours. That way, he is able to balance out the occasional instance of defending people he knows are guilty. And that leads right into your other question, so we hope you don’t mind if we go ahead and answer that here too…

    All the time. There’s a reason he’s been disbarred so many times. (Actually, there are two reasons, but we’ll leave the Kingpin out of this for now. The problem is mostly Matt.)

Judge: “Our issue is less with your sabotage of the Ogilvy case than with Nelson & Murdock’s now-disclosed history of ethics violations. Your past activities as a vigilante, as well as the questionable actions you and your partner have taken to preserve that identity, leave us no flexibility. With a heavy heart, this court hereby disbars Matthew M. Murdock and Franklin P. Nelson.”

Daredevil vol. 3 #36 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Javier Rodriguez 

    Matt is a moral guy but a very unethical lawyer, simply because he does operate on both sides of the law. Every single case he takes on is tainted in this way, because he nearly always uses his Daredevil identity and powers to gather evidence and determine guilt. At this late point in the Marvel universe (and with the exception of the period when the Superhero Registration Act was being enforced), being a vigilante doesn’t seem to be quite as illegal as it is in our world, simply because there have been so many dang superheroes around for so long. However, Matt is put on trial for vigilante activity– which we’ll be talking about later in the post– and it’s still a clear breach of legal protocol, and not what a lawyer should be doing. There’s also the factor of his powers, which he uses on a regular basis to give himself an edge, and on which he relies to an unwise degree. He hates defending guilty clients, and has gotten himself into trouble before by trying to determine guilt via heartbeat. All of this isn’t just a Matt problem, by the way– though it does tend to come up more with him than with other superhero lawyers. There’s a great issue of She-Hulk, for example, (She-Hulk (2004) #1, to be specific) where Jen loses a winning verdict because she saves the world while the trial is going on, and the judge rules that this biased the jury in her favor.    

   But Matt is the Unethical Lawyer poster child when it comes to this sort of thing, and this conflict has been a major theme in Daredevil comics, particularly within the last decade-or-so. With this in mind, we’re going to be providing just a few examples, rather than a comprehensive list of offenses.  

   The “Worlds Collide” story from volume 4 #15.1 focuses specifically on this dichotomy of legal work versus superhero work. Early in both his legal and… extralegal careers, Matt is assigned to defend a man who he apprehended as Daredevil. While spending his nights trying to ascertain whether his client is actually guilty, in court he is put in the position of arguing against the concept of superheroes.  

Matt: “What are his motives? What does he want? I want to know who this man, this ‘Daredevil’– who is, essentially, accusing my client of murder– I want to know who he is. Other than a criminal. We know he’s at least guilty of assault… and, in the case of the defendant, involuntary imprisonment. Consider the facts… An unknown man in a disguise attacks someone… tackles him to the ground… and yet it’s the person who was assaulted who gets arrested? This isn’t justice. And it’s not how the justice system is supposed to work.”

Daredevil vol. 4 #15.1, “Worlds Collide” by Marc Guggenheim, Peter Krause, and Matt Wilson  

   Matt is fully aware of the irony of making this argument and yet continuing to try and determine his client’s guilt as Daredevil. He knows what he’s doing is wrong, and he cares deeply about his career as a lawyer. That’s an important point that we want to make clear. It’s not just a cover/source of intel for his secret life, as jobs occasionally are for superheroes– he genuinely loves being a lawyer and cares about the legal system. But even in this story, at this early point in his career, he feels justified in taking massive liberties with the law for the sake of ensuring that justice is actually done. He’s a self-assured enough person to believe that he knows best, and that his interventions as Daredevil are fair and necessary. That doesn’t mean they are– but that’s his mindset, and it always has been.

Matt: “A man murders. He leaves clues. He did it. He’s guilty. He’ll pay for the crime. Simple. That’s the beauty of justice. Daredevil tracks him, Matt Murdock makes him pay. Simple, gorgeous justice. When I’m poor, blind Matt Murdock, it’s easy to believe in the law, in the courts. Why is it, soon as I put on this suit– I feel that belief cracking? Doesn’t matter. Tonight will be different. I’ll reel the killer in, and the courts’ll get him locked up for life. Pure, beautiful justice.”

Daredevil vol. 1 #251 by Ann Nocenti, John Romita, Jr., and Christie Scheele

    (By the way, this is a good example of what we were referring to in response to your first question. Matt is thinking like a prosecutor here.)

    To explain his willingness to cross these lines– if not to necessarily justify it– we need to look back at his origin story. A key part of his decision to become Daredevil in the first places was the fact that his father’s killers didn’t go to jail for their crime– and I’m partial to renditions of his origin that make clear that he only goes after the Fixer and friends himself after they’ve been put on trial.

Matt: “We did it all by the book. The police weren’t surprised that Sweeney and Slade were involved and it wasn’t long before they were arrested. But, on the day of the bail hearing, suddenly, they had some Park Avenue attorney. His hair gel cost more than what Foggy and I were wearing.”

Daredevil: Yellow #1 by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale   

   He sees justice fail, and so steps in to pick up the slack. Whether this was a good move on his part is up for debate. He unintentionally causes the Fixer to die of a heart attack long before he has a chance to go to jail, for instance, which is a moral issue all on its own. But with this inciting, highly personal incident always in the back of his mind, and as his legal career continues to show him the gaps and weaknesses in the system, he feels continually justified in filling in the cracks with his own brand of crimefighting.

    But credit where credit is due– right now, at this very moment in the current run (spoiler alert!), Matt is taking steps to address this issue. He and the D.A.’s office are attempting to set precedent for allowing superheroes to legally contribute their skills and testimony to criminal investigations, without being forced to reveal their identities.  

Matt: “Slug’s gang escaped, but we got him, and I picked up plenty of evidence with my super-senses. If the judge lets me testify, I can put him away, and maybe get him to turn over on his crew. It is legal. I’m sure of it. And if I can pull this off… if I can testify without taking off my mask, then we all can. Any secret identity hero. Spider-Man… even Blindspot. […] It could change everything. Our powers let us gather evidence the cops just can’t. If we can present it in court, legally… no more tying up bad guys, leaving them for the police and praying the system can get a conviction. We can be part of the process from start to finish.”

Daredevil vol. 5 #22 by Charles Soule, Goran Sudzuka, and Matt Milla

    This still doesn’t seem to address the fact that Matt is both a superhero and a lawyer, and is still free and willing to interfere in questionable ways in his own cases with no oversight– but hey, it’s still a big deal.  

    Generally, the instances of Matt behaving unethically that are emphasized within the narrative specially for being unethical, involve Matt trying to protect his life as Daredevil. His identity has been leaked to the press twice. The first time, fortunately, the journalist was discredited before the story got too far or Matt had to make any big moves. But the second time, when his secret identity is printed on the front page of the Daily Globe (not to be confused with the Daily Bugle) during Bendis’s run, he is forced to choose between accepting the charges or lying, both in public and in court. He opts for lying (with Foggy’s full-if-uncomfortable support), and the two of them even go so far as to sue the Globe for libel.

Foggy: “Working either side of the law? This means Matt Murdock defrauded the American justice system by faking a trial against Daredevil. And that’s just the most recent example. Matt– you can’t. You can’t come clean. You can’t come out. First? You’ll get disbarred. And then… then you go to jail. You know I’m right, pal. So the thing we do? We fight this. […] We get up on the highest tree and we scream: liars! We sue everyone in sight until their heads spin off their bodies.”

Daredevil vol. 2 #33 by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Matt Hollingsworth

    When he is put on trial for operating as a vigilante, Matt contemplates fighting his way out of the courtroom and just running away, before deciding to plead not guilty. He does, notably, feel bad about all this later, and reflects on it in volume 3 #36 when he finally decides to out himself as Daredevil. But that certainly hasn’t stopped him from lying and playing with the law since.

    Arguably the most egregious– and certainly the most memorable– example of Matt’s shaky legal ethics (which Foggy references in the excerpt above) is the “Playing to the Camera” arc (DD vol. 2 #20-25). This plotline centers around Matt and Foggy getting hired to sue Daredevil, allegedly for causing some major property damage. Matt knows he didn’t do it, and is affronted that his honor is being impinged by some troublemaker pretending to be Daredevil. Despite the obvious immorality such a thing would involve, and Foggy’s protestations, Matt takes the case to keep control of it and prevent other lawyers from snooping around in Daredevil’s business.    

Matt: “Foggy, if we don’t take the case, Griggs’ll keep at it until he finds someone who will. Like Claude Unger. And the last thing Daredevil needs is Claude Unger poking around in his life.”

Foggy: “We can’t do it, Matt! It’s insane! To say nothing of the ethics! Allowing yourself to be hired to sue yourself– it’s illegal! You could be disbarred!”

Matt: “It’ll die on the vine. Remember, the case has no merit. Once we investigate and I find this imposter, it falls apart, end of story. It’ll be over inside of a week.”

Daredevil vol. 2 #20 by Bob Gale, Phil Winslade, James Hodgkins, et al.

   Surprise– it’s not over inside of a week, and it does go to court, and Matt finds himself in the position of having to sue himself. He manages to be in two places at once by convincing Peter Parker to pretend to be Daredevil, going behind his (DD’s) lawyer’s back in the process. It’s a hilarious, utterly unethical mess– and one Matt is perfectly willing to undertake for the sake of protecting his identity.  

    In short: lawbreaking is inherent in the superhero genre, and Matt’s position as a lawyer and devotion to the proper functioning of the justice system in no way prevents him from bending legal ethics to their absolute limit.   

[newssplashy]

Opinion: Charged with murder, but the pastor didn't pull the trigger

DOTHAN, Ala. — A Google search will show that Pastor Kenneth Glasgow first made news in 2001 as the former crack addict and prison inmate who was fretted over by his older half brother, the Rev. Al Sharpton Jr.

The local media in Dothan, a small, unprepossessing city in Alabama’s Wiregrass region, have long followed his story of reinvention from felon to do-gooder who hand-delivered meals, organized unity marches and — in a place where few were willing to speak out — crusaded against brutality and racism.

During the Senate race between Roy Moore and Doug Jones last year, Glasgow gained attention with his effort to register as voters thousands of people with felony records, a campaign that thrilled left-wing groups while outraging Breitbart News.

Nowadays, though, one thing tops the search results: a mug shot, his eyes hooded, his white goatee jutting out at a defiant angle.

In March, Glasgow was charged with capital murder.

The day before the fatal shooting took place, he spoke at the local March for Our Lives for gun control. To an East Coast journalist who has been visiting Dothan for a decade, the idea that this man could be facing death row seemed, if not Shakespearean (tragic and predestined), then perhaps Faulknerian (grotesque and confounding).

First, there were so many people in Dothan who would revel in his downfall. In a place known for the excesses of its criminal justice system, Glasgow has been the critic-in-chief of police, prosecutors and jailers.

And then there is the fact that he did not actually kill anyone.

The police say that a passenger in a car that Glasgow was driving got out and fatally shot another motorist. Under Alabama’s complicity law, also known as the “aiding and abetting” statute, an accomplice to a crime is just as guilty as the main actor. To make their case against Glasgow, prosecutors must prove that he knew, or reasonably should have known, that violence was going to occur. He says he had no idea.

“I don’t do violence,” he said when I went down to Dothan to hear the story firsthand. “To know that I’m the cause, or involved in, a black woman’s death? It’s like the death of me, really.”

I had arrived at the office of his defense lawyer, Derek Yarbrough, to find a surprise guest: Rickey Stokes, a bail bondsman, news blogger, private investigator, 911 board chairman and assistant coroner.

Stokes and Glasgow have a history that is Dothanesque. They have been adversaries — Glasgow, who is black, once protested when Stokes, who is white, chained two African-American bail-bond clients to the courthouse doors. Stokes was convicted of misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment, and complained that Glasgow had unduly made a racial issue out of it.

But it all turned out to be nothing personal: Glasgow has now requested Stokes’ investigative services on his very bizarre case.

Here’s what happened: On Sunday, March 25, Glasgow was in the Bottom, the poor neighborhood where he does much of his work, with a friend known as Little John. A young man, Jamie Townes, who Glasgow says was an acquaintance, approached and reported that his car was missing. Glasgow believed he had seen the car, a Monte Carlo, a few blocks away.

Townes, a woman named Choyce Bush, Little John and Glasgow got into the car Glasgow was driving that day, a borrowed brand-new Toyota Camry, to go look for it.

The Monte Carlo had gone on a wild ride, careening through church grounds, fields and ditches, knocking over a street sign and ramming into a tree in someone’s front yard. Finally, with its hood popped open, blocking the driver’s view, it plowed into the front of the Camry on the driver’s side.

“We didn’t find the car,” Glasgow said. “The car found us.”

After the collision, Townes got out of the back seat of the Camry and, the police say, began firing at the driver of the Monte Carlo, who everyone assumed was a man.

It turned out to be Breunia Jennings, a young woman with a long history of mental illness, who in the preceding hours had cut her hair short, fled from a motel barefoot and barely dressed, donned men’s clothing and, apparently, found Townes’ car with the motor running. The police now believe that she was driving so erratically because she was being chased.

There’s more to the story. Glasgow says that not only did the Monte Carlo hit the Camry from the front, but another vehicle hit the Camry from behind. (Bush also told the police about a rear-end collision, and Townes said he was “punch drunk” from “multiple collisions,” according to police testimony.) The Camry did suffer some rear damage, but no third vehicle was ever found.

Thinking there was some sort of ambush in progress, Glasgow says, he ducked, and did not see the shooting. Nor, he says, was he aware that Townes had gotten out of the car.

Dothan is a city where judgment is swift and punishment can be harsh. It is the seat of Houston County, which ranks among the top 10 in the nation for death row convictions. It has a relatively new district attorney; the previous one was known for striking African-Americans from juries.

But at Glasgow’s preliminary hearing, where he appeared in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit, Judge Benjamin Lewis seemed dubious that criminal charges were warranted.

“What is it he did, other than pick him up and give him a ride, really?” he asked.

Lewis took the rare step in a capital murder case of allowing Glasgow to post bond. A grand jury will decide whether to indict him.

While he waits, the police, some local news coverage and the Dothan rumor mill have portrayed him as callous and indifferent. Much has been made of the fact that he did not call the police to report the Monte Carlo missing, nor did he call 911 after the accident.

To the first point, Glasgow says, he and his passengers believed the car had been taken by a friend. To the second, the police arrived at the scene moments after the shooting, so he says there was no need to call them.

There has been surprisingly little controversy over what may be the most unflattering part of the episode: Glasgow spent the minutes after the accident trying to commit insurance fraud. The Camry’s owner was concerned that her insurance would not cover the accident, so she hurried to the scene in order to stand in as the driver.

At the time, Glasgow says, he did not know that anyone had died. When Glasgow learned, hours later at the police station, that the situation was far more serious than just a car wreck, he says he promptly confessed to having been the driver.

Glasgow, 53, says he did not know that Townes, 27, had a gun. Even so, prosecutors may try to argue that it was reasonable to expect that Townes, who police say is a drug dealer, would commit violence. Townes had previous state charges for theft and drug possession, but not for violent offenses.

Townes’ lawyer, James Parkman III, says his client fired in self-defense, pointing to a Facebook post in which Jennings said she was going to “stab and shoot” and “catch a murder case.”

In the eyes of the police, Glasgow’s association with Townes is suspicious. But helping people with unsavory pasts is Glasgow’s calling. It was some two decades ago, during Glasgow’s most recent of several stints in prison, that he and a friend conceived of a ministry focused on addiction, poverty and life after incarceration. They called it The Ordinary People Society.

Glasgow’s operation, housed in a run-down old shopping plaza and cluttered with the unruly archives of Mama Tina, Glasgow’s mother and co-missionary, can seem picayune. But Glasgow’s reach becomes apparent when he walks down the street: Every pedestrian and car stops to greet him. And over the years he has scored some improbable legal and political victories.

“The real story of what happens in America happens in these small towns, and in these small towns there are people whose rights have been completely upended,” said Asha Bandele, until recently a senior director at the Drug Policy Alliance, which helped finance Glasgow’s work for years.

Dothan’s population is about one-third African-American, but the city has an entrenched white power structure: It has never had a black mayor, police chief, circuit judge, county sheriff or school superintendent. It is the type of place where, if you call the police chief or the district attorney with a complaint, he may offer to pray with you right there on the line. In part through the common ground of Christianity, Glasgow has been able to forge some relationships with white businessmen who help pay for his work.

But where some see an advocate, many others — particularly white people in town — see a charlatan. The murder charge complicated matters. Though his hearing was packed with supporters, some African-American residents have turned against Glasgow as well.

The city was teeming with unfounded rumors: That Townes was actually Glasgow’s son. That they were in cahoots as drug kingpins. That Glasgow and Townes had terrorized and raped Jennings, then hunted her down. I heard that one from Jennings’ mother, Lakesia Reeves, who said she heard it from an anonymous caller.

In that environment, it is perhaps not surprising that Glasgow, too, would believe he is being deliberately targeted. For his opponents, he says, restoring voting rights to felons was bad enough — but the victory of Jones, a Democrat, in the Senate race was the final straw. “They want me dead,” he insisted.

Accustomed to being an activist for others, Glasgow now finds himself without a champion of his own. But as he awaits the grand jury’s decision, he has found a new crusade: changing the accomplice law.

“I did my time for what I did,” he said, speaking of previous armed robbery and drug convictions. “I’m not going to do it for something I didn’t do.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Shaila Dewan © 2018 The New York Times

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/07/opinion-charged-with-murder-but-pastor.html