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Professional Responsibility Of The Criminal Defense Lawyer: The Three Hardest Questions, Monroe H. Freedman

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

In almost any area of legal counseling and advocacy, the lawyer may be faced with the dilemma of either betraying the confidential communications of his client or participating to some ex-tent in the purposeful deception of the court. This problem is no-where more acute than in the practice of criminal law, particularly in the representation of the indigent accused. The purpose of this article is to analyze and attempt to resolve three of the most difficult issues in this general area:

1. Is it proper to cross-examine for the purpose of discrediting the reliability or credibility of an adverse witness …