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Hard Questions And Innocent Clients: The Normative Framework Of The Three Hardest Questions, And The Plea Bargaining Problem, Alice Woolley

Hofstra Law Review

What makes an ethical question “hard”? Monroe Freedman’s “Professional Responsibility of the Criminal Defense Lawyer: The Three Hardest Questions” assessed hard questions about discrediting truthful witnesses, presenting perjured testimony and providing advice that may prompt the client to lie. It also, however, created a framework for analyzing ethical problems, for knowing when a question is hard, and both what has to be done to answer a hard question and to defend the answer. This paper articulates that framework. It argues that hard questions arise from unresolvable conflicts either between the lawyer’s professional and personal moral obligations, or between different aspects …