Would there be less crime?

Question

if criminals were required to represent themselves in a court of law.

Answer 1

your question induce we can know who is guilty and who is innocent before tribunal begin.

And being a criminal has nothing to do with being a dumb and innocent with being smart in their defense.

Answer 2

I have to agree with Scrooge that criminals shouldn't be allowed to have their own defense lawyers in court, and that it would lower crime through higher conviction rates.  The judge is already there to protect the accused rights because in Canada, judges are appointed and can't be fired easily so that they can make unpopular decisions.

The problem with our legal system is it is an adversarial system, with defense lawyers encouraging their clients to lie or the next best thing to not say anything.  That theoretically shouldn't be happening.  They should be telling their clients to tell the truth and to stop breaking the law.

I have experience with this.  When I went to my cousin's trial for break & enter, his lawyer said my cousin had four jobs when I knew he had no jobs and was living at his grandmother's house for free.  For example if my cousin cleaned my grandma's cupboards, the lawyer considered that a job.  Clearly this kind of lying or stretching the truth is not in the interest of justice.

In Canada, our most infamous serial killer's (Paul Bernardo) lawyer Ken Murray even held back video tapes of rapes of girls by Paul Bernardo and his wife Karla Homolka for 17 months from the prosecution.  The girls were later found murdered after having been videotaped.  

Canadians are upset over this because if the prosecution had the tapes showing Karla Homolka was a willing participant in the rapes, she would have been charged with 1st degree murder like her husband instead of making a plea bargain that got her out of prison in 12 years, so it's true that defense lawyers sell their souls to the Devil to defend their clients.

Scrooge I think, despite the efforts of defense lawyers,  we still succeed in convicting most criminals; however, the problem is with them re-offending after they get out of prison.  

Scrooge, if you really want to lower crime, in the interest of public safety, you have to deport serious native born American criminals to whatever African country you can bribe to take them. At least then, since immigrant criminals are already deported, native born American citizenship would be based on worth for the 1st time ever.  We could even deport our criminals to serve their prison sentences in African prisons and save money that way.

The system now is a native born criminal can take his country for granted no matter what he plans to do, and he can live down the street from you without you knowing he's there. Our criminals let you know that by bragging about their crimes, but we choose to let them do that.

Answer 3

No, there would just be more people in jail. Also there might would be fewer attorneys, as not as many would be needed any more.  

Answer 4

No, I do not think really that a criminal worries about how he will be represented in court.

You might just end up with more innocent people in jail as they would not know how to defend themselves

Answer 5

I do not think there would be less crime because if you make a criminal represent themselves they would only get smarter at either the crime there commiting or they would learn how the law works and ways around it sooner or later

Answer 6

no, everyone in this country should have a fair trial, and if the criminals had to represent themselves and the prosecutor could have an attorney then the trial would not be fair.  also remember that you are Innocent until provan guilty and your suggested method you would be guilty until proven innocent.