Letters to the Editor: Without defense attorneys, the American legal system doesn’t work
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To the editor: It’s a hard job being a defense attorney. Even at prestigious American universities, ill-considered invective may be directed at defense lawyers, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s counsel, Melanie T. Partow, and Harvey Weinstein’s counsel, Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. (“UCLA chancellor rebukes law school event with 9/11 ‘mastermind’ attorney; organizers push back,” Sept. 12)
The American legal system depends on defense counsel as much as it depends on prosecutors, juries and judges. Without all of these elements working together, American courts can and do misfire, as they did in the case of the Central Park Five in New York City in 1989.
Our society needs to thank defense attorneys. The right to competent counsel is one of the greatest privileges afforded to our citizens.
Stuart Gallant, Belmont, Mass.
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To the editor: The UCLA law school faculty demanding Chancellor Julio Frenk retract his statement about the 9/11 symposium have the argument exactly backward (“UCLA chancellor faces faculty outcry over 9/11 statement, a test of academic freedom,” Sept 18).
The conference organizers had every right, protected by the 1st Amendment, to hold their event. But their program was notably one-sided. It examined the “erosion of human rights” after the attacks without, by all available accounts, any meaningful discussion of the ideology behind them, including why the response was launched or what alternative the organizers would have proposed. Additionally, holding that program on the anniversary of an attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans was, at minimum, inappropriate and unwise.
Chancellor Frenk did not fire anyone. He did not cancel the event. He expressed disappointment and distanced the university. That, too, is protected speech — and it is exactly the kind of judgment a university leader should exercise.
Academic freedom is not a shield against criticism. It never has been.
Alan Kadish, Hollywood
This writer is president of Touro University.
