When Zale started out in law school he had no intention of ever doing criminal work. He wanted to use his MBA and do business law, or use his 12 years of experience in insurance claims to do personal injury work. And not the kind of personal injury work that all the jokes are made up about, but the legitimate claims where people really do need the help of an attorney. It was a little bit about bringing home a really good income, but more about wanting to help people.
Wow, God has really opened our eyes to what His plans are for us, instead of what our plans were for us. Zale also didn’t have any intentions of being in the court room much and really figured he’d be a “desk lawyer”, spending 50 or so hours a week in his office. As it turns out, God had something completely different in mind. Zale spends several days a week (sometimes 5 or 6) driving between counties and court houses doing court appointed (mostly criminal defense) work. This is for defendants who can’t afford an attorney, but the Public Defender has to conflict out and can’t represent them. This isn’t to say that Zale doesn’t also have some private clients, and even a few injury cases working. But we had to come to terms with the fact that Zale is a criminal defense attorney.
In making this mind set change, Zale realized that as a private practice attorney he can do something that Public Defenders can’t do. Zale can use this opportunity as a ministry. He can pray with or for his clients and give them a book or a Bible if he wants to. For most of this time the “criminals” haven’t been the “really bad ones”, like the murders, rapist, etc. It’s usually about drugs, theft, domestic disturbance, that sort of thing. But last week he had a pastor call him and ask him to defend someone who is charged with the rape of a child. Since Zale and I were both sexually molested as children, that was a REALLY hard decision. Personally, I had to take a deep breath, say a quick prayer and respond by saying, if you can minister to them, then you should take it.
My first impulse was to say no, how could we be associated with defending someone who probably raped a child? Then God reminded me that Jesus died for all of us. Not just those of us who have done bad things, but maybe not REALLY bad things. Jesus died for each and every one of us, including people like Hitler, Manson, Stalin, even the child rapist and murderers that we don’t know anything about. Even the people who have done such horrible things that it turns our stomaches to even think about.
So Zale took the case and adopted this attitude about it “If Jesus died for them, I can defend them”. We had to realize that defending someone with charges like these doesn’t mean we have to like the clients, but we do have a responsiblity to show them a love like Christ has shown us. No matter what they’ve done.
