Young people on trial need people who care

At 17, Ryan Matthews was facing the death penalty. What mattered was the knowledge someone cared about his case

A good lawyer can change the experience of everyone involved in fraught and frightening legal situations. In 1999, as a young barrister, I found myself caught up in a trial involving the death penalty in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The jury had found 17-year-old Ryan Matthews guilty of first-degree murder and the public defenders were ill-prepared. We had barely two days in which to assemble and prepare witnesses, family members and clergy – people that lawyers should have been working with for six months. In those two days, we helped them prepare their statements, readied them for cross-examination by a hostile district attorney, and counselled them on how they might persuade the jury to save the life of the person they loved.

It was the first time I had heard a jury return a verdict of the death penalty. It is one of the worst things I have ever witnessed. The jury shuffled in looking tired. They had listened to evidence until midnight the previous night. None of them looked at us or Ryan. I knew that was a bad sign. In less time than it takes to play a football match they had decided that a young man, whom they had never met or spoken to, should die. "And you are unanimous?" the judge asked.      Read More