I think there must be a defense lawyer in the most heinous cases, mainly for the following reasons:
First, in order to avoid unjust, false and wrong cases.
This is the main reason. When a major criminal case occurs in China, the social response is often great, and the public security organs are under great pressure. Some government officials ordered the public security organs to solve the case within a time limit for work reasons, otherwise the leaders of the public security organs would be held accountable, and the public security bureau chief could only ask the criminal investigation brigade to solve the case as soon as possible; The mayor asked for seven days to solve the case, and the director will ask for five days to solve the case.
In this case, the following public security personnel can only take many means of extorting confessions by torture to obtain evidence, so that there will be unjust, false and wrong cases. You can find some major unjust, false and misjudged cases by searching online. These unjust, false and misjudged cases cannot make up for the huge mental damage and economic losses caused to the people who died unjustly and their families by bowing to the court leaders and giving certain state compensation.
Lawyers' participation in the most heinous criminal cases is conducive to excluding illegal evidence, restoring the facts of the case, observing the principle of never suspecting a crime, and avoiding the occurrence of unjust, false and wrong cases.
Second, lawyers defend criminals who commit the most heinous crimes, which reflects the progress of national justice.
Our country now stipulates that all criminal cases are covered, not to mention the most heinous criminal suspects.
Criminal suspects enjoy the right to defense according to law. Even if their families are ashamed and unwilling to hire lawyers for these heinous suspects, the judiciary will hire lawyers for these people free of charge.
This reflects the progress and perfection of a country's justice, and also fully respects the human rights of criminal suspects, preventing foreigners from attacking us all day for not respecting human rights.
Third, the lawyer's defense will not condone the suspect, but will only make the case more in line with the basic facts.
Some people worry that the intervention of lawyers will lead these heinous criminal suspects to escape legal sanctions!
These worries are unnecessary. If you don't have enough evidence to prove that these people deserve to die, what makes you think these people are heinous criminals?
Take the recent old Rong Zhi as an example. In the first trial, the lawyers of the second trial put forward many new ideas, including that Rong Zhi Sr. also said in court that he didn't know about some things, and even didn't participate in some criminal acts, which made the court unable to pronounce a sentence in court.
Since the prosecution has insufficient evidence, it cannot be taken for granted that some people are guilty of heinous crimes.
Fourth, lawyers defend these so-called "heinous" criminal suspects only to safeguard legal dignity.
These heinous criminals often have no money to hire lawyers, and most defense lawyers are free. For example, the lawyer of Rong Zhi Sr. defended for free.
These defense lawyers just want to avoid unjust, false and wrong cases and safeguard the dignity of the law. Of course, some lawyers want to be famous so that they can take more cases in the future. However, it is undeniable that the participation of these lawyers may lead to the trial of cases not being smooth, and even some cases appear repeatedly, but all of them are to safeguard the dignity of the law.
In short, why do lawyers defend "heinous" criminal suspects, not to excuse these people, but to avoid unjust, false and wrong cases. Surely you also want a lawyer to stand up when you are wronged?