Blood Defense and Emotional Dissonance
I know I’m supposed to ‘separate the art from the artist’ while reviewing any book, but I’m going to break the rules a bit in today’s post :)
I recently read Blood Defense, Part 1 of a legal thriller series featuring Samantha Brinkman, a criminal defense attorney who runs a fledgling private practice. This book is a well-written, entertaining read that revolves around the defense of Dale Pearson, a police officer who is the prime suspect in the murder of Chloe Monahan, a famous TV actress.
Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Defense-Samantha-Brinkman-Book-ebook/dp/B0146LBFIE
Blood Defense is written by Marcia Clark, a former lawyer herself - best known for being the lead prosecutor in the infamous OJ Simpson murder trial. While the book as such is fictional, there are some parallels that can be drawn between this story and the actual OJ trial.
For one, the Dale Pearson case is also subject to the ‘media circus’ due to its high-profile nature. And just like how OJ was an almost-personal case for Marcia due to her own experience of being harassed by a man in her youth, the Dale Pearson case is a personal one for Samantha - the lawyer who represents Dale.
Despite the personal nature of the case, Samantha displays a remarkable ability of keeping her emotions aside while representing her clients. We see this trait not only in her dealings with Dale, but with every thief or killer she represents over the course of the book, no matter how culpable her clients actually are.
The story is narrated from a first-person POV which gives readers a glimpse into her thought process, and so it is fairly clear that Samantha is not just ‘surface-acting’, but in fact possesses the mental make-up that her job demands. The rest of this article will delve into some of the reasons why Samantha is able to deal with the ‘emotional labour’ of being a criminal lawyer.
Emotional Labour and Emotional Dissonance
In essence, emotional labour refers to regulating one’s emotions to get a job done. It could apply to waiters at a restaurant who wear a subordinate expression even in the face of an unreasonable customer. It could apply to doctors who need to appear calm even while dealing with gruesome situations.
And as this paper (published by the University of Michigan Law Reform Journal) postulates, being a lawyer requires an incredibly high tolerance for emotional labour. As per the Bar, lawyers are required to ‘zealously represent their clients’ and satisfy their clients’ interests in the best way possible by doing whatever it takes - as long as their actions fall within the realm of legality.
Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a new article!
It is quite clear that Samantha Brinkman does not like some of the clients that she represents, because they have committed horrible acts that warrant punishment in her view. In some of the cases she handles, she is seen secretly wishing that her clients get jail time. But this doesn’t stop her from vociferously fighting to get her clients the best deals possible, because that’s what she gets paid to do. This requires not only a lot of emotional labour, but a high level of emotional dissonance, in which her actual emotions are in violent conflict with her actions. Here’s how she makes things a little easier to deal with:
Mission statement
Below are a couple of excerpts from the book which portray how Samantha views her job:
“I had friends in the public defender’s office who were true believers, who didn’t care how many victims their clients had disemboweled, who thought they were all just poor, misunderstood unfortunates. And some are, though more often they’re just schlemiels who don’t think past the next five minutes—which is largely why they get caught….”
“…I don’t have to love the client. I don’t even have to like the client. Sometimes, I really hate the client. Doesn’t matter. I’m there to take care of society’s refuse, the ones nobody wants—or ever wanted. And if I have to slash and burn to do it, so be it…”
The crux of Samantha’s motivation to be a representative for possible criminals is her innate belief that ‘everyone deserves representation’. Not the cleanest of kids herself during her youth, she often got into trouble for drugs and underage drinking. Somehow, she managed to get bailed out every time and eventually got access to a less-troubled adulthood later on in life.
Having a strong mission statement and reminding ourselves of the reason we signed up for a job helps us rationalize the day-to-day emotional dissonance that the job brings with it.
Trust in the system
The entire criminal justice system is based on the idea of ‘reasonable doubt’. In a documentary describing the OJ Simpson case, the actor playing OJ’s lawyer Cochran talks about how juries respond to stories and that the main job of the defendant is to make different stories plausible to the jury to distract them from the prosecutor’s story. During the course of the trial, Cochran suggests different stories at different stages, trying to discover which story would stick the most with the jury.
Even in the novel, we see Samantha actively thinking, “How do I find another possible suspect that I can point to?” Doing this requires a slightly lower level of conscience where she isn’t worried about potentially maligning an innocent person just to create reasonable doubt in the mind of the jury. But Marcia, the creator of Samantha, knows only too well from experience that the comprehensive checks and balances in the legal system have been painstakingly created based on the expectation that each warring faction will compete ruthlessly to win the jury over.
In the OJ Simpson case, there is an extremely long process of jury selection to ensure that pure emotional manipulation and partisanship do not end up deciding the final verdict. Towards the end, there is also a long deliberation over whether the appointed judge for the case should continue to own the case, after it is found that the case might be personal for the judge.
All of these processes are there in place to help lawyers be unfettered in their enthusiasm for their clients’ interests. And Samantha takes full liberty (and some more) in exercising this privilege, as she believes there is a higher chance of justice prevailing if she does so.
Stoicism
Samantha is not an idealist by any stretch of imagination. She grew up with an unsupportive mother and an abusive stepfather. Her deep-rooted acceptance of the fact that life isn’t fair protects her from reflecting on existential questions, such as “Why do I live most of my life fighting for someone who might be wrong?”
Now, none of this is healthy by any means. And nor is the general practice of emotional labour. Is there a better way for lawyers to secure justice without having to deal with conflicting morals all the time?
In a simplistic sense, law is about enforcing good behaviour. But because ethics and ethical dilemmas are a complex concept, there is always a gulf between the ‘legal code’ and the elusive ‘moral code’. If there was a perfect set of laws that clearly specified the ‘right thing to do’ in every scenario, lawyers would never need to exhibit emotional dissonance. The very act of ‘going by the book’ would help them understand which clients to represent, what tactics qualify as ‘sneaky’, how much emotional exploitation is valid, and so on.
That might sound unrealistic, but I’m still hopeful. And now, I’m going to break another cardinal rule of book-reviewing - by indulging in some shameless self-promotion. My ongoing sci-fi series, the Rogue Blockchain series, explores the idea of creating a city where people are given the means to discover the perfect set of laws, so that there will exist no difference between what is ‘morally right’ and what is ‘legally right’.
Conclusion
I enjoyed reading Blood Defense. Apart from the exploration of emotional dissonance, it gives a glimpse into the not-so-glamorous lives of celebrity lawyers who appear on TV debates, and also highlights the challenges in running a private legal practice. Any book which makes the law a little more accessible deserves 5 stars in my view, and Blood Defense is Exhibit A.
Note - We are going through unprecedented times with the second COVID wave. Do stay home (if you can), and stay safe. Together, we can get through this crisis.