Old-Fashioned Shame Would Help Fight Crime

June 14, 2007
The Times-Picayune
Op-ed
By Dwight Doskey

In a perfect world, I would be out of a job.

I am a criminal defense lawyer. Some of my clients are guilty, some are innocent, and some are guilty of a crime other than that with which they are charged. Over the last 30 years, working as both a public defender and a privately retained attorney, I have defended hundreds of people accused of homicides.

When I read that New Orleans has the highest murder rate of any major city in the country, I am not surprised. However, we are not unique in our failures. Yes, our failures.

The New Orleans Police Department and the district attorney's office are not to blame for the murder rate. In the greatest part, they respond to, rather than prevent, murders. It is our job -- the job of the citizens -- to prevent murders. We can do this in two ways. We must assist in the prosecution of crime, and we must once again promote a culture in which to be convicted of a violent crime is a shameful event.

Many criminologists agree that it is not the severity of punishment but its certainty that deters crime. This is not to argue that all accused should be convicted, for many of the accused are, in fact, innocent. It is to argue, however, that each of us has a duty to report crime when we see it and to assist the prosecutors when we have witnessed a crime, by testifying honestly.

To testify before a jury is frightening. Many things worth doing are indeed frightening, but if a citizen testifies honestly, neither seeking to protect the guilty nor to convict the innocent, admitting the possibility of mistake where it exists, then we are all better off. It is the job of the jurors to decide not whether witnesses believe the accused is guilty, but whether the evidence supports such a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt.

We should, however, try to stop those murders before it ever reaches the stage where we become witnesses. This is a much longer-term project.

When I was growing up, wayward family members were a source of shame and certainly never mentioned in front of children.

This is not the case any more. In some families I've observed, fathers and brothers who are serving time are the subject of casual conversation. Their incarceration seems to be viewed as a rite of passage.

Relatives of violent criminals appear on television and in the newspaper, blaming everyone and everything but the perpetrator for his bad behavior. "His father was never around." "The sheriff should have kept him in jail longer." "He had post-traumatic stress from Katrina."

When we are no longer ashamed by the criminal misdeeds of our relatives, we give them license to act out.

Of course, we should not lose sight of the fact that many crimes are the result of drug addiction and that those offenders deserve our compassion and help in rehabilitation. Those offenders should not be forever shunned, but welcomed back into the community to complete their rehabilitation and become productive citizens of our city. If we are to make examples of the violent offenders, then we need to decrease the number of citizens jailed for drug crimes or minor crimes. It is up to the Legislature to increase funding for halfway houses and diversionary programs.

As for the violent offenders, our churches, schools and most importantly, our families, need to spread the message that such behavior will not be tolerated.

We must all cooperate with the district attorney's office and the police to ensure that those offenders are both reported and prosecuted.

The incidence of such behavior will only decrease, however, when we all agree that those who physically hurt others are no longer welcome to play, work or dine with us until they pay for their misdeeds and mend their ways.

Dwight Doskey is a former indigent defense attorney in New Orleans. He lives in Covington. His e-mail address is dwightdoskeyplc@bellsouth.net


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