ASK MORT . . .

By Mort Smith

It’s in God’s Hands
Attorney’s Question
My client is charged in a capital case.
Whenever my mitigation specialist or I
try to discuss my client’s life with him or
his family, they become very guarded,
often saying, “Don’t worry, it’s in God’s
hands.” How do I deal with this without
offending their religious sensibilities?
Well, there are two topics I try to avoid
when I deal with clients and witnesses:
politics and religion. It is too easy for
those discussions to morph into argu-
ments. And, since my sole purpose for
interviewing witnesses is to extract infor-
mation, the last thing I want to do is
cause them to shut down thinking that I
am a heathen.
Clients who are detained in pretrial facili-
ties find they have more time on their
hands than they once had. Much of this
time is used to reflect upon, among other
things, religion. A deep sense of remorse
and regret befalls our clients and they fall
back upon the teachings they received as
youngsters. They reflect back to a time
when there was a Bible in every room of
the house and they went to church every
Sunday and Bible study every Wednes-
day. Their family and friends visit them
at the county jail and begin to see a hope-
ful transformation in them. Mothers
breathe a sigh of relief that their child has
finally found God, prays daily, and, if
given just one more chance, will be a
God fearing Christian and a good citizen.
Clients believe in the power of prayer and
we must respect their belief system. I’ve
often noticed that sometimes a person
simply prays for a miracle and then
stands back awaiting the miracle. When
that miracle does not happen, they either
become despondent or rationalize that it
was not God’s will. It appears that the
client refuses to do anything beyond the
prayer, believing that the prayer in and of
itself is enough. This is especially diffi-
cult for members of the defense team.
Lawyers are people of strong intellect,
and when confronted with a problem that
calls for the use of reasoning capabilities,
they maintain their poise and attempt to
reach a solution by garnering facts bear-
ing upon the questions prompted by the
problem. Our clients, on the other hand,
are often not as academically developed
as their lawyers, so they revert to what
they’ve been taught while growing up.
This often results in accepting every
scripture as a literal account of an event
in biblical times. Carefully I say that
those who put religion first and rely upon
the literal esoteric interpretation of cer-
tain scriptures sometimes overlook the
blessings and miracles placed at their
feet. They unknowingly question and
doubt the very God they worship.
I’m reminded of a story I heard growing
up. A minister had been invited to preach
at a church in another state. The only
problem was that the preacher needed to
drive across the dessert to get to the town
where the church stood. So while driving
across the hot dessert, the minister’s car
overheated and stopped. Standing along-
side his car in the hot sun, he began to
pray. He prayed for God to get him to
safety. In his heart he heard God’s an-
swer. He then felt assured that God
would get him to safety and all would be
well. Along came a fellow riding a
camel. He offered the minister a ride and
the minister declined, stating that he had
prayed and God would rescue him. Be-
sides, he did not wish to mess up his nice
suit by riding on that filthy animal. After
a time, a motorcycle gang rode by. They
stopped and offered the preacher the only
available seat, which happened to be on a
chopper driven by a very large bearded
biker named Big Melvin. The preacher
declined, stating that he is a man of God
and that he could not be seen riding into
town with hoodlums. Lastly, an air traf-
fic helicopter arrived. The traffic re-
porter pleaded with the preacher to get in
and be taken to safety. The preacher
declined, saying he had prayed and that
is was in God’s hands.
Well, after some time the heat overtook
the preacher and he passed on. Next we
see him standing before God in heaven.
He was a bit confused. He said to God,
“Lord I served you well. I prayed every-
day and went to church several times a
week. When my car broke down I prayed
and asked you for help and you did not
help me. Why did you let me down?”
God looked at the preacher and said
“What do you mean I let you down? I
sent you a camel, a motorcycle and a
helicopter.”
When I meet with clients and they tell me
that the case is in God’s hands and that if
they pray everything will be all right, I
agree with them. I explain that they are
correct when they tell me that it is in
God’s hands. I explain to them that the
fact that I am sitting there with them is
proof that God has sent them someone
who will call upon his God given skills to
represent them to the fullest. I explain to
them that I fully believe I am the yielded
vessel through which God will work and
that they should continue to pray, but
most important, have faith and trust that
the God they worship will work through
me to help them.
I firmly believe that God puts us in places
and positions throughout our lives for
reasons specific to our calling. From
widget makers to rocket scientists, we all
share the ability to call upon some prior
learning experience to use in order to
help fine tune our skills so that we can
competently represent our clients.
Mort Smith, M.A. is an Illinois Licensed
Private Detective who specializes in
criminal defense investigations. He is
also the Associate Director of the De-
fense Investigator Certification Program,
Center for Justice in Capital Cases at the
DePaul University College of Law. Mort
can be reached at 708/612-9722 or
mort@mortsmith.com.