Whenever people learn that I am a defence lawyer, they invariably ask me the same question: “how can you sleep at night, knowing that because of you a guilty person might go free?” And my answer is always the same: I’m not kept awake nights at the thought of a guilty person going free. What wakens me at 2:00 and 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. is the thought that an innocent person might be convicted.

It’s not my job to determine a client’s guilt or innocence. That’s the job of the Judge at the client’s trial. But any defence lawyer will tell you that there are cases where we are sure our client is innocent. And the thought of a wrongful conviction keeps us awake, keeps us working, keeps us checking and re-checking our work, to make sure we have done all we can. Imagine if it was you, charged with a sexual assault you didn’t commit. Imagine if you were facing the same fate as Guy Paul Morin, or Stephen Truscott, or far too many others who spent time in jail and then, years later, were exonerated. You, too, would lie awake at night, worrying. I never lose sleep over any of my acquittals. It’s the thought of convictions that keeps me awake.