Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to arrested the only vive and local show that takes you into the belly of our criminal justice system, cohosted by Mike Brooks and Atlanta criminal defense attorney Dan conaway of Conway and strickler pc. Morning, everybody. Welcome to arrested. I'm your host, Mike Brooks, along with criminal defense attorney Dan conaway. Dan, this new show we want to, we want to take people through what the whole legal system is all about. And uh, and, and this morning I want to start off talking about most of the people know who I am because I do have a show here on the new top, one slash six slash seven, uh, every single day from noon to three, but a lot of people probably don't know who you are as a criminal defense attorney and your background. So, Dan, welcome.

Speaker 2: 0:45

Thank you, Mike. I appreciate it. Um, so why did I become a criminal defense lawyer? I became a criminal defense lawyer because one, I decided to be wanting to become a lawyer for a whole host of different reasons, but ultimately I settled on criminal law because I wanted to try cases. And the weird thing about it is that I thought I was going to be a corporate lawyer. Yeah, I really did. I came home.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Well, only want to be a corporate lawyer anyway when you can get out and actually deal with the people and are on a day to day basis.

Speaker 2: 1:18

I did. I wanted to be a corporate lawyer. Okay. Uh, because, you know, I sit in an office and I get to write documents, I get to read books, read all that kind of fun stuff. But then I went to law school and by during law school I discovered that I didn't find business law particularly interesting. And I got a chance to do some trial work because I went to emory law school and there's a trial techniques program where we actually get to try stuff, you know, mock trial, it's not trust. Sure. That kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely. And I found I really, really enjoyed that. Well the only way to try anything in the real world when you're young lawyer,

Speaker 1: 1:54

but why did you like that more? You know, once you got into that. All

Speaker 2: 1:58

right. True Story. I played football and hope for a while in high school I was kind of a jock and a girlfriend of mine, not a girl who was a girlfriend, but a girl who was a friend came to me junior year in high school and she said that they were trying out parts for the local school play and she said they needed guys to try it for the guy parts and she said, I think you'd be really good at that. You'd like to talk and you'd like to public speak. And I liked her, like she was nuts. I said, I'm a jock. I played football, I throw baseballs, I don't do theater, but I try to afford just for grins and I actually liked it. Well there you go. And what I discovered when we did this trial techniques program at emory was that it was my drama skills that actually worked. It was the theater stuff I learned meaning how to move, how to talk, how do you use your voice, how to really emote when you need to emote, how to really make a point. So a courtroom is in a way a theater and so using the courtroom for me was very similar to my theater work, so I liked it, decided to not like business law and decided to become a prosecutor. And so the amount of courtroom

Speaker 1: 3:13

now, how long have you been an attorney and have you always been here in, uh, in Atlanta or were you somewhere else? Uh, when you first started off?

Speaker 2: 3:21

No, I came actually, I came to Atlanta. I moved to Atlanta in 1990 to go to law school at emory and uh, that became a lawyer in 1993. I worked for the Georgia Supreme Court as a governor's intern under my favorite Supreme Court Justice Hornstein Curl Hoenstein whom just retired. And then I became a prosecutor and then I hated being prosecutor. I realized we need good prosecutors. Don't wanna be very clear, just like we need to police officers. Absolutely. So there's room for good judges, good prosecutors, good police officers. But I realized rather quickly that I needed to be at the defense table, that that's where I belonged. Why is that concerned about the individual? I don't like seeing people put in jail. Now I have to tell you, for somebody who's been in the criminal justice and for 25 years, unfortunately there are some people

Speaker 1: 4:15

they really do need to be in jail and I'm the first to admit that as a former law enforcement officer of a little over 26 years, I can tell you there, there are some people that need to be in jail. You know, one of, one of the cases we've been talking about on my show over the last number of months is that case in front of the capital city club where you know, uh, where Christian Broder Washington DC was shot and killed during a robbery where you had one of the defendants in that case, Jason, Jaden Myrick, who had been let out when he probably should have been kept behind bars. And, and this is coming from folks that I know who were both criminal defense attorneys and former judges that also feel the same way that that person should not have been let out. And maybe we'll talk about that case somewhere down the road as it progresses. But no, you're right, there are some people like him that need to be liked,

Speaker 2: 5:07

they need to be in. Absolutely. But there are others that don't. Right. And both, regardless, both neither rights protected. Sure. And they need a good defense. They need good lawyers because if we don't protect those who've done allegedly the worst of things are accused of during the worst things or those were just really bad backgrounds, right? Yeah. If we don't protect their rights under our constitution, then all of our rights are taken away. Absolutely. If history shows one thing, it shows that when government tries to take away people's rights, they always take away the rights of those. Liked the least first. They always take the way, the rights of the criminal, the rights of the person accused of a crime, right? They always graft the undesirables first because they figured nobody will care. And that's how we lose our rights as citizens. So if we represent the rights of everyone, everyone's rights are protected,

Speaker 1: 6:06

but you're right, we still do also need good prosecutors as well. And, you know, it's interesting how many people I've met along the way that, uh, that are life long, criminal prosecutors, yes, you know, that, that they maybe have been on the defense side for awhile, but they were a prosecutor went to the defense side. Then they decided to come back to the prosecution side.

Speaker 2: 6:31

It's true and I know some of those people and the, the system in order to work has to have really good prosecutors. Really good judges, really good defense lawyers and really good jurors. The jurors and the bedrock, but the key and a trial or in any part of the criminal justice system, including the police, is that everybody does their job and everybody does their job according to the laws, right? According to due process that the laws and liberties and due process for all citizens are respected. And that way the system works. Where the system breaks down is where somebody doesn't do their job as well as they could.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Exactly. Well, you talk about the criminal justice system we are going to take apart and we're going to find out what the criminal justice system is all about. Here on arrested. On the new talk one. Oh, six slash seven.