#completely understandable for Not doing that. i prefer the .tumblr.com format in every other way

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for prioritizing my career over the life of a friend?

I (26M) am the only defense lawyer in a frontier town. I often take clients pro bono and I firmly believe in the right of every man, even guilty ones, to have a fair trial with competent legal help. However, I recognize that the law often leads to a miscarriage of justice, which is why I have an alter ego as a masked gunslinger seeking to work outside the law when necessary.

I've befriended an outlaw (22M) who is a wanted manwith an awful reputation because of his surly personality. His reputation has taken on a life of its own and no posse would capture him alive if they had the chance. However, while he made poor choices as a teenager, he’s not the monster everyone says he is.

Recently, he was framed for a murder he definitely did not commit, as I was with him as my gun-slinging alter ego when the murder supposedly happened. Naturally, I took his case pro bono and tried to defend him in court.

Unfortunately, the only way to prove that he did not commit the crime he was accused of was to reveal my secret identity as an eye witness. But I have made many enemies in my gunslinging identity, and people I care about would be in danger. Furthermore, I worry it would undermine other cases I have successfully argued, and I am practicing law under an alias as I am concealing my true heritage from people in this town, so I chose to remain silent.

Without evidence, and with the other charges against him, my friend was sentenced to death. Of course, I wasn’t going to let that stand. I broke him out of prison as my gun-slinging alter ego (dynamite is a fantastic invention) and we were able to trick his accuser into recanting the false testimony, but sometimes the thought of what could have happened if I had failed to break him out, or if the charges had stuck and his bounty had gone up, haunts me sometimes.

So AITA for choosing to keep quiet about my double life?

(OOC note: This was sent in again by one of the wizards as a single ask. The only edits that were made were adding in paragraphs for legibility--sorry if they're not where you would have put them, original author!)