Ikke Et Ord Om Politik
Ikke Et Ord Om Politik

Mette Grith Stage: Jeg har fået skyldige frifundet

June 12, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Mette Grith Stage has defended clients in some of Denmark’s most high-profile and violent criminal cases—including the Kundby case and the Hjallerup case—and she has won acquittals for clients she knew were guilty. In this conversation, she explains how she navigates the ethical and emotional demands of being a defense attorney, the mechanics of building a defense strategy around a client’s account, and the personal toll of sitting opposite grieving families while doing her job.

The defense attorney’s role: not choosing cases, but being chosen

Stage pushes back on the idea that defense attorneys seek out notorious cases. “It's not me who chooses the cases, it's the cases or the clients who choose me,” she says. Ethical rules prevent her from contacting arrested individuals to offer representation; she waits for the phone to ring. When it does, her starting point is that the work is “a bit like being a doctor or a priest”—you do the procedure regardless of who the patient is. She draws a direct analogy: “Then you also have to do a heart transplantation on him, who you know is a stupid pig.”

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:22) **The Right to a Defense** - Mette explains the fundamental principle: everyone has the right to a defense, and the defense attorney is the only person on the citizen's side against the system.
  • 2 (02:45) **Abstracting from the Human Being** - Mette describes her ability to separate the person from the case, even with unsympathetic clients.
  • 3 (04:59) **Identifying with the Client** - Mette explains the emotional investment: as a defense attorney, she feels both victory and defeat because she is the client's "weapon driver."
  • 4 (05:41) **Objectivity in the System** - Mette discusses the challenge of perceived objectivity from police and prosecution.
  • 5 (07:38) **The Attorney-Judge Relationship** - Mette describes the need for professional distance from judges, even former classmates.
  • 6 (09:27) **Public Perception and Threats** - Mette shares her experience with public reactions, mostly positive in person but negative online.
  • 7 (11:45) **Post-Case Relationships with Clients** - Mette explains she maintains a purely professional contact with clients after a case, never becoming friends.

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Show Notes

Hun forsvarer drabsmænd, voldtægtsforbrydere og terrorister. Mette Grith Stage er en af landets mest kendte forsvarsadvokater og ugens gæst i Ikke et ord om politik.
 
I dagens afsnit fortæller hun om livet i retssalene, om truslerne hun modtager, og om hvorfor hun siger ja til at forsvare mennesker, der har begået nogle af de mest bestialske forbrydelser.
 
For hvordan forsvarer man egentlig et menneske, der har gjort noget forfærdeligt?
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