Tonyee Chow Hang-tung, a Hong Kong barrister in jail for more than a year for the crime of “inciting subversion of state power,” posted a letter titled “One Page Biography” on Jan. 24, her 38th birthday, sharing her views on mitigation letters, and the justice system.
Chow,  explained that after entering into practice, she discovered how luxurious it is to fully understand the client. In the normal course of events, duty lawyers only have “five minutes, ten minutes, to ask an accused for instructions, it is only time to ask stereotype questions, gain stereotype statements, and write stereotype sentences.”
She believes that if the personal life of an accused person is summarised in just a few minutes, it will contain nothing more than background information, the size of the family, job, income, health, the client’s thinking on what happened, and to ask the court for leniency….