Couthon proposed the law without consulting the rest of the Committee of Public Safety, as both Couthon and Robespierre expected that the Committee would not be receptive to it. The Convention raised objections to the measure, but Couthon justified the measure by arguing that the political crimes overseen by the Revolutionary Tribunals were considerably worse than common crimes because "the existence of free society is threatened." Couthon also famously justified the deprivation of the right to a counsel by declaring that "the guilty have no right for a counsel and the innocents do not need any".