Our Court System is Broken
My subpoena told me to arrive at 9:30 and I of course was a few minutes early so I wouldn't miss my name being called. My name was called at about five minutes until 4.
I was called to testify on behalf of someone who feels he is being wrongly arrested repeatedly. So much so that he even refused the opportunity to leave jail because of what they would make him agree to. (I will give the details of his case if he tells me to.)
This was my first appearance in court as I have never been arrested and have never really known anyone who would call me as a witness until now. I had heard that our courts were clogged with too many cases and that they are incredibly slow but this was beyond belief.
Jurors, witnesses, they all have lives and the court is as unaccomodating as possible. If waiting from 9:30 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon in a hallway is standard operating procedure than something needs to be fixed. More judges, more court space, whatever it is that is needed we need to get it. No one should have to sit in a hallway for an entire day especially if they are doing their civic duty by testifying or being a member of the jury.
Not only that but public defenders seem to be an interesting breed. I was not contacted by either side of the case before hand to see why I would be testifying or what facts I would be testifying to. I myself didn't know until I was practically sitting on the stand. Public defenders seem to be overworked (as most people know), and because of this they are always looking for plea bargains and paying little attention to the case and their client.
I will follow up on all of this.
I was called to testify on behalf of someone who feels he is being wrongly arrested repeatedly. So much so that he even refused the opportunity to leave jail because of what they would make him agree to. (I will give the details of his case if he tells me to.)
This was my first appearance in court as I have never been arrested and have never really known anyone who would call me as a witness until now. I had heard that our courts were clogged with too many cases and that they are incredibly slow but this was beyond belief.
Jurors, witnesses, they all have lives and the court is as unaccomodating as possible. If waiting from 9:30 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon in a hallway is standard operating procedure than something needs to be fixed. More judges, more court space, whatever it is that is needed we need to get it. No one should have to sit in a hallway for an entire day especially if they are doing their civic duty by testifying or being a member of the jury.
Not only that but public defenders seem to be an interesting breed. I was not contacted by either side of the case before hand to see why I would be testifying or what facts I would be testifying to. I myself didn't know until I was practically sitting on the stand. Public defenders seem to be overworked (as most people know), and because of this they are always looking for plea bargains and paying little attention to the case and their client.
I will follow up on all of this.
How do you propose we pay for the judges, the court space and the public defenders?
-Maureen
Posted by Anonymous | 5:50 PM
Many right now are calling for the implementation of policy that includes more cops... What good will those be if there is no court space for the people they arrest.
Instead of using our resources to buy more cops, spend that money on the crooked courts.
There is always fat to cut in budgets and we could find it if we made it a priority.
Posted by Andrew Warner | 5:55 PM
It could also be argued that if the money was spent on implementing a higher police presence that the amount of criminals would start to decrease becuase there would be more of a chance of getting caught. It is hard to say in this situation what the real cause and effect are.
Posted by Anonymous | 7:22 PM
As Americans what is more important, having Big Brother on every street or having a fair and just trial process?
From your suggestion might as well just have the military sitting on every street and that will keep our courts empty. Is that right?
Posted by Andrew Warner | 7:49 PM
I was thinking more along the lines of a temporary increased presence in police in order to tackle the problem head on and minimize the amount of criminals being brought in. The problem with that is what to do with the new police officers once there is not as much of a need. I just think that there are currently so many people awaiting trial that to expand the current system, it would not have an immediate fix to the problem at hand. Also, you are changing the system to accomodate the amount of crime instead of trying to eliminate the reason why the system is stretched thin to begin with.
Posted by Anonymous | 8:17 PM
Putting police, cameras, etc. all around our city is an oppressive solution.
Obviously crime needs to be eliminated... But excessive police force is not the solution. Crime is a symptom of other problems.
Expanding judges, court space and especially public defenders would improve the situation at hand and guarentee that people have their constitutional right to a fair trial. A system that is set up to have a plea bargain in every trial is not a system that accomodates fair trials. If someone actually wants their jury trial then the system goes into shock.
Why not just put the national guard on the streets if you want to up police presence to empty the courts?
Posted by Andrew Warner | 8:31 PM