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	by anywherenotes 2515 days ago
	There's a podcast, by the name: 'Serial', in season two they go into regular courtrooms with non-fancy cases - fights, etc. In one episode after the defendant has been found not guilty, the judge presiding over the case berated them for not accepting a plea deal, and wasting the court time. This is after the person has been found not guilty.

3 comments

mehrdadn 2515 days ago

Is this typical in a normal court/with a normal judge? Or is this scenario an outlier?

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wcunning 2515 days ago

This is, so far as I can tell from following legal news, very very very common[0].

[0] Examples: https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1090313239995400192

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mehrdadn 2515 days ago

I'll take a look at them, but given the sheer number of cases judges see across the country every day, and the fact that such Twitter user "Dumb(Stupid}Hat" would probably not post the ones that are doing their jobs ethically and professionally, I don't see how this implies this is very very very common.

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mieseratte 2514 days ago

> and the fact that such Twitter user "Dumb(Stupid}Hat"

"Popehat" is a well known attorney, Ken White[0]. If he felt something was indicative, I would certainly believe him.

With that said, I don't know that he's trying to say that it is indicative so much as highlight interesting war stories.

https://brownwhitelaw.com/kenneth-p-white/

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anywherenotes 2511 days ago

The whole season is to see typical courts and judges. This is just the most shocking thing that happened which I could tell in a short time, but there was some racism coming from judges, there is complete indifference throughout, they also speak of difference between paid and public defense attorneys.

I think it's best to not get fixated on that one event, and listen (if you listed to podcasts) to the entire season, which is apparently season 3, not 2 as I thought.

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lazyguy 2515 days ago

The American Justice system is dehumanizing.

If you never have been involved as a 'criminal' in the USA court system it's a really huge culture shock and extremely dismaying to be treated as human refuse for the first time.

Most of the time we spend our time surrounded by people who care about us in one way or another. Your friends, your family, your partners, etc etc.

Even out in public the people you meet tend to have a reason to care about you. They are serving you or you are serving them for money.. so you have some reason to care. Even if you don't know them personally and they are a complete stranger there is almost always some reason, typically money, to be polite and take them into consideration. Even if it's phony it's still caring to a certain extent.. otherwise why put the effort into even being phony?

But when you are in jail or involved as a criminal... They have no such reason to give a crap about you. It's their day job. They get paid the same whether you are there or not.

In the court system you are treated with the same regard by court officials as a janitor would treat a full trash can. You are something that needs to be dealt with before lunch.

Sure if you are young or cute or innocent looking and it's your first time.. then maybe a Judge would be bemused with you and give you a break... But by and large you are just a impediment between now and when they need to visit the restroom or eat a sandwich.

You could be innocent, you could be guilty. It doesn't matter. Whether or not you are treated fair or not it's not relevant to them. You are just part of a process that needs to be processed. A button that needs to be pushed, some paper work that needs to be filled out. Some statistic that needs to be entered.

........

You going to court for some crime may be the most important day in your life. It could mean the difference between spending the next few years of your life in comfort with friends and family... or being stripped of all your rights, dignity, money, career, car, property, house.. and thrown in jail for 6 months or a year and then leaving with no prospects to basically be homeless after dealing with a divorce.

But for the other people in court? Chances are they won't even be able to recognize your face or remember you name in a day or two. You don't even be a memory. You are less relevant then the guy that sold them chicken nuggets for lunch.

If you are wealthy you could afford a lawyer who does have a reason to care and will give them reasons to care because he knows the court process and knows how to make it a big PITA to just brush you off... But that is not really relevant for most Americans.

And on the Federal level they typically try to freeze your accounts so you can't afford a proper defense anyways. Makes their jobs easier.

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StavrosK 2515 days ago

> And on the Federal level they typically try to freeze your accounts so you can't afford a proper defense anyways. Makes their jobs easier.

Wait wait wait what? Surely this can't be true? What's the justification for this?

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AnthonyMouse 2515 days ago

> Wait wait wait what? Surely this can't be true? What's the justification for this?

The stated reason isn't to deprive you of money to fund your defense, it's something like an allegation that the money is the proceeds of a crime or whatever other pretext. Which you might have been able to disprove if you had the money to hire a lawyer. But now you don't, which is really why they do it, and then you can't adequately defend yourself against whatever other charges they levy on top of that either.

They also commonly try to keep the money -- even if you're not found guilty of anything:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United...

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mehrdadn 2515 days ago

> In the court system you are treated with the same regard by court officials as a janitor would treat a full trash can.

Is this really what you see while fulfilling your jury duty? I dare say it's not the common impression people come away from the courtroom with.

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buckminster 2515 days ago

He is explicitly talking about the experience of the defendant.

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sysbin 2515 days ago

I assume OP is talking about cases where there isn't a jury as well.