Court session
As a huge fan of crime series I was excited to go on this court session we had to do an essay on. I pictured this huge room with a lot of people, lawyers fighting, and the judge screaming: order in court. I was excited to see the jury taking notes and I was going to study their expressions. To my biggest disappointment I came to realize that whatever I had seen on TV was not reality.
We arrived at 9 AM and security wanted to search my bad. I felt like I had arrived to the airport thinking, “oh crap, I will get caught” even though I know that I have nothing on me that is illegal or what so ever. I had decided to bring a friend of mine, Anthony Griffin, who has been in trouble with the law several times. He told me some basics rules about what to not bring with me while attending a court session such as: gums, hats, food and so on. He also said that you are not allowed to talk and I looked at him like he was some kind of freak; why would I want to talk in there?
Before I start talking about my feelings while attending this session you have to understand how I thought it would be. As I said, I’m a big fan of all crime series, and for me to do this was huge. While watching these shows you get to see this huge courtroom with two tables far apart from each other and while the lawyers speaks he or she crosses the room in different directions throwing around their hands in the air. I have the picture that the one and most important thing these lawyers have to do is to convince the jury that his client is either guilty or not guilty. The judges only speak if necessary. They often open their mouth whenever one of the lawyer screams out “objections”. You start to create a picture in your head of how a court session should be like and how it is going to look like, and you are positive that what I have created in my mind is how it is going to be. You picture the huge audience on each side either anxious to get their innocent son back or relatives seeking justice because someone had killed someone special for them.
I step into this room that clearly did not look like I had pictured it. There were benches where you can sit as an audience; I had pictured those but where were the audience? I felt bad for the inmates who did not have any family, friends or relatives there. In this courtroom you could chose to sit on either the left side where the defense sat or the right side where the victim sat. Anthony and I decided to sit on the victim’s side. In front of us we had a long table for the P.D and D.A and in the middle of this table was a booth where you spoke. I always imagined that the two tables would stand apart form each other and whenever someone needed to speak they had to stand up and walk around the room. The inmates sat on the right side of the room waiting for their call. The only thing that mainly looked like I had pictured it was where witnesses sat to talk, to the left form the judge. It was actually exactly how I had pictured it, which was satisfying.
Anthony felt like he could educate me as we were waiting for something to happen. He told me that to the left almost besides the judge was the recorder. The recorder is the person who types all verbal exchanges. Right in front of the victim’s table was the clerk who processes orders and all the paperwork.
I was quite disappointed when everything started. The D.A submitted requests or recommendations to inmate. I was hoping to see more facial expressions and more chattering. After this, the D.A and Defense made deals and spoke in private. It almost looked like they were having a tea party but the inmate was not invited. I always thought that the lawyers were about to fight each other, they were going to hate and call each other stupid; obviously something I had picked up from TV. The courtroom was boring and quite, not one single person had much to say. Everyone looked stressed and busy; anxious to get out of the room.
It all was over in about 10 minutes at maximum. The Defense came up with an agreement with the client and the D.A insured that the inmate was competent to decide or plea. The inmates clothing looked just like I thought it would. What annoyed me while listening and watching these people were the police’s who were joking and playing around now and then amongst each other. I thought that was immature especially when there are inmates and public around them.
What I realized in two of the cases I watched was that none of the inmates had any objections towards the sentence. The all plead guilty and their lawyers read the agreement out loud so nothing could be left out. The inmate had to answer yes and then sign papers. There were only two inmates left when suddenly one of them left with a police officer. The last guy up was a young man named Kevin Carter. I couldn’t really hear what he was there for but from my judge, probably some teenage trouble. He was dressed in an orange jump suit and had chains around his waist and handcuffs. For most of the time he scratched his arms and kept shaking his leg. His lawyer wanted to release him and change the court date until April 1st. They all agreed but he had to show up otherwise he would be “done” as his lawyer nicely said. You could see how relieved he looked and also happy. As he signed his papers, Anthony and I, decided to leave. I opened my bag to put down my notepad and pen and knew for a fact that I, someday, would be working with something like this.
Even though everything wasn’t like I had hoped for, I still found it interesting and I enjoyed watching it. I walked out thinking where I want to go with my life. Do I want to go to law school? Do I want to become a police officer? If yes, do I want it to be in America or in Sweden? There are so many questions to be answered and this is just the beginning. I have all the time to figure these things out as I am continuing my studying of Criminal Justice. And something I keep in my mind and that I have learned is: “whatever you see on TV is not always how it is”.
