Going to Court

Today I was able to go to court to see an outcome of a murder case my lawyer has been working on. This case has been going on for about two years now. When it first began it was in the summer of 2008. The parents of a child were arrested for the murder of an infant. Once they were arrested, the process of finding them either innocent or guilty began. My lawyer was appointed this case when he replaced the previous defense attorney and represented the father as his defense lawyer.

Since I have been working on this case, it had been almost two years since it began. I researched the case to become familiar with it. I reviewed all the witnesses' files in order to put the whole story together. I had a basic understanding of what happened, but after going through these files and trying to put all the pieces together, I found it to be more difficult than I originally thought. People had different stories which didn't match up, but while going through files you could tell who was lying and who was telling the truth. I could tell that some people lied because their stories would change along the course of the case. One month they would say one thing, and the next month something in their story changed.

When I got into court today, it wasn't to see if the client was innocent or guilty. This hearing was done on April 12th. However, the court failed to tell the defendant what his rights were after the conviction. He was found guilty during the original hearing. So even though I wasn't able to attend that hearing, I was able to attend this one. When we arrived at the court house, we waited outside the court room until the client arrived and until the hearing began.

Once the defendant came, he was escorted by two police officers and had his hands and feet shackled together. It was a different feeling seeing the defendant face-to-face instead of just in a photograph. This person had no emotion and had a blank stare. It was as if it wasn't a person, but just a body walking into the court room. When we went into the court room, I sat in the back, while the defendant and my lawyer and his co-counsel went to sit on the left side of the court. The prosecutor sat on the right. The two police officers stood behind the defendant. There were a few other people in the room (the person who records everything that is said during the hearing, the bailiff, and a few other people sitting where I was).

When the judge came in, we were advised to stand and then to be seated. When it began, the judge introduced who was present and why they were having this hearing. He apologized for the court not telling the defendant what his rights were after the conviction. Prior to the judge coming in, my lawyer told the defendant what his rights were and made sure he understood. The judge retold the defendant what his rights were and that if he had any questions he could ask his lawyers. All this only took about fifteen minutes and then they were done.

Once the hearing was over, the defendant was escorted back to his holding cell. He had something to give to his lawyer, so we followed him and his escorting officers back to the holding cell. As we walked, we had to go outside to go to the next building over. When we went out, the sides were lined up with officers standing by just in case something were to happen. It surprised me how much security there was for one man, but at the same time it made sense. We didn't actually go into his cell because what he wanted to give us was at the entrance of the jail. After we grabbed that, we left.

I've been to court to witness domestic violence cases, and I've also been to court for myself, but going to court for a murder case with a convicted criminal is completely different. The court house was much bigger. The defendant was escorted by police officers. When the judge came into the room, it was more formal, where we had to stand before he told us we could sit. There was someone who recorded everything that was said. It was a good experience to be able to go see a hearing in that kind of a court room with a murder case, but it would have been interesting to see the actual hearing that decided if the defendant was either innocent or guilty.