Court
We were in court today in Wichita. It was an interesting experience.
Everyone on the morning docket is to show up at 9:30 am. The courtroom is small and crowded with people standing in the aisles waiting. Only a few of those there for hearings have support people with them. Most are attending alone.
The front of the courtroom is filled with lawyers. There must have been fifteen or more of them.
The group is asked to rise and the judge enters and asks us to again be seated. Then it begins.
The judge reads the first name on the docket. A lawyer says one of three or four things:
"2nd call"
This means "I haven't met my client yet and need a minute to speak with him/her so that I can represent him/her." OR "My client hasn't shown up yet, call our names your second time through the list."
"Waiver"
This means that the client wants to waive their right to a jury trial and have their case heard by a judge. In this case the judge would speak directly to the client, asking if they understood the implications of that decision. The client would affirm that they did. The judge would name the date of the hearing and the judge who would hear it.
"Plea"
This means that the client wanted to accept a plea (I think). The judge would then name a date for the plea hearing.
"Continue to _______"
This means that the lawyer is asking to delay the hearing to a future date. The judge always agreed to do this.
We were there for our son's hearing. Before our son had even arrived his case was called. A lawyer stood up and said "10/17". The judge nodded. Then they continued through the entire docket, setting future dates for everyone in the room as far as I could tell.
They finished the first time through the list and went to 'second call' which took less time. At the end of that, most of the people in the courtroom left.
Later we found out that '10/17' was an abbreviation for 'continue to October 17'. The lawyer who requested this was not our son's lawyer. That person never entered the courtroom this morning and never sent any explanation to our son. Maybe he was sick. Maybe he had a sick child. But his client won't know why he wasn't there.
The point is, a whole courtroom full of defendants took off from work to show up in court and be told to take off work another day. There is probably some logical explanation for this, but it looks pretty discriminatory to an outsider.
In that group of defendants there was only one who was dressed in khaki pants and a nice shirt. There were none in suits. All of the others looked as though they were lower income people.
So all these people who can't afford to lose a day of work have taken off only to be told to come back another day. Which takes on another shade of intensity when I add in that this is the second time my son's case has been continued. This already happened the first time last month. How many days off work does it take before the hearing for a lower class offender actually gets heard.
When Chuck and I were talking about this in the car, he suggested that the reason may be that public defenders are so overworked that they can't adequately represent their clients. If they haven't had a chance to meet with their client they may be allowed easy continuances in order to fairly represent them.
It's a guess. I'm sure there is some reason.
But as I said, to an outsider it looks like things could be done better.
Everyone on the morning docket is to show up at 9:30 am. The courtroom is small and crowded with people standing in the aisles waiting. Only a few of those there for hearings have support people with them. Most are attending alone.
The front of the courtroom is filled with lawyers. There must have been fifteen or more of them.
The group is asked to rise and the judge enters and asks us to again be seated. Then it begins.
The judge reads the first name on the docket. A lawyer says one of three or four things:
"2nd call"
This means "I haven't met my client yet and need a minute to speak with him/her so that I can represent him/her." OR "My client hasn't shown up yet, call our names your second time through the list."
"Waiver"
This means that the client wants to waive their right to a jury trial and have their case heard by a judge. In this case the judge would speak directly to the client, asking if they understood the implications of that decision. The client would affirm that they did. The judge would name the date of the hearing and the judge who would hear it.
"Plea"
This means that the client wanted to accept a plea (I think). The judge would then name a date for the plea hearing.
"Continue to _______"
This means that the lawyer is asking to delay the hearing to a future date. The judge always agreed to do this.
We were there for our son's hearing. Before our son had even arrived his case was called. A lawyer stood up and said "10/17". The judge nodded. Then they continued through the entire docket, setting future dates for everyone in the room as far as I could tell.
They finished the first time through the list and went to 'second call' which took less time. At the end of that, most of the people in the courtroom left.
Later we found out that '10/17' was an abbreviation for 'continue to October 17'. The lawyer who requested this was not our son's lawyer. That person never entered the courtroom this morning and never sent any explanation to our son. Maybe he was sick. Maybe he had a sick child. But his client won't know why he wasn't there.
The point is, a whole courtroom full of defendants took off from work to show up in court and be told to take off work another day. There is probably some logical explanation for this, but it looks pretty discriminatory to an outsider.
In that group of defendants there was only one who was dressed in khaki pants and a nice shirt. There were none in suits. All of the others looked as though they were lower income people.
So all these people who can't afford to lose a day of work have taken off only to be told to come back another day. Which takes on another shade of intensity when I add in that this is the second time my son's case has been continued. This already happened the first time last month. How many days off work does it take before the hearing for a lower class offender actually gets heard.
When Chuck and I were talking about this in the car, he suggested that the reason may be that public defenders are so overworked that they can't adequately represent their clients. If they haven't had a chance to meet with their client they may be allowed easy continuances in order to fairly represent them.
It's a guess. I'm sure there is some reason.
But as I said, to an outsider it looks like things could be done better.
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