Day Nine, 10 April 2017

Another brief yet interesting day. My mentor and I went back to the courthouse in Hayward to speak with one of the judges about his current case. He simply needed to make an appearance with his client and ask to reschedule some dates. The other lawyer failed to have his client show up, which is why the dates needed to be changed. My mentor, however, was busy on all available days, so the judge asked my mentor to hire someone to show up in his place. My mentor then asked me to wait inside the courtroom as he went to the back of the room to get some files. As I sat down, another trial was happening before me. It was those glass windows again, and there was an inmate in his orange jumpsuit standing behind the glass window. He was speaking to the judge directly and he asked his lawyer to hand the judge a handwritten letter. The judge quickly skimmed through the letter and put it down. The man then asked if he could say something. He said something along the lines of "I don't deserve to be in this prison. There are people in here for murder, for rape. I don't belong with these people. What I did is nothing close to it. There are people out on the streets still for crimes worse than the one I committed. It's not fair, I have a wife and kids at home. I need to be home and support them." The judge later cut him off, I could tell he felt sympathetic. The man was later taken back out of the glassed off room by security. Moments later, my mentor came back. He asked me if I was listening to the trial that was going on. He said it wasn't very smart of the guy to give the judge a handwritten letter, and basically confess to his crime when his lawyer was trying to bargain something else. I didn't know what that man had done, but I just nodded in agreement. My mentor then told me he felt bad and that man had made a pretty good argument. He told me cases like this happen all the time. He said the law never guarantees justice and seeing things like this is just apart of the job. I didn't expect to run into something like that, but I'm glad I did. Seeing this other perspective, outside of a lawyer's, makes you feel more open minded I guess.


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