Judges are expected to “ensure due process, order, and decorum, and always act with dignity and respect to promote the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
Hmmm, if only.
Well, it is at least what one States Judicial Qualifications Commission had to say about the conduct of one Judge it was investigating. The allegations are that the judge was extremely deferential to the prosecution team and simultaneously disrespectful and confrontational to the defense team in a sentencing phase of a trial in which she was the judge picked to oversee the case.
The commission comprises judges, lawyers, and ordinary citizens, who review the judge’s conduct, after which the supreme court of that state gets to make a final decision.
After testifying before the commission, the judge announced that she would be retiring from the bench on June 30. The commission said her decision had nothing to do with the commission’s work.
The commission reported that the judge acknowledged during her testimony that her conduct during the trial “fell short” of what’s expected of judges and that “her treatment of members of the defense team was at times not patient, dignified or courteous.”
I included the foregone paragraph in this short article because it demonstrates that justice is not always served in the courtroom. Even with a team of lawyers, defendants are not guaranteed a fair trial or sentencing. In fact, judges are sometimes biased even in the motions they grant during trials. A mountain of data points to the disparate way trial judges operate with obvious bias, usually to the detriment of criminal defendants. This is in addition to prosecutors who go out of their way to prosecute cases they know are weak and without merit out of deference and fear of police and their unions.
One of the dilemmas the criminal justice system faces today is the irrefutable truths of police violence, lies, corruption, and outright blatant violent criminality being exposed thanks to social media.
The travesty is that despite the outcry and pain of the victims of police corruption and violence, courts continue to rely on uncorroborated police evidence to arrive at guilty verdicts.
Instead of upholding the laws equally and fairly against citizens and police alike, beginning with the Supreme Court at the top, courts have sought to restrict the rights of the American citizen to broaden the powers of the police state.
A citizen caught lying under oath faces the full force and wrath of the criminal justice system.
A cop caught lying under oath faces absolutely no penalty at all.
In a 2010 Abstract on the Department of Justice’s website, Melanie D Wilson wrote; The U.S. legal system regards police officers as impartial fact gatherers, trained to collect facts that support guilt and innocence. This perception is far from the truth, and in reality, police officers are biased advocates attempting to disprove innocence.
Unfortunately, this reality continues every day in courtrooms across the United States. Police lie, and courts use their lies to convict innocent citizens. Black citizens are at the greatest risk of being victimized by this inherent bias in most judges and prosecutors.
Some prison reform and abolition supporters have argued that race and gender are the top reasons for the disparity in sentencing. Blacks receive almost 10 percent longer sentences than whites arrested and convicted for the same crimes.
Some argue that the disparity comes from the way police gin up charges on black arrestees and the way prosecutors choose to prosecute those charges. Of course, this explanation does little to assuage the claims of racism and further reveals the intricacy and systemic nature of the racism woven into the criminal justice system.
It is important to process this information with the knowledge that this injustice is not something being done to foreigners, which it was would be inherently wrong, but that has been this way against American citizens, albeit of a different color than white.
In one year, more than 50 million persons in the U.S. have come in contact with police during traffic stops, street stops, arrests, traffic accidents, or resident-initiated contacts, and 1 million experience the use of or threat of force. I encourage citizens to continue to film police action utilizing the court’s guidance by allowing them space to do their jobs effectively and safely. However, do not be bullied when they tell you that you must move so far away that you cannot see what they are doing. They will also tell you they do not mind if you record them. Well, it doesn’t matter whether they mind; they do not get to make those decisions.
If the young lady who studiously recorded George Floyd’s murder had been afraid and not recorded the event, Derek Chauvin and his cronies would still be patrolling the streets of Minneapolis.
Remember, they lied that he died from a medical emergency before they changed their story after her video surfaced. America’s prisons and jails are filled with criminals and innocent people. People the police falsified reports on and perjured themselves in court to gain convictions. In many cases, the prosecutors know the information is riddled with lies, and so does the judges.
This is what passes for justice.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.