Upon hearing of the outcome of my trial last week, a few people made a comment or two which ruffled my feathers, if you will.
For those of you that do not know, my client was on trial for 1st degree murder. After a week long trial & at the age of 20, he was convicted of 2nd degree murder. As I passed the news of the verdict on to some of my friends, I began to hear such comments as "Well, he'll have plenty of love in jail," and "He better watch his back." There were more but I won't get into them here & please keep in mind that I am not quoting word for word.
I only say this to make one point: not 1 but 2 families were torn apart by the events that lead up to that trial - the victim's and the defendant's. For those of you that think otherwise, I suggest that you find yourself a murder trial & go sit through it, beginning to end. As you do so, pay particular attention to the people sitting in the audience of that courtroom. I assure you - they would rather be anywhere else. There are no happy endings in murder trials, no matter the outcome. Even if the defendant is truly innocent & is found not guilty, there is still a victim & that victim had a family & that family is still grieving.
It is far too easy for people to be callous these days. The public feels like it knows everything that happened because they read a 350 word news report about the case. That's like reading a 6th grader's 2 page book report on the Grapes of Wrath and claiming to be an expert on the dust bowl.
ReplyDeleteI believe everyone should have to sit through a murder trial at least once before they speak on such matters.
Hang in there babe. You'll still have the appeal (and from the sounds of your trial you may have to do it again).