A Day in Court

Jessica Fabian

Start time: 1:00p.m End Time: 4:00pm

Date Attended: 9 November 2017

Judge Klein; Amherst County Court

The Inner Workings of the Justice System

We all want to believe that we live in a just society. We want to see the criminals behind bars and we want to see those who wrong us pay for their mistakes. Justice in society is a deep tangled web full of laws and processes that many people do not understand. We merely accept and trust the system to do its job. At the very heart of the justice system is the courts. Judges tower over the courtroom, wielding their power of discretion to determine right from wrong. The justice system depends on impartial judges and also relies heavily on other members of the court. Courts operate in all different ways, all depending on the nature of the cases and the judge at the bench. I visited the Amherst County Court in Buffalo New York, Judge Klein presided over the bench. Attending court allowed me to see how the justice system works first hand.

Upon first arrival, there was a giant sign saying no cell phones allowed. After walking back to the car to put my cell phone back, I was met by a security officer who asked me to walk through a metal detector and to show him the contents of my purse. I walked into a room that was tightly packed from wall to wall with people both sitting and standing. I weaved through the array of people and made my way into the courtroom. Two columns of seats lined the sides of the room and at the middle, there was the bench that separated the audience of the court from Judge Klein and the defendants. Lawyers were walking up and down the aisle talking to clients and to each other. I took a seat in the second row of chairs on the right side of the courtroom. The courtroom clerk was running in and out of the courtroom, always with a stack of manila folders in her hand. There were two women sitting behind the bench on the left side who were also clerks and the court reporter sat on the right of where the judge was to sit.

It was about a half an hour before everyone started to file into the courtroom. Judge Klein came out of the door on the side of the room and the court bailiff announced his entrance. Everyone stood up and sat back down once Judge Klein sat down at his seat. Once he sat down the rest of the room took a seat and waited for Judge Klein to begin. He began calling names to the bench. The first cases were lawyers asking the judge to schedule hearings for their defendant. These first cases were the accused first appearance which is when “the suspect appears in court where the judge gives the defendant formal notice of the charges and advises the suspect of his or her rights...and sets bail in appropriate cases.” . The first thing that was very apparent was that one lawyer would represent a multitude of people. These lawyers are public defenders who’s duties are defined as “an attorney whose full-time job is to represent indigent defendants.” Also, it was very apparent who was a good lawyer and who was bad. Those who dressed professionally and carried themselves with confidence tended to be the better lawyers. Those who attempted to dress nice but fell short tended to be the lawyers who I found it hard to believe passed law school. Also, all of the lawyers seemed to know one another and the sheriff knew the clerks in the courtroom. The sheriff and Judge Klein would talk to the clerks talk freely. The sheriffs seemed to know the lawyers who were present.

Amherst County Court is a direct representation of the Crime Control Model in the criminal justice system. “The primary goal of this model is repressing criminal conduct and thus protecting society.” This model assumes that the accused person is guilty until proven innocent. The model reflects a breakdown in society of individual responsibility and the only way to deter crime is through deterrence. In this model, assembly line justice is reflected. The accused are treated the exact same and go through the same process. There is no personal or special treatment, each accused individual gets arrested, then goes to court, then to jail.

About an hour into court, two sheriff officers walked in with a line of four girls all handcuffed. They sat on the right side of the room in front of the bench. Each one was called up individually and sometimes, one lawyer would represent two of them. The first girl to stand up was a freshman at college. She plead not guilty to shoplifting and asked to be released on her own recognizance. She had no past criminal history or any current or previous warrants for her arrest. The second girl to come before the judge was also a college student and she was the co-defendant for the first girl who came before Judge Klein. The second girl also plead not guilty and wanted time to get a lawyer. Judge Klein released her on her own recognizance as well. One of the girl's parents walked in right as the sheriff took the women back out of the courtroom and asked a man in the row that I was sitting in what they had been arrested for. After the women left the courtroom the two officers from the sheriff's department brought out five men all in orange jumpsuits with handcuffs and chains around them.

The first arrested man was caught shoplifting at Tops and plead that he had a mental illness that led to the crime. He said that he was arrested prior to the shoplifting incident and that before he could start treatment he was arrested again. He plead guilty to the charge of shoplifting and Judge Klein ordered him to be treated at a mental facility. Every time that a defendant would plead guilty the judge would recite a number of questions to the defendant to ensure that they knew what they were doing when they were pleading guilty. The second man in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs pleaded guilty for violating his probation. The probation officer and the lawyer talked to Judge Klein about sentencing. The man admitted that he had been off of his medication and that is why he violated his probation. There was an ‘off-the-record’ discussion before Judge Klein made his ruling. He ruled that the man be taken off probation and is admitted to a mental health facility. In these two cases, there was an arraignment. An arraignment is when “a formally charged defendant is informed of the charges and asked to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.” Both men plead guilty of the charges and were taken out of the room by the sheriff’s officers.

After the men in the orange jumpsuits were taken out of court, there was another probation case. The probation officer and lawyer approach the bench with the defendant who was a man in his early twenties. The lawyer was two hours late to court and the probation officer had no time to discuss with him the terms of probation. The probation officer was furious with the lawyer but Judge Klein calmly asked if they wanted time to discuss and bring the case back to him when they had come to an agreement. They came back to Judge Klein after few cases and told him what they had agreed upon. The decision was to change the probation agreement and that the defendant would have to have new mandatory meetings that he would have to start immediately. The probation officer stormed out of the courtroom and the lawyer followed slowly after.

One of the last cases was a DUI case. A man who was around twenty years old went in front of Judge Klein with his lawyer. The man plead guilty but his lawyer argued that the breathalyzer reading was low and that he was not swerving all over the road. This was also his first DUI and he had no other driving infractions. Judge Klein ordered that his license be suspended for 90 days and that he attend drunk driving school. He also had to pay a fine that was over five hundred dollars.

A woman was next to approach Judge Klein. She turned herself in after a warrant was sent out for her arrest. She was arrested in front of the bench and the court bailiff took her through the room on the left of the courtroom.

Judge Klein, as well as all judges, use discretion when in the courtroom. Discretion is the “authority to make decisions in enforcing the law based on one’s judgment (‘spirit of the law’) rather than the letter of the law.” Judge Klein decides how harsh the sentencing will be and how much bail will be set to. He could have set a bail for the two girls from college but instead, he let them go on their own recognizance. Judge Klein could have sentenced the man who shoplifted from Tops to jail but instead allowed him to enter a mental health treatment. The same can be said for the man who violated his probation and was also sentenced to enter mental health treatment. Judges use discretion in every case that they hear and every judge will interpret the law differently. Judge Klein is a very reasonable judge who followed the letter of the law but also used his own discretion to give defendants the best punishment for their crime in an attempt to prevent them from committing the crime again.

I learned a lot about the judicial system through visiting the court. I had never been in a courtroom before so it was interesting to me to see how court operated. Many of the topics that we have talked about in class appeared in the courtroom. It was interesting to view the social interactions between the judge, clerks, and officers of the court. Attending court was a great way to see how the information that we learn in class applies to the real world.