To add to this blah situation, I work in a place that for the most part doesn't help in the area of cheering people up, that is unless the gavel (in the courtroom) swings their way. Now most of the time, it really doesn't matter to me which way the gavel swings, but there are times when it is just down right unjust. I have to do my job no matter what, but it is easier when I agree with the sentencing and feel that fairness was considered. I will say that for the most part, our Judge sentences people appropriately and I only disagree about a quarter of the time.
I can't really go into anything in great detail (names and such) as these are real people and real situations (confidentiality issues...you undertand), but sometimes the punishments just don't fit the crime. The Judge I work with most is a wonderful man. He has a bigger heart than any Judge I have ever known. He cares about people so much that he put a homeless man in our drug court. (That was a little tricky there, considering he had to have an address and phone to be eligible to participate to begin with.) But, as the Judge said, we worked it out and now that man is doing remarkably well. It will be a while before he is completely back on his feet, but he has a job, a place to live, a cell phone and some money in his pocket. I tell you, when the Judge sentenced him, I thought he had lost his friggin' mind (the Judge I mean). I thought the cheese had done slipped off the cracker there. The story goes something like this....the homeless man got a DUI (Driving under the influence) while traveling through our town on his way to court in another jurisdiction (for the same offense I believe). His truck was towed (and later re-possessed) due to the amount of incarceration he had to serve. He was released from our jail into the hands of the jurisdiction he was on his way to, with the promise he made to our Judge that he would return to our county and apply for our Drug Court. My Judge had to talk (email) a lot to convince the Judges in the other jurisdiction that he would take this gentleman back and put him in our drug court and make a normal ordinary responsible person (NORP - a term the drug court uses - would be the opposite of slick or slug - we'll save that for another blog) out of him. One of the Judges that he emailed actually laughed in his return email, one Judge refused to believe that this gentleman could be helped and then finally a Judge decided to give the guy a shot, once he completed a certain period of incarceration time. I honestly didn't think I would ever hear from the homeless man again. But, much to my surprise, I got a call from the guy the day after he was released from the other jurisdiction. We bought him a bus ticket from there to here and he has been a productive member of our drug court since. I guess there is a lesson to be learned there....never second guess the Judge. He truly is the wizard (also for another blog).
I know the Judge's wisdom far exceeds mine and I really try hard not to second guess or arm-chair quarterback him or any other Judge for that matter. I don't have the coldest heart in the county like most people may believe. I think, for the most part, I truly care about people, or I wouldn't do what I do. I see justice served most days and I am very grateful to live where I do. There aren't many crimes that would make a person's blood boil around here and that's a good thing because for those really horrific crimes my idea of the punishment is no longer acceptable, but you know there are times when I wish I could hear a sentencing go something like it did many years ago.......
The following is a verbatim transcript of a sentence imposed upon a defendant convicted of murder in the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico by a United States Judge sitting in Taos in an adobe stable used as a temporary courtroom.
"Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, in a few short weeks it will be spring. The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will vanish and the air will become soft and balmy. In short, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, the annual miracle of the year's awakening will come to pass-----but you won't be here.
The rivulet will run its purring course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of the imperial domain will blossom as the rose; still you won't be here to see.
From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happily as it pursues its accustomed vocation, the gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be glad but you. You won't be here to enjoy it because I command the sheriff or some other officer or officers of this county to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a nodding bough of some sturdy oak and let you hang until you are dead.
And then, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that the vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body, until nothing shall remain but the bare, bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheepherding, murdering........."
(disclosure - I AM NOT A PREJUDICE PERSON, my last name (for those of you who know me) should explain enough, but this sentencing was awesome and would still have remained so in my mind if imposed on a "WHITE" person.)
Well....that definately clears the web...............
