Tales From T he Kangaroo Kourt

I think that using live feed on the computer, every single Court in session should be made an available study by a Board of Judges for any county, state, or government level. The County has a Countywide Board of Judges, and the State has a Statewide Board of Judges, and the Nation has Supreme Board of Judges. This way, when someone is being railroaded on the local level, a panel or Board of Judges “tuning in” to the case in session may intervene on behalf of citizens of this country.

Case in point: Year's past, I had a Court date and was awaiting my docket to be called. As I sat quietly in my seat, the Judge called the Court to order and proceeded to make judgments. First on the docket was a man who had, supposedly, committed a crime. He had not attorney present, yet the Judge proceeded to determine his guilt as an understood event by making this person ‘wait’ for his Court-appointed attorney to help him get out of jail. The Judge set a date for re-examination pending the Court-appointed attorney’s schedule. And this man was given a date for rehearing.

Next on the docket was an orange-clad inmate, chained and shackled, both hands and feet. Only one man’s name was called, but another inmate trailed behind the first one to stand before the Judge, until the Judge graciously acknowledged the second inmate as the Court interpreter for the first inmate. The Judge proceeded to allow a shackled inmate to interpret Judgment to another shackled inmate. The Judge, not knowing Spanish or any dialect thereof, depended on the goodness of the second inmate to correctly interpret the law to the first inmate. I was in shock. Needless to say, the hopes for a good judgment for my docket were completely dashed. So that, when it came my turn (with my so-called Attorney – ex-Attorney), I was angry, but not surprised, by the train whistle.

My solution is for every Court to have live feed on computers for other Judges to see all across this Nation that allows every citizen the assurance that somewhere out there in the vast recesses of our great Nation, there exist integrity. To help ordinary citizens that may not be able to afford an Attorney, there should be a Board of Judges that “listens in” on and watches court cases all over the state. This way, it keeps the one doing the Judging on their best behavior, because they do not know if their court room is the one being monitored. This Board of Judges can be made up of retired Judges and can be paid by the state to randomly sit in on cases within the County, State, or Nation. Not only that, but these monitors should also be allowed to intervene on behalf of the Defendant if they see or hear something wrong with that Judges’ actions. This Board may also be empowered to reprimand a Judge or provide other legal action if they determine the Judge to be imprudent.

An intervention can be as simple as the Board member making an objection to the proceedings that the Judge must acknowledge as if it were the person’s Lawyer. I mean, how many times have you been frustrated by a Judge’s ruling either personally or on the T.V.? Wouldn’t it be worth the price for us to pay for this type of oversight than to be railroaded in the system? I think the Board of Judges would be as shocked as I was at the way our Courts dole out judgments. And, although I think there are some very good Courts in this country, isn’t it better to know it?

Updated Here to There: 12/21/2022 Clear-cut Solution

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As a further part of this judicial solution, I think that every defendant coming before the judge for their case for the first time should have their case determined by that judge as either necessary detainment for further adjudication or the judge should declare the defendant as a “Clear-cut” case. A judge declared clear-cut case means that the defendant is clearly at fault with no reasonable doubt as to their criminal guilt. Then, the defendant is remanded to the clear-cut default sentencing for that specific crime, such as murder in the first, or manslaughter, or violent with a weapon or physical weapon theft or burglary, or even white-collar crimes. I think that a competent judge can quickly use a web application to plug in the specific criminal offense and looking at the sentencing for similar crimes made in the past, immediately give judgment to the defendant to include length of sentence, what amount to apply for restitution, and where the defendant is to go after sentencing, etc. This clear-cut sentencing can happen in the space of about thirty minutes during the first hearing for the defendant in court before the judge.

If there is any reasonable doubt about the case, the judge has the right to send the defendant back to jail or apply further judicial review or trial date. If, however, there is clear-cut evidence understood by all, even the defendant who may have confessed, the sentencing should immediately be applied. If, later, the sentenced defendant wishes a review of their case or new evidence is found such as mental incapacity determined by outside intervention or advocates, then the defendant may be allowed an appeal. The main idea here is to reduce the number of court proceedings that have been clogging and overloading our court system giving judges more time and attention to those cases which require evidence and extensive adjudication processes.

As another Kudos to the state of Illinois, I want to commend the people of that state for abolishing bail bonds! They are awesome! There will be no further crimes than before, and people will be able to go home and continue to wrap up their affairs if they make a minor mistake in judgement. In the Illinois case that I saw, a woman got into trouble for the first time with the law and spent way over a year in jail simply because she did not have the $250,000 ($25,000) bail to get out of jail. She had a physical altercation with her mother-in-law that sent them both to the hospital and her to jail. She remained in jail because she could not bail out. Bail bonds are a travesty and are there for large corporations to get away with murder and for lawyers to profit from defendants who are not a threat to themselves or society. This is especially true for a first-time offense or those that are not such as murder, or weapons violations. As we all know, drug dealers and rich people have no difficulty bonding out of jail. It is poor or disadvantaged or victims of illegal activity such as judicial bias like I have outlined in my article above that truly have no possible representation during unlawful actions. Please look closely at the Illinois law banning bail bonds and implement this in your own state. Be brave and have faith. We are getting better, but it takes us all demanding good change to make it happen.

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© Copyright June 2015, Tales From T he Kangaroo Kourt, Clear-cut Solution, April Graves-Minton, Love MoonEagle. All Rights Reserved.