After spending a full day in a court room yesterday, it became eerily apparent to me that lady justice is blind, but she has good ears. With our adversarial type court room protocol and procedures, the attorneys for each side made their case and tried to make the other sound like a liar. Both sides claimed the moral high ground while denying their own fudging of the truth. Was the truth somewhere in the middle? Both sides told the same story, but somehow the teller always seemed to tell it in their favor.
There was police car video…that we could see for ourselves. “Experts” came in with reams of documents and big charts—maybe they were just for the WOW factor. Direct examinations, cross examinations, re-direct and re-cross examinations: somehow we were to be impressed by the bombardment of redundancy. Rebuttals and rebuttals of rebuttals proved nothing. What we saw with our own eyes was contrary to what we were told. I guess it all depends on what the definition of “IS” is.
There were 25 people in that court room yesterday, not including myself. Jurors, courtroom officials, defense team and defendant, prosecution, etc. Every one of them spent an entire day in that room listening to adults arguing over when this man had his last beer. Usually in Wisconsin the only beer arguments are either: Who gets the last one in the cooler? or Whose turn is it to buy the next round? It was easy to see how 25 people could waste an entire day “seeking” justice because they were all getting paid somehow and they had plush chairs. As the lone observer, I had to keep going to feed the parking meter and sat on a hardwood pew for nine hours. My chiropractor appointment is now scheduled for Monday. If you don’t want company to get too comfy at your house, buy pews, not couches. They won’t stay long.
The closing arguments started with the D.A. saying the defendant was guilty and the defense's arguments centered on just how innocent this man was. Is justice served when the truth is elusive, maybe? Was lunch served, no. This man’s guilt or innocence was irrelevant, as lady justice just hears which side can sell their lies more efficiently.
Our trials in life are easier to define than our courtroom trials, which is a good thing, but either way it seems that I always need a chiropractor at the end of the day.
