trial

This week I got to watch a criminal trial in person. On Tuesday my attorney presented opening arguments in an armed robbery case with co-defendants. The two defendants were twin brothers accused of entering a carry-out with two other men and robbing the customers with guns. Our client had made a statement to the police after his arrest and our defense was that he was acting under duress. It is very surprising how many of our clients actually give statements to the police, nearly all of them seem to. I did not do any work on the case which is why I got to watch the trial. From opening to closing the case only took three days, which was somewhat surprising to me. There were only a few witnesses, and much of the time was spent waiting for people to arrive, which surprised me even more. My biggest realization was that the business of a court is slow and cumbersome, even in criminal matters. I was also surprised by how bias a judge can potentially hold, furthermore I was taken back by how much power the judge holds during trial. From dismissing charges to instructions to the jury, the judge seems to set the whole tone of the trial.
My lawyer is very impressive to watch. I began to realize why Amit works 6 days a week, often from early in the morning until at least 7 at night. He has been trying to dissuade me from law school, he stresses that it is hard to have a family and be a lawyer at the same time. However I understand the thrill of being a trial attorney. It was thrilling to watch closing arguments for our case because I felt that we had a very strong chance of winning, and the import to these men’s futures was significant. That is to say I felt that the government had not met its burden of disproving duress. The jury, it turns out, agreed with me. After only a couple of hours deliberating we received an acquittal on all charges. It was very intense while we were waiting to hear what the jury had decided, liberty on the line now has a much different meaning.
The experience of watching a trial was very educational for me in respect to what I do on a daily basis. We are often very removed from the activity of the trial preparation because we are in the field finding witnesses, so the practical application of our work was edifying. It also is incredibly motivating to see that what we do makes a real difference in people’s lives. I couldn’t help but wonder what if we didn’t win the case, these two young men would be locked up- it makes me want to work even harder now.