Summary of Courtroom Observations

On October 8, 2009 I attended a general sessions romance at the Lexington County Courthouse. At this mea genuine the Judge was hearing guilty invocations. in that location were many people in the rather large courtroom that twenty-four hour period. The courtroom was much larger than the one I had visited during drug court hither in S pctanburg. Before the days session began I could guess many defense attorneys going over their cases with their clients, some of whom were wearing talented orange jumpsuits that told me they were held in jail prior to their court hearing. Some of the defense constabularyyers appeared to have more than one client.I noniced that there were 2 gentlemen seated at the declare solicitors table and some other, noveler, adult male would periodic entirelyy walk up to them and hand them some documents. The two state solicitors al take a shit had a large stack of papers next to them. place down and to the left of where the imagine would sit, once he arrived, was a charwoman at a computer, the court reporter and a little only to the left of her was the clerk of court. Stationed at a door to the left and buttocks the large raised desk that was the ventures desk was a bailiff.There was a nonher bailiff stationed at the rear door of the courthouse where I walked in through time entering. The judge walked in and before he did so we were told of his approaching and were asked to raise. The judge was a tall older man with gray hair. He looked truly bored with what was about to fill up his day ready to annoy it over with. Before he gave his instructions to the pursuance to begin with their start-off plea bargain, he took his time going over some of the paperwork placed on his desk by the clerk of court.Then finally he was ready to begin the days court session. When given the nod of approval, the prosecution stood up and called out their first case. The first defendant that was called forth was a young woman who had pled g uilty to check fraud. I do not remember the exact amount, but I do remember that it was not very much money. She was given two years on probation with a suspended sentence on top of that. Another case that was called a little bit later was for armed robbery of a appliance store.This case stuck out to me because the store that was robbed was one I had been to many times. The young man who pled guilty to this crime received much more time than the check fraud woman. He was also one of those individuals dressed in bright orange and they took him a focal point immediately. I noticed for the most part there were not very many family members of the individuals there. There seemed to be a small group of students from USC Columbia doing the same thing I was, spy court proceedings.They appeared to be a little older than me and could have been law students. To all of the people who were the normal courtroom players I could tell that the days proceeding were nothing new to them. The judge wo uld ask the defendant how he or she pled and they would say guilty. The prosecution would then tell the judge what they felt the punishment should be as determined by the plea bargain that they had made and the judge would agree with it and would sentence the offender. The whole military operation seemed very repetitive and scripted.There was seldom a deviation from the way that one trail was conducted to the way the next was conducted. I defiantly knew that all of the courtroom dramas on television would never last if they showed plea bargains kind of of full jury trails. The plea bargains seemed like little more than a official ritual that needed to take place just to astound a paper signed. There is probably a much rapid way to conduct plea bargains but Im sure it probably would conflict with an offenders due process laws.