The overwhelming experience that I had at the Mecklenburg County Court was the feeling of emotion. It was an interesting meeting of emotions in a place that requires the suppression of emotion in making a decision. In almost every court case that I witnessed, emotion played a major role in my judgement of the case as an outsider.
In Civil Court, the domestic abuse trials were focused on convincing the judge that the person in custody was really a good person, and messed up one time. The majority of the trial involved background on the convicted party proving how good of a person and citizen they are normally. It resulted in each of the people that I witnessed (all were up for a removal of bail and release) being freed of their bail and released back into society. I agreed with most of these decisions, but there was one case in which the judge seemed undecided. The ominous words to end the trial were ‘Don’t make me regret this.’ This decision seemed like the back story on the plaintiff won the judge over emotionally. With the criminal cases, the most striking thing was the representative of the state. He was charged with prosecuting many people, and was not well versed in the background of the case, however, he had very little motivation and seemed to not be representative of the state. It was a very emotionless plea that did not work even once through my observation.
The Family Court Trial was the most emotionally charged. The case I witnessed involved a separated Father and Mother arguing over child support payments. The father lost most of the arguments, and had to be told several times to be respectful and quiet. It was overwhelmingly obvious that the judge did not like the Father, but to see his disgust with the man, and then side for him on certain aspects was very interesting. The ability of the law to put motion aside and make a decision was clearly executed here, and sent that point home with me. The Father’s failure to have proper representation hurt him in the trial, as he was not as well versed in the nuances of the law. He would have won all of the aspects of the trial if he did not refuse to be witness to questioning. It was very difficult for me to witness this case, as there was so much emotion and tension in the room. It was obviously wearing on the judge over the course of the day.
The Family Courts have an entirely different spacial feeling than the other court rooms. The common areas are all very soft and playful. The walls are decorated with art, there are different color schemes throughout, and there were a lot of people and children milling about. It came across as a much more informal area that respected the children and tried its best to not be imposing.
The Criminal Court trials featured several people pleading guilty and not guilty drug use/distribution. To see a mother of two get convicted of Cocaine Possession was very interesting. The Defendant pleaded guilty to get a reduced sentence. This worked for her, and she was sentenced to the minimum jail sentence. The family was distraught and inconsolable. I was also able to speak with the judge about something I noticed about how the space functioned. That was the amount of movement, people in and out of the room. The constant movement was very distracting to me in the audience. The judge said that in most cases it did not effect him, but he does get distracted on occasion. He said that the respect for the courtroom has really changed over time, and he does not understand why people behave inappropriately and without respect. He suggested trying to create a solution for the constant movement.
I was also witness to a trial by jury, in the case of a rape accusation. This was much more typical to what I understand as a court room trial. I was able to witness most of the witness questioning for the day, and felt the emotion leave the room in the trial. This was a very by the book trial, as most of it was listening to lawyers. The lawyers were very precise in their language and actions, which seemed to emulate the intentions of the law. It was very interesting to see the lawyers take over and run the court room. The amount of information that they had to get out of each witness was immense. Very basic facts had to be repeated several times in order for the court to fully understand. The Jury can be easily swayed by the emotional aspects, and it is interesting to see the lawyers try to control that aspect, in order to get sympathy toward their client, and anger toward to other party.
In all of these cases, it really boils down to someone not telling the truth. I do not understand how it can get this far into the trial process, on a lie. I am glad that the court system is there to interpret this, but it should never get this far in the first place. I was disappointed with how most of the court rooms functioned, in that a mass of people were on trial for only a few minutes and then convicted. I was expecting more of this. However, all of the cases proved interesting and it was very nice to see the interaction of emotion and law, and how that affected the judges and the people on trial.
[space + justice] 
