I sit down at a long rectangular table, sunlight floods the warm room and outside you can see snow falling lightly; in any other situation this would seem like the perfect place for a meeting. Silence envelops the space, a welcomed contrast from the court room and jail next to me. I raise my eyes from my orientation folder, a reminder to all that I’m still not sure what I’m doing here. I can feel the anxiety and fear fill the room, as A and I lock eyes at the same time. She keeps looking down and only responds mumbling, her walk has even transformed into little more than a shuffle.
We’re the same age, I think to myself, as I come to terms with the fact that her life is about to take a direction unimaginable to me. She has been charged with felony assault, a crime with a maximum sentence of 4 years in prison or up to a $2,000 fine. What I envision when hearing that someone has been charged with “felony assault” and the crime that this person actually committed do not coincide, and I begin to see the disconnect that is apparent to everyone else in the room. It was clearly self-defense, I think to myself as I read over her case for the 100th time this morning, anyone would have reacted the same way under those circumstances. The passion in me wants to tell her to fight it, but the reality is that as public defenders, we are only ever able to tell the defendant what their options are; never to coerce or sway them. She begins to silently weep as we inform her that the prosecutor has offered her a plea deal, a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault. Due to her age and the fact that she has no prior record she is also eligible for Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, a law in Michigan that allows first time felony offenders who complete probation to have their felony cleared from their record.
I look up at her and see what appears to be her thinking thoroughly through her options about to speak, but just as she begins to talk another defense attorney knocks on the door and asks for our attorney, as he politely excuses himself from the room. Now it is just her and I, two people humanly alike yet completely different. I start through her interview questions at the request of my attorney, and as we continue down the list I see just how different we are. What comes as a surprise to my attorney and what seems like a norm to me is that she has finished high school, a feat a large majority of our clients do not have. She also has a job, a seemingly common thing for someone our age to have, but that is seen as leverage in the case. She has a child whose father is not in the picture who is her sole responsibility to care for, she has no access to transportation to and from her job, and she has a level of income far below what many consider feasible, it is clear that she is at a disadvantage in our society.
I ask her if she has any questions that I may be able to answer as she has been informed that I also retain attorney-client privilege due to my position as a student legal intern; that all of our conversations are confidential. A puzzled look crosses her face while looking down at the table, and she timidly asks me if the prosecution are the “people against her.” I try to hide my shock as I reply that the prosecution represents the State of Michigan and as such is here today on behalf of the officers and victim in the case. She mumbles “okay” and I have to look away to stop the thoughts running through my mind. This far in the legal process, as she is about to make a decision that will impact the rest of her life, she is unsure of what courtroom positions are.
I still remember A and her case because of how it played out in court. It wasn’t the most intense case, wasn’t the most extreme, but truly the most average. The crime she committed, hitting a person in the head with an empty bottle of liquor after they charged her, seems to most of us like self-defense. In fact, if you or me had done the same thing; odds are we would have fought the case and won.
This was one of the first realizations I had in court; nobody fights their charges. No matter how insane or unreasonable they are, most people will take misdemeanor charges in a heartbeat over continuing to go back to court to fight. The glorified image of a courtroom, of the judicial process, of what we envision our system to accomplish immediately vanishes the moment a person is arrested. How horrifyingly easy it is to be charged with a felony, up to the immediate discretion of an officer who most likely will be white and who has garnered a hero complex from a metal badge. But the arrest is only part of the process, and although one that leads to the courtroom, it is not the only biased portion of our system.
Two things struck me when I listened to the orientation speech for my internship. The first was when they asked what the largest contributor to someone committing a crime was. I ran through what I figured the answer would be; peers, gangs, self-defense, personal vendettas… the answer? Drugs. The second, what percentage of cases actually make it to trial?
Let’s take a step back and go over what trial is. When we think of this term images of Law & Order, courtroom dramas come to mind. What is the reality of a trial in the real world? A trial means that a defendant is fighting the charges brought up against them, that they are innocent, or that they believe they can win the case. A trial is no easy feat, it does not occur days after a crime is committed. Instead, a trial consists of a minimum of 4 court “dates.” The first is a probable cause conference; which is designed to speed up the matters in a court system by allowing a defendant to accept an early plea or resolution to the case. This hearing is also a way to avoid bringing in witnesses to testify on the matters, a time-saving and re-victimization aid.
The second court appearance is a preliminary examination, where the prosecution must prove (with a lesser burden than a trial court) that the crimes in question were committed and that the defendant committed the crimes. This is also the point where the prosecution must bring in a few key witnesses and they testify and can be cross-examined by the defense attorney. There are two outcomes to a preliminary examination; either the judge decides that probably cause is established and the defendant is “bound over” (sent to) circuit court for trial; or the judge decides that there is not probable cause that the defendant committed the charged crime and the judge can bind the case over on different charges, reduce the charges to misdemeanors, or dismiss the case all together.
The next court appearance is the trial. At this stage in the proceedings, the defendant has the right to have their case heard by a judge or the jury. In this stage the prosecutor must present their evidence that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt (think of the weighted scales people picture when talking about law). Through cross examination and bringing up their own witnesses the defense is able to question the validity of the prosecution’s facts and witnesses, and to try to lessen the burden against them.
The final court appearance is the sentencing. This is where the judge ultimately decides what your punishment for the crime (or crimes) in question will be. In Michigan, we have a book called “sentencing guidelines). It looks more like a Sudoku puzzle than the material used to determine someone’s future. In this book, “points” are added up and defendants are fit into boxes based on the severity of the crime, who the crime was against (a person or a building, for example), what the defendant’s previous criminal history is, and then a multitude of other factors (was a weapon used, was their injury to a victim, etc). Based off of all of these numbers and boxes, finally a “score” is given with a mandatory and potentially maximum prison sentence. Although sentencing a defendant off of these guidelines is recently not mandatory under law, judges still weigh heavily what these guidelines state.
It’s important to note that all of these court proceedings don’t take place quickly, day after day for example. These dates can be weeks or months after the alleged incident, and can have weeks or months separating them. The catch is this; if the prosecution offers you a plea deal and you accept; you skip all of these court hearings and move down to a circuit court to be sentenced. This means that the number of times you must physically appear in court is drastically reduced, and, for many defendants, the plea deal consists of one or two misdemeanors, lesser crimes, but that they must plead guilty or no contest to (meaning you won’t physically say guilty for the sake of sentencing but that you are pleading guilt to these alleged crimes).
So how many cases end up making it through the full court hearings and finally to trial? 3%. The other 97% take a plea deal offered by the prosecution at some point during their court proceedings.