November 30, 2004

• Court Appearance

  So today I went to the courthouse because I had been ticketed for making an illegal U-Turn.  I felt really nervous.  I had gone back to that street recently and discovered, in fact, that the police officer wasn’t lying and I really did make an illegal U-Turn.  I was guilty.

  The waiting room was a wide, narrow hallway, with one row of chairs along one side.  Only a handful of folks got to sit; everyone else had to stand.  I saw two men in ties, a few students (one from Stanford), a few mom types and a bunch of scruffy looking men.  It made me wonder if these men really made more traffic violations or if they were more easily targeted by cops.  It was such a motley bunch. 

  There was one rather grand looking door which served as the entrance into the courtroom.  We all waited for about an hour before we were called in.

  As I waited, I wondered if there was a waiting room like this, post-mortem.  A random assortment of people, some looking quite dapper, some looking quite not, some looking like they belong in a court and some looking like they don’t.  And yet all of us required to stand before the Judge because we were guilty of some crime or another.

  I wasn’t looking to argue or contest or plead.  After all, I was guilty.  So the question was, what would the judge do?

  He called us up alphabetically, so I was near the end of the role call.  I got to watch cases A – N, before me.  The judge was a white-haired, white-wiskered older man.  And it turned out that it was his desire to give everyone mercy.  I was completely shocked as I watched him suspend sentences, lower fines and adjust the dates for people who did not have enough money to pay.  And while it was in his power to lower fines and extend dates, it was not within his power to let certain kinds of punishments off completely or neglect to add the extra $30 if you could not pay the fine right away.  But I could see that it would sometimes pain him when he had to add the $30 to those who already had no means to pay.  I could almost see him wince. 

  He had compassion.  He had mercy.  But he was also just and fair. 

  It was quite the eye-opening experience for me to see what it means for a Judge to be just and merciful at the same time.

  • 2:05 pm
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