Mockery in the Court

The other day in court, a black male defendant arrived in chains. It was determined during the proceedings that he was going to plead guilty to the charges and serve 60 days in jail. During the guilty plea, as is standard court procedure, the defendant raised his right hand to the best of his ability—which in and of itself is a spectacle when the defendant’s hands are chained to his waist—and swore to tell the truth. Then the next part of court procedure is to state his name and address for the court. As the defendant did so, he stumbled over his address, failing to remember his house number. In response Judge Mora said, “You don’t live at -----?” filling in the defendant’s address on file. When the defendant said yes that is in fact where he lived, Judge Mora proceeded to say, “Oh yeah one of those ones right? I’ve got a lot going on too, but I know where I live. That’s just something you kind of know.” (I tried to write down verbatim what he said.) Not only were Judge Mora’s comments condescending and rude—as he had treated a number of defendants all morning—but they also lacked an understanding of why it might be difficult for some people to remember their address. 

    A number of possible reasons ran through my head. First, many defendants struggle with the pressure of speaking in front of a judge and a full court room. Second, the defendant had already been in jail for a certain amount of time, so presumably he had not been home in a while. But the most likely possibility is that he might not have been living at this address for very long. While Judge Mora probably has a stable home, Poughkeepsie currently has the highest eviction rate of mid-sized New York cities, according to Eviction Lab, an independent research group run by a professor of sociology at Princeton University. In fact, a recent article in The New Republic has documented how gentrification in New York City has driven many New Yorkers to Upstate New York, driving up rent prices and making it more difficult to obtain affordable housing in our area. This defendant could very well be dealing with the difficulty of obtaining affordable housing. 

Granted, seeing as I don’t know the defendant’s income or housing history, all this is speculation. And Judge Mora may not have any more information than I do. Nevertheless, there is something wrong and callous about assuming there is absolutely no reason why the defendant might have difficulty remembering his address. While judges must enforce the law, it is also reasonable to expect them to demonstrate some empathy for the everyday realities of people’s lives. To mock a defendant in the middle of a plea discussion is unacceptable. The fact that it was met by a few giggles around the room only further denigrated the judicial proceedings.