Personal Narrative: My American Criminal Courts Class

Throughout the Fall 2016 semester, I visited several different courts uptown for my American Criminal Courts class. When I saw this assignment on the syllabus, I was very eager to complete it because I wanted expand my knowledge in the court system and how it works. I had previously observed in a courtroom for my Civics and Economics class in high school, but it was very basic. I went to the courthouse afterhours and completed a mock trial with other peers. Even though it was basic, I still had a lot of fun pretending I was on a jury and seeing the simple set up of a trial. Several years later, I was excited to see the courtroom live in action. Honestly, I did procrastinate going uptown to visit the courts. I was really nervous to try to …show more content…
I observed this court on October 20th, 2016 from 2:00- 3:30 in courtroom 4130 with Judge Charlotte Brown presiding. This was a good size courtroom on the 4th floor of the Mecklenburg County courthouse. There was several rows (10-12) of benches for defendants and witnesses to sit, one reserved row for various lawyers and defense attorneys, and then a gate blocking the threshold of where the hearings preside. Once you passed the threshold, there were 2 tables (one for the defense and one for the prosecution), rows of police offers to the right side of the courtroom who where there because of tickets, arrests, etc. that they had made. Next, the judge sat at the bench with the clerk of court and several other members of the courtroom workgroup at a bench lower than her. The bailiffs were spread out throughout the courtroom with two at the front and two at the back by the …show more content…
The hearings in federal court moved much slower than the ones in state court. I spend the same amount of time in federal court and state court and got through fewer hearings. While in this court I observed 2 plea hearings, 2 arraignment and detention hearings, and a hearing where a defendant wanted a new public defender. None of the hearings specifically stood out to me I just really liked the organization and the flow of this court. Everything was very cut and dry. The US Marshal in their shackles and orange jumpsuit would escort the defendants into the courtroom. In both plea hearings the defendants plead guilty and Judge Keesler sent them documents to sign electronically to a small monitor at their table while he asked them questions about their guilty plea. Once everything was completed he let the defendant know they would see Judge Whitney for sentencing. One of the guilty defendants was facing deportation. I was a little confused with the arraignment and detention hearings because they almost sounded like plea hearings at first. Judge Keesler would ask how the defendants plea and both said “not guilty”. When one defendant plead not guilty he was escorted back to jail until his trail by jury and when another defendant said she was not guilty she was given a $25,000 unsecured bond and put on house arrest. I was very confused as to why there were two very different outcomes but there were also a lot of legal terms being