Criminal Justice Class Reflection

I have been a Criminal Justice Major at FAU for 4 years, but sometimes I still automatically think about what I learned on the television, rather than what I learned in my classes. Despite my learning about the Judicial System this semester, and my previous experience in other classes, my mind was still expecting something out of Law & Order instead of my textbook. I subconsciously assumed that the criminal case that I was sitting in on would be like those sixty minute spots I watch when nothing else is on, where they get through everything as quick as possible, the ‘bad guy’ gets his comeuppance, and everything is wrapped up in a neat little bow that very day. All of these were wrong of course. The trial was already in day two by the time …show more content…
When I think about a court, I think of strict plans, schedules, and rules. But, when I went to court, they started late for reasons unknown, they never said “all rise,” or “please be seated,” they never did any of the things that you usually see happen in a court. The judge went to lunch early because of a meeting she had to go to – so lunch was almost two hours in comparison to the ninety minute norm. Some of the public were on their phones and iPads (and not for news media purposes), and the public watching kept coming in and out. For a state criminal court case, everything was very casual – which I did not …show more content…
Something that struck me about the Prosecutor’s examination of the defendant was that time and time again she kept pointing back to the jury and saying, “Do you believe that the jury will find you not guilty?” to which the defendant replied, “Well, it’s up to them whether or not they think I’m guilty”. This seemed to be a very leading question that felt as if no matter what the defendant said, it would make her look bad to the jury. Even though in some cases, this might have seemed like the prosecutor was grasping straws, from what the defendant had been saying in the examination – the prosecutor was refocusing the attention upon the facts of the case instead of the defendant’s