Scarred for Life

Now, i can think of an question instead of an answer: What if the accused eventually ends up in jail, does the correctional system effectively carry out its function? If not and bearing in mind that the goal of our criminal justice system is reformation, are we just practicing criminal procedure in futility all this time?

Once a prosecutor approached me and asked why I am so concerned with the thought that my client (the accused) could face jail time. He reassuringly tapped my shoulder and said “it could be for your client’s best interest. Jail can reform him into a law abiding person.” I stared back at him but could not come up with the right words. Just the previous night at the law school, i was calling my students for recitation. One of them is connected with the correctional system (I was teaching Criminal Procedure Review). Out of curiousity, I asked him about the chances of convicts being reformed. And just like me before the prosecutor, he seemed not able to come up with right words.

There is this story of young lawyer who represented a big time businessman. After conducting a on-the-spot inventory of his bodega, the businessman found out that several of his stocks were missing. Afraid that he will be blamed by his supplier of the loss, he accused 3 of his bodegeros for it. Not satisfied with what he did, he charged them for theft which breezed through the prosecutor’s office and filed in court. The exorbitant bail was simply out of reach for the 3 accused. When the arraignment came, the judge was absent. And naturally the case was reset with all the accused remitted to the country’s most congested jail (QC). It was a November and the resetting was until March. The 3 accused spent Christmas and New Year in jail just because the judge was absent.

The young lawyer cannot do anything because he is professionally bound to his client. Add to this fact thathis client had signed confessions of the three bodegeros as damning evidence. All he wished for is that investigating prosecutor and the judge assigned will find out that these confessions were in violation of the accused’s right to be aided by a competent lawyer of their choice. Under the rules, the investigating prosecutor can dismiss a case if it is apparent that right to counsel was violated. Moreso, the judge can also summarily dismiss the case for lack of probable cause for the same reason the moment it lands on his table. But somehow, this went unnoticed and the cases against the 3 continued.

When March came, the young lawyer saw that the 3 accused were never the same- having spent a long time in jail just because of a resetting. What more after a year of trial, gang tattoos appeared on the jailed bodegeros body (oh did I forget to say that these bodegeros were provincianos in their 20s?). When they were eventually presented as witness, their defense lawyer only asked one question: Were you assisted by a lawyer when you signed your written confessions? Of course, they were acquitted. But it took a long time before they were finally set free from detention.

Now why did this also become a story of the young lawyer? It is because just like the three poor bodegeros who are now tainted with gang tattoos , this lawyer is forever scarred.