LARGETONY Blog

Unless you are Rip Van Winkle, you probably know or, at least have heard about, the shootings at the court house in Atlanta, Georgia on Friday where a defendant in a rape trial overpowered a deputy, took her gun, shot her, then shot and killed a judge and court reporter, then another deputy, leading to a string of assaults, thefts, shootings, hostage-taking, etc. This horrible event and its resulting occurances are understandably being described as “tragic and senseless.” I have one more adjective to add to that description: “avoidable.”

Apparantly Georgia has a law on the books that when a defendant is brought into court, they are not in handcuffs or in shackles “to make sure the sight of cuffs doesn’t unfairly influence the jury. ” Everybody, let me hear a “WHAT THE FUCK?” What happened to the Georgia I always heard about? Chain-gang Georgia. “Cool Hand Luke” Georgia. Now, I realize that as a defendant your guilt or innocence is yet to be determined, but how is it that a state that keeps shot guns and hound dogs trained on jumpsuited guys picking up garbage on the highway can relax enough to let suspects into court without bracelets?

They are worried about influencing a jury? Anybody sitting on a jury that sees someone in handcuffs and automatically think, “Hmmm. Handcuffs. Give him life!” is going to make the same leap just by seeing a defendant escorted in and wearing an orange jumpsuit. And that person shouldn’t have passed jury screening in the first place. Why doesn’t Georgia just loan the defendant a Lexus and an Armani suit to arrive in? That way they won’t know who is on trial and who is the attorney. No preconceptions. Or better yet, Georgia, get the shit out of your brains, slap on the cuffs, and save a life. Or two. Or four.

What is happening to America where the people on trial are treated better than every day people? You hear about people who can’t get on an airplane without having their panties checked. I’ve seen guys put in handcuffs because they were homeless. I have seen people cuffed and arrested for unpaid traffic tickets. But an alleged rapist? An alleged rapist facing a life sentence? Untie his binds and give him a female deputy escort. Everybody, let me hear a “WHAT THE FUCK?”

If you have done something to at least raise suspicion that you have commited a violent crime then I say you have, at least temporarily, given up certain rights. Yes, you have the right to remain silent, you have a right to an attorney, you even have a right to a toothbrush and a bed or cot to sleep on. But you don’t get to have your hands free out in public.

It turns out that the day before the trial this guy was found to have homemade shanks (knives) in both of his shoes, and extra security was requested. So, they beefed up security by adding more officers. But they didn’t take the simplest precaution of all: cold steel wrist-pincing handcuffs. Hmmm…more officers, but no cuffs. Easier to grab a gun, more sitting ducks. His own attorney described the defendant a “very big and athletic.” They should have had him in handcuffs with an American Gladiator-sized deputy on him. Then, if it turned out that he was innocent, he’d have the right to a sincere apology and a hotel-sized bottle lotion for his wrists.

I know I’m sounding a bit like a red-stater here, but just as everything in life is not black or white, everything in the U.S. is not red or blue.

Here we are a couple of days later, he’s killed four people, shot another, shot at a couple more, held a woman hostage in her home, and been captured. The latest news is that he may go to back court as early as today on a firearm posession charge so they can hold him in custody until they charge him with the shootings. Can the legal system be more fucked up? What more do they need to charge him with the shootings? And why can’t they hold him in custody just for fleeing court?

Whatever they use to hold him in custody, let’s hope (and pray) that this time it involves handcuffs.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2005 at 1:53 am and is filed under topical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.