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Went to see a friend’s appeal
Posted under PersonalFor the first time I went to see an Appeals Court oral arguments. It was the Fifth District of Illinois in Mt. Vernon. The case was The People vs Robert M. Casey. I got into the details of the case a couple years ago but i’m not going into the details of the case again.
The Appellant Defender spoke first. He said that he was going to argue the first count and leave the third count for the Judges to read (the second count was dropped during the trial). He then talked about that fact there was no evidence for the first count presented in the trial. Even the prosecution’s star witness said when asked about the first count said, “No, I Don’t think so.”
The high judge then asked the defender, “Is there any evidence?”
The defender then threw up his hands and said, “No, there is no evidence”
They then turned to the Appellant Prosecutor, and asked her about it.
Even in her briefing paper she concided to the fact the star witness had not collaborated the charge. She then went on to explain that “We can just change the charge to the same as the 3rd count, and everything will be fine with no harm done.”
The judges balked. The third judge who had said nothing all afternoon about any case spoke up and said, “You can’t do that!”
The high judge told the appellant prosecutor, “Your wasting our time!”
The first judge asked her, “Have you ever seen a case where this had been done?”
She replied, “Well, NO, but…”
The judges scoffed, and shut her up. They shut her up multiple times through out the hearing. The First judge was like a rabid dog, arghh arghg ar arghgh and chewed the prosecutor to pieces.
The high judge said, “If they wanted to change the charge they had plenty of time during the trial.”
They then went back to the defender. He said, “If they are going to just change the charges, why not just add ten more?”
The judges asked again about the third count and the defender said, “you still have to read it”
Of course the oral arguments ended with “You’ll be advised of our opinions.”
All in all I was very happy to see the laws followed. The judges were obviously not Charles Garnati fans (the original district attorney).
I find it amazing that the prosecutor just said well we’ll change the charge with no harm done. What else did Garnati’s office change as they pleased on a whim with out legal basis in the original court case?
Thank You to all the of the judges, with an exceptional thank you to The Honorable Melissa Chapman.
I eagerly await the court’s opinions.
