Watching the British Legal system at work

I live near a County Court House, and today, out of sheer curiousity, popped in to see the legal system working. The receptionists told me I was lucky - there were some big cases on today.

I saw the judgement and sentencing of a murderer and heard some of the evidence in a child rape case. On one level it was really interesting, on another - oh! the human pain of it all!

The judgement was very like sailing protest committees, in that procedures and rules had to be followed, so there was a familiarity about it. Yet the judge able to express his feelings against the murder within this, and this, along with the measured clarity of his speech and expression, gave me a sense that he really was speaking on behalf of decent society. Incidentally, the murderer got a life sentence, with a minimum of 16 years to be served before being eligible for consideration for parole. This, given the defendant is 65 years old, could well be a remainder of ‘life’ sentence in incarceration, which reflect the severity of the crime. His teenage partner was strangled and stabbed to death in what was accepted to be an little provoked but unpre-meditated act, and then after smoking a cigarette, he then killed their 4 year old little boy. UGH.

The other case ( an accusation of incest child rape between Father and children) was mid-process of being heard. They were going through the transcripts of police interviews. What was interesting was that the Policewoman ( Inspector?) was reading out what she said, while what seemed to be a barrister read out the defendant’s answers. They did it very well, and bought reems of paperwork alive. I never knew they did this and it was very effective in the process. The process felt transparent, and encouraged a fair trial.

This evening I’ve been reading in the paper an article about systematic gang rape as a deliberate act of war in the Congo. The contrast between our judicial system, alive and well, compared to the total lack of justice in the Congo for a such widespread violation of fellow human beings is awful to think about. “No man is an island...” said the poet John Donne.

Obama week

What an extraordinary week! All the news flooding out of America as Barack Obama hits the track sprinting. He certainly used the days between election and taking over office to good effect.

I heard a interview (BBC Radio4) which surprised both the interviewer and me,and has kept me thinking. One black person felt that with the Inauguration, he felt like he now belonged to America, and that now it was more his country, he would make more effort to get involved in solving its problems. Yet this man was born in America, and had been ‘american’ for all his life. Before this week, he did not really believe this was ‘his country’. If this hope and energy can be harnessed, maybe America will turn around in many new ways in the upcoming years.

Certainly I take hope from a new willingness to interact with world affairs, and the recruitment of experienced people whatever their creed.

Frost icicles

I took this picture on Sunday. I can’t remember having seen frost like this in the UK. It was was all so beautiful in the countryside - cold though!