Criminal Justice Observation

Last week I began my externship with the Metro Public Defender’s Office. I, along with fellow externs, spent Wednesday shadowing public defenders throughout a typical day in the Justice A. A. Birch Building. This was my first time in the Nashville courthouse, and really the first time I witnessed criminal proceedings that were not part of an actual trial. Over the summer I had the opportunity to witness two trials, but one of the main reasons I wanted to work with the public defender was because the vast majority of the criminal justice systems exists outside the trial. I was quickly struck (and repeatedly struck again and again) by how boring and efficient the system is. Almost everything that takes place within a courtroom is essentially a procedural formality. Judges are seemingly there to ensure that defendants agreed to a plea deal voluntarily and that they understand the rights they have subsequently waived. There really isn’t much room for defense attorneys to advocate inside the actual courtroom. However, later in the day I witnessed a pretrial preceding that provided me with a lesson I’ll never forget.

They were all charged after blocking an entrance to the Nashville city capitol building during the Presidential inauguration and they were here today for a probable cause hearing. The hearing itself, as a public defender explained to me, was a formality. Probable cause is a much lower standard than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard used at trial. The protesters were arrested by police mid-protest. The prosecutor had no need to put on a full case and thus only put on the two arresting officers to answer just enough questions to put the defendants at the scene. This should have been the end of the hearing. Probable cause had been established and there was nothing the defense attorney could