Can I Just Stay Quiet?

Sometimes sitting in class can get interesting for me. Today in my class, we are finally moving beyond policing and starting the conversation about courts. This, I know a lot about. I know the legal side from my J.D. and the defendant side from last year. Can I separate my personal experience from the class discussions? So far, not so well...

Tonight, as the class talked about bail, judge's discretion around setting bail, and then issues around plea-bargaining (an issue that I'm even more passionate about), I couldn't help but through my skepticism about the justice system out. At one point I said:

"It doesn't matter who you are... if you are not extremely wealthy or famous, then it matters not if you have a public defender or a private attorney... you are just going to plea out and end up on prison anyway..."

Oy, I can't believe I said that. The first thing my professor said to me was, "what reading are you basing that on? What empirical evidence?" I wanted to say, "my nine months in Carswell."

Then, interestingly, one of our readings for class was about the 'decision to prosecute,' that took place in the same county of where my crime occurred. I was not prosecuted by the state, so I was one of the cases they did not move forward, so in reading the article, I was interested in trying to figure out why my case was never prosecuted by the state... why did it go federal? I will never know, but it made me curious, especially because this article was specifically written from the same county as my case (albeit well before my case was ever presented to them).

I also continually get a run-around when I mention "federal" issues - I am always reminded - 90% of cases are handled in the states... I keep mentioning that I'm interested in the federal system. Always the minority, ha!

There's such a huge part of me that wants to tell my class my story --- they need to hear the story of someone who went through all these steps and what happened and what it was like... what 'negotiating' a plea really looks like. How I was allowed to go to South Africa still. How I was never really arrested, etc.

Just thoughts...