Having recently retired from a very minor part of the District Court system. A part that lay people can serve on, to assist in the administration of justice. I have become very interested in the communities perception of the above system, more particularly the perception of guilt or innocence and the sentencing of defendants.
Many and varied are the cases that come before the courts and the defendants could be described in the same manner.
The way the defendants appear in court and respond to the questions put to them will to a large extent, determine the outcome.
Few of the cases dealt with are black and white, open and shut. The justice who is sitting on the case has to use his eyes and ears and even then, interpret the response, to questions and answers given.
What you may read in your daily newspaper is not always a good representation of what actually happened in the court.
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"And The Rains Came"
ReplyDeleteThe district of Southland is is experiencing quite serious flooding as a result of heavy rain over the last few days.
Would the northern North Island could experience just a minor share of that downpour.
While I know very little of the Craffer families situation, other than that which have I gleaned from the local papers, I can guess that there will be many farmers out there who will be very seriously effected by the continuing drought situation. Animals hungrily calling out for more feed which a farmer cannot supply, plus a bank officer reminding him that his borrowing is excessive, may be the catalyst to considering suicide.
Watch out for your farming friends, saying you are sorry after the tragedy does not help very much.
Farmercorby.