The Hannibal Lecter Type Sideshow A Dangerous Slippery Slope

Though I have never been targeted in open court by an unruly client for being ill-prepared, I have been in court on numerous occasions where accused and lawyers have been silenced by the judge, the accused and each other. Oftentimes the silencing is justified and sometimes it is not.

The reality of our criminal justice system is that it is administered by human beings – individuals with varying degrees of patience, intellectual aptitude and who on occasion have a bad day. The other reality of our justice system is that accused persons are sometimes railroaded into accepting certain outcomes by persons who have little or no true vested interest in their struggle.

Defence lawyers (especially the relatively beleaguered bunch in Calgary), crown counsel and judges sometimes marginalize the accused in effort to deal with cumbersome case loads. In fact, there may be any number of reasons an accused is marginalized. Though I state the obvious, some accused persons have serious psychological problems. Some are emotionally compromised, others have cognitive deficits, while others are actually reasonably intelligent individuals who are being railroaded by under prepared defence lawyers, cynical prosecutors and/or judge’s who are acting less than judicious.

For justice to be done, it must be seen to be done. It is for this reason that I have serious difficulties about a Canton Municipal Court judge ordering an accused’s mouth duct-taped shut in open court in response to persistent claims by the accused that his counsel was ill-prepared.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/world/2009/09/01/10704836.html


Now to be fair, I am speaking on the basis of what appears to be a highly edited and typically informationally deficient news article. I assume the accused, Harry Brown, was told to be quiet. I assume he was told that he would have an opportunity to address the court. I assume the judge may have even given him a stern warning and perhaps raised his voice in response to the constant interruptions by the accused. Perhaps Mr. Brown even had a history – not unlike many accused in Calgary – of being openly disrespectful in court.

Having said all of this, this is criminal “justice”. To adopt a rather pithy age old adage: “if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen”. Just as police officers are expected to have a high degree of tolerance for the persons they encounter as part of their job, crown are expected to be quasi Ministers of Justice and as such, highly ethical in all facets of their job, and just as the job of the defence lawyer is to do his or her level best acting for the accused, judge’s are expected to be judicious. Judges must not only be judicious in their decision making but must convey the appearance of true justice all times. My opinion is, having an armed sheriff duct tape a person's mouth in open court does not approach this high standard.

The question is, knowing that the justice system is infected with people from all walks of life, how is it judicious to make a Hannibal Lecter type sideshow by ordering an accused’s mouth duct taped in open court? What’s next, install a steel mask and roll him in on a dolly?

Though many readers may have a brief chuckle over this article, the botom line is, this type of judicial conduct is unacceptable and should never be tolerated by citizens existing under the rule of law.

David G. Chow
Criminal Defence Lawyer

www.calgarydefence.com