Posted on 07/29/2015 7:59:48 PM PDT by Oklahoma
Over in Williamson County, Tennessee — just north of my home — prosecutors actually filed a motion asking the court to order a defense attorney to stop calling them “the government” in open court. Yes, that’s right — in my home state, it’s apparently now a slur to call the government by its name. In its motion, prosecutors claimed: “The State has noticed in the past few years that it has become commonplace during trials for attorneys for defendants, and especially Mr. Justice, to refer to State’s attorneys as ‘the Government,’ ” [prosecutors wrote.] “The State believes that such a reference is used in a derogatory way and is meant to make the State’s attorney seem oppressive and to inflame the jury.”
This is a great little story by itself, but then the defense attorney, Drew Justice, went and committed an act of pure awesomeness. He filed a motion with his own request: He demanded his client no longer be referred to as “the Defendant,” but instead be called “Mister,” “the Citizen Accused” or “that innocent man” — since all defendants are presumed innocent until a judge or jury finds them guilty. As for himself, clearly “lawyer” or “defense attorney” wouldn’t do him, well, justice. “Rather, counsel for the Citizen Accused should be referred to primarily as the ‘Defender of the Innocent.’ … Alternatively, counsel would also accept the designation 'Guardian of the Realm,’ ” Justice wrote. And since prosecutors are often referred to formally as “General” in court, Justice, in an effort to be flexible, offered up a military title of his own. “Whenever addressed by name, the name ‘Captain Justice’ will be appropriate.” Gathering steam, he went on to say that even “the defense” wasn’t adequate and that “the Resistance” would be far more appropriate. He then concluded his motion, returning to the formal language of court documents — sort of.
“WHEREFORE, Captain Justice, Guardian of the Realm and Leader of the Resistance, primarily asks that the Court deny the State’s motion, as lacking legal basis.” According to Captain Justice, the court denied both motions. So the government is still the “government,” but Captain Justice, Guardian of the Realm, lives on in print – but not in court. Well done, Captain. You’ve made the Tennessee Bar proud.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner
Delightful story. Got a smile out of me.
I have a friend who many years ago was writing an appeal brief in the federal courts, who started it out by saying something like “we appeal from the ruling of the district court in favor of the United States of America, hereinafter referred to as the “f*****g Government,” and then he did the rest of the brief using that appellation. I have to say it was pretty funny.
Needless to say, he had his secretary sanitize the document before he filed it, but at the time I was scared that if she missed one, he could end up getting disbarred.
I’ll bet that it was one Motion Hearing that the Judge actually enjoyed.
This is a guy we need cloned. By the thousands.
That is absolutely golden!! LOL
Permanent link:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/421774/you-know-you-live-conservative-state-when-david-french
Heck... Northern Idaho I still leave my doors unlocked and keys in the car. Once... My neighbor called me from her vacation about 3 days after she left and asked if I could close her back door. She left it open the whole time. The only invader were her 3 chickens that took up roost in a laundry basket. Another time I left my front door open while I went off to my shop. My trusted neighbor kept an eye on the place and nothing happened. Nice to be in such a place.
Small victories in the Long War...
God Bless You and your neighbors.
That is nice. I don’t think I could or ever would do such a thing. I grew up with locked doors.
There really isn’t such a thing as a conservative state
Thanks for posting... Smile story of the day. Standing up to “the man”. Intelligent and defiant against tyranny. I am curious if he is simply an independent thinker or if he graduated from a common sense law school. BFL.
That is awesome - made my morning a little brighter.
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