They had to weigh in their minds a possible price to be paid. Unfortunately that's what most humans do. It is a rare human who would not have to think, even for an instant about the cost.
Be grateful their out there, at all.
The judges hear them. It's like anything else. Despite what a judge might tell a jury about what to disregard, once heard, it's in the mind.
It becomes a matter of what the character of the judge really is after the black robe comes off, and he's all by himself in the darken chambers.
I would be more grateful if I thought that what they were saying was the truth.