When the prosecution rests in the Manhattan case, I plan to read the transcripts so far looking for evidence that supports the elements of particular crimes.
This is my thing: Reading trial transcripts. My job was reading trial transcripts looking for appealable errors.
Shall I tell you my favorite moment in a transcript?
The defendant (yes, my client) walked in to court with baggy pants. The judge (a woman) was offended and angry. She thought the defendant was disrespecting her.
She was so angry that the prosecutor felt bad for the young man and came to his defense. (It's hard to read emotion in a transcript, but she was obviously furious for the prosecutor to come to his defense.)
First the defense lawyer tried to explain that it was (unfortunately) the current fashion.
The prosecutor confirmed that it is a fashion.
The judge said, "Well. It's a fashion felony." (Reading it, I could allmost 'hear' her sputtering.)
@Teri_Kanefield Wild supposition: If defendant was Black, that's a multilayered thing. If the judge was white, that's deepening this. IDK if those were their apparent race/ethnicity identities, but this feels a little like the people who get fired or censured at work for having "unprofessional" hair when, in fact, they just have Black hairstyles.
And when a Black man goes to court in baggy pants, it's A Whole Thing, since (AFAIK) baggy/saggy pants in Black fashion came from prison, where belts aren't allowed and poor-fitting clothing is standard issue. For some Black men, the baggy pants are an ongoing fashion commentary on over-prosecution and over-arrest of Black men for the past half century.
But that aside, "fashion felony" is a great phrase.
@guyjantic@Teri_Kanefield yep the culture wars over sagged pants go back a long way, and critiques of them (among many things) are often proxies for racism or at best cultural ignorance and associated bias. And the dress codes in court and other official settings are imo a type of discriminatory barrier and should be updated and loosened. "Professionalism" is far too often simply code for exclusion.
That said, you can't show your draws in court. Come on man! "when keeping it real goes wrong"
@Teri_Kanefield I mean, setting aside the potential racism of this situation...
Why didn't the defense coach their client on how to appear, including how to dress? Isn't that part of their job?
(Which does not excuse the judge, imo... Like, take some time to understand culture, where folks are coming from, what they have to work with, etc. You know, recognize your own privilege. It's not that hard. But still.)
As a sometime-provider of litigation support on environmental matters, I have read a fair few transcripts, mostly depositions. My favorite moment was a case when the presumedly-polluting facility had been shut down so long ago that there were only a couple of past employees still alive. The prosecutor was badgering one of them, a welder who had nothing to do with the putatively-polluting processes. After several dozen questions about contaminant releases,
all of which the welder answered unsatisfactorily, the questioner asked "Are you saying there's nothing about your work that produced any waste?", to which the welder, clearly fed up, replied "Well, if you stuck your hand in the torch, then there'd be hand waste."
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