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Sunday, June 27, 2004
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FRIENDS OF THE COURT
If there's one complaint I've heard repeatedly about the criminal justice system, it's how impersonal the whole institution can be. Most of that can be traced back to what President Harry Truman called "plain speaking" being so actively discouraged.
I continue to doubt that we'll ever be a true brotherhood of man so long as the simple act of throwing human waste at others continues to be so misunderstood.
My favorite part of the story is the end.
After the spitting, LaBuda cleared the courtroom for evidence documentation and cleaning. He said a competency hearing for Bowe will be a priority and appointed a lawyer for him.
I cannot stress enough the importance of competence hearings for shit-flingers. There are some people you want to nip in the bud before they do something crazy.
The lack of commication in judicial procedings can often lead people to resort to drastic measures to make a point. Such was the case in Seoul, South Korea this week.
A 42-year-old woman cut off her finger and sent it to the Seoul High Court to protest its decision allowing bail for her estranged husband after he was convicted at his first trial of sexually assaulting her daughter for more than seven years.
The Korean-Japanese woman flew into Seoul with her 13-year-old daughter yesterday, a day after the court received an envelope mailed earlier from Tokyo containing the finger and a letter written in blood threatening to burn herself alive if her husband does not get a harsh sentence.
Yikes. That will make a point. Nothing says "I'm pissed" quite like the removal of one's own digits and the threat of self-immolation. It's actually kind of sexy, too. I figure if a judge, hardened as they are by exposure to the baser instincts of humanity is impressed by this, one's girlfriend will be even more impressed. 0phelia, keep an eye on the mailbox this week, okay honey?
She cut off the index finger on her right hand after hearing that her husband, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison, was released on bail pending his second trial, the law firm Cheongji said.
But presiding judge Lee Ho-won reportedly said the bail was decided before the woman, identified as Kim and now a Buddhist nun, cut off the finger and that the decision could not be nullified.
You mean to tell me that she went to the trouble of cutting off her own finger and mailing it from Japan for nothing? That doesn't seem right.
He suggested the letter written in blood could be used as a petition or appeal and sent the finger to Cheongji, which is acting for Kim.
Never let it be said that the courts aren't helpful.
Roh and Kim married in 1994 when her daughter was six years old. The first trial was told that Roh sexually assaulted his stepdaughter from 1995 to June 2002 in his house in Hong Kong, where he was working as a professor while Kim was living in Japan. He assaulted the girl after giving her sleeping pills and also beat her with a paddle.
Kim and Roh, who received his doctorate at MIT in Boston, are not legally divorced yet. Their divorce case is pending in Seoul Family Court.
Now, if you're anything like me, it's the divorce case that should be really entertaining. If the woman is willing to cut off her own finger over a trivial criminal case, imagine what she'll do in a divorce hearing, which tends to get really personal.
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