Stomping Grounds

Last Friday morning, we bade farewell to the five Ugandan prison officials, none of whom had ever visited the United States before.  They were effusive with gratitude and determined to incorporate as much of what they had learned as possible.  The other five Ugandans and I (Luke returned home late Thursday night) began the day at the Louisiana State Court.  We had the opportunity to watch preliminary hearings, bail hearings, sentencing hears, and what is called “drug court.”

The New Orleans courthouse is the first in the country to be equipped with a drug testing lab inside the building.  Drug offenders in a certain category are given the opportunity to avoid prison if they can demonstrate they are able to stay clean.  This entails appearing in court regularly before the drug court judge, who gives them a much-needed dose of tough love.  The test results are delivered within minutes of the samples being given.

I understand and think I appreciate the arguments made in favor of legalization of at least some drugs.  But my opposition to such legalization strengthened significantly as I witnessed first-hand the devastation visited on the lives of those addicted to these substances.  And yes, that includes marijuana.  It is OK to disagree, but go spend an hour at the courthouse where you will see that the vast majority (95% in some jurisdictions) of crime (violent and non-violent) in our cities traces back to drugs, then we’ll talk.  (Sorry, enough preaching).

We had a chance to observe plea bargaining in action in the sentencing court, which will be a focus of the Los Angeles leg of the Ugandan delegation’s visit in the coming days.  Uganda is currently in the process of integrating plea bargaining into their criminal justice system in an attempt to address the staggering case backlog and prison overcrowding.

After a quick lunch, we were treated to tour of my old stomping grounds – the John Minor Wisdom Courthouse, which serves as the headquarters for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The Fifth Circuit encompasses Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, which is why I visited this courthouse often during my 1994-95 clerkship with one of my heroes, Judge Edith Hollan Jones, whose chambers are in Houston.  After a simple phone call, she arranged the whole afternoon briefing remotely.

During the tour, we visited the extravagantly decorated and breathtakingly spacious court rooms where the appeals are argued.  Serendipitously, Judge Jones is hearing cases next week, and her name plate was already in place.  This made for a memorable photo opportunity, as I had a chance to sit in the chair of someone I greatly admire.

In the en banc courtroom

In addition to the tour of this historic building (now 100 years old), we had a delightful meeting with Judge Steve Higginson and his four law clerks.  Judge Higginson walked through the anatomy of an appellate case from start to finish and answered numerous questions from our guests about case management at the appellate level.  The Fifth Circuit is on the leading edge of technology and provided our visitors with a vision of what the future will eventually hold for their appellate justice system.

The court clerk thereafter provided us with an extensive case management briefing and gave them each flash drives with all of the important information covered.

From the Fifth Circuit, we journeyed to the airport and boarded a plane bound for Los Angeles, where the case management study tour will resume after a weekend of rest and sightseeing.