Jesus in the Courthouse

Learning Experience 3: At the Courthouse

 

            As part of my Business Law class with Professor Naylor, I got the chance to go to a courthouse to attend a trail hearing. Since I am fascinated about criminal cases, I chose to go to the Criminal Court among the three options: Criminal Court, Civil Court, and Family Law Center. However, I seemed to not have much luck with this court. I went to the Criminal Court three times, paying for all of those Uber rides back and forth a total of six times, going up and down stairs in the court, opening every single door to see if there was any trial in process, yet failing to find one. Unfortunately, all of the trial on those day I decided to go were either pushed back, cancelled, or happen later on during time I had to go back to TCU for class. However, not all of those 10 hours running around in the courthouse are useless. While I was hovering, I witnessed something beyond beautiful in the courtroom.

On the first time I went to the Criminal court, I sat in a room and thought I was in a trial since everyone around me looked so nervous and some of them were crying. To further reinforce my misunderstanding, a lawyer approached when he figured out that I was a student who needed to write a law report, telling me that it was a murder case (At this point I could feel adrenaline ran through my veins) and he was telling all basic information I need to know about the case. However, it was not a trial hearing; it was a 2 hours of the jury deliberating. So I sat there for two hours, waiting for the jury to come out. At that point, I didn’t know exactly what a trial mean and didn’t figure until after two hours of waiting that it was not the trial court that I needed.

As I was about to leave, I saw the bailiff escorting some criminals out, into the courtroom, so I decided to stay for a while to observe what was going on. I saw the main judge started talking one-on-one with several defendants in custody.

One of the criminals was a woman. With her grey hair, skin and overall appearance, she looked as if she was in her thirties. But from the spark of her eyes, I guessed that she was in her twenties, and that she may look older because of the condition in jail. After the woman was escorted to the court, facing the main judge, they started a conversation. As I listened to their soft and small-volume conversation, I acknowledged that the woman was asking the judge about her chance of re-entrance to the society and especially about her education after her serving time. What made me surprised even more was Judge Wisch’s response – a response so kind and so personal that had me bewildered for minutes.

Judge Wisch talked to the woman very softly, as he raised up a big cross on his desk. He talked about faith, and God, which was totally unexpected. He told her the honest truth that she had to obey the law, but at the same time, he encouraged her that she could be an inspiration for everyone else in there with her maturity in life. As he felt her fear of going back to that dark place, he encourage her to bravely face the jail because it had to be that way no matter how harsh it could be. I admired how the judge responded to her worries. I could feel that he was very sympathetic with her particular situation and tried his best to instill a realistic hope in her. I think that that was the smartest and kindest response. He gave her hope; he inspired her to do her best in jail, yet he remained realistic. He was helping her and giving her the encouragement that she needed at the time.

I walked out of court with a smile on face even though I was exhausted after hours waiting for the juries. I would never imagine a judge having a personal “pep-talk” to prisoners about religion and faith until that day. Judge Scott Wisch was a real MVP that day, because what he did that day inspired more people than he may have thought.