A View From Behind Bars<br>I want to talk about the way that courtrooms are laid out. I think that by their design, it already puts the defendant at a disadvantage when he goes to trial. Maybe you think that it is ridiculous to claim that the way a courtroom is laid out has an impact on a trial, but let me explain. When you walk into a courtroom in California, the floorplan is basically the same as any other. Since most people have seen at least one trial on TV, you can probably visualise what I am describing. If you sit in the jury box and look out over the courtroom, here is what you will see. Closest to the jury is a witness stand where the witnesses sit when they testify. On the other side of the witness stand is the Judge's Bench sitting high above everything else, so as to give an air of authority. Facing the Bench and witness stand are the tables where the prosecutor and defence sit during the course of the trial. In between the prosecutor and defence table is a podium that the lawyers stand at when they address the court and the jury. Sitting closest to the jury box is always the prosecutor's table, then the podium, and on the other side of that is the defence table. The person on trial is as far away from the jury as it is possible. When I was on trial, I couldn't even see half of the jury, unless I leaned out over the table to look at them. So, this set-up seems to make the person on trial distant, and not even a real part of the proceedings, which in my opinion, makes it easier for the jury to depersonalise you when you are on trial. Meanwhile, the prosecutor is damned near sitting in the jury's lap all through the trial and the jury has the tendency to relate with the prosecutor a lot easier. This might sound like a trivial thing, but consider this. A witness for the defence is on the witness stand and giving his or her testimony, but all through the witness's testimony, the prosecutor is sitting right next to the jury and reacting to everything the witness says by facial expressions and body language. And, if you are saying that this doesn't have an impact on a jury, then you are very naive... or a prosecutor.
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