Words matter.
They do. Whether they are the simple ones we like to hear like, “You’re hot” or “I love you” or they are the ones we don’t want to hear, “It’s not you, it’s me” or “I don’t love you anymore.” Or the words that can be the greatest to hear, “Tigers win the pennant!” (Ok, maybe that’s just me.) The point is that what we say, and how we say it matter. Usually.
There are few places where words can have as lasting an impact as in a courtroom. Whether it be a defendant pleading “guilty” or a jury returning a verdict, what is said in a courtroom, pretty much by definition, affects people tremendously and does so for life.
Unless of course your a “monster.” It turns out a prosecutor can refer to a criminal defendant during the course of a trial, and in front of the jury, as a monster and that will result in two more words being uttered by the appellate court; “harmless error.”
It seems that a prosecutor in Ector County, which is way out in west Texas, decided to refer to a defendant charged with sexual assault as a monster. In front of the jury. On the record. Yikes! That can’t be good, right? Well maybe no so much.
As it turns out, the 11th Court of Appeals has decided that while the jury argument of this bush-league prosecutor violated every rule set for both jury argument and referencing a defendant, the error was harmless. In other words, the court thought he must have been guilty, so why bother holding the State to the same rules as the defense. God forbid I refer to the State’s sole witness as a “whore” and get away with it.
You see, jury argument in Texas is limited to only four areas; summation of the evidence, a reasonable deduction from the evidence, answer to argument of opposing counsel, and the proverbial plea for law enforcement. Not only that, but there is actually case law that says a prosecutor should not refer to a defendant by any name other than his given name or nickname, and it is improper to refer to a defendant by a derogatory term designed to subject him to personal abuse.
Ever been called a monster in a good way? Me either.
But apparently words don’t matter that much. You say monster, I say defendant entitled to the rule of law. You say less, but I know you mean fewer.
What you say?
You see, we are now playing to the lowest common denominator. No one can actually speak correctly. Not only are wannabe prosecutors in sh*tsville Odessa (which will never be as good as Midland by the way) allowed to speak improperly in court where it matters, but now we have gotten to a point where those that try to sell us all of the unnecessary things we buy can’t even do it correctly.
For example: Less Calories.
I like Gatorade. I do. But for crying out loud. It should be “Fewer Calories” not less. It’s not that hard. I mean say it out loud and it doesn’t even sound right, does it?
Ok, for those that apparently went to a fourth tier state school for college, the reason it is fewer and not less is because it deals with something you can count. Such as fewer M&M’s and less candy. Fewer ounces of vodka, and less alcohol. Fewer IQ points, less intelligence. Is it really that hard? Come on, try and keep up.
But I digress. You’re right. This really just an opportunity for me to vent about those that can’t properly use the King’s Queen's English.
But it doesn’t stop with the written word. It reaches into the realm of the spoken word as well. The most recent example occurred last night during game number 163 between the Minnesota Twins and my Detroit Tigers.
Anyone that knows anything about baseball knows that a base hit occurs only when someone has reached base. It ain’t rocket science. A fly ball out is not such an occurrence. And if anyone in the world should know this, you would expect a national sportscaster to know this. Not so much with Chip Caray.
I paid quite a bit to have DirectTv Extra Innings so that I could watch virtually every Tigers game this year. I love the local Fox Sports Detroit broadcasters. But after 162 games, the Tigers and Twins were tied for the A.L. Central title. It came to a tie-breaker game. Called by...TBS?
Much to my chagrin, Chip Caray and Ron Daling called the game. I’d never experienced a game called by this duo. I’d rather kick my own ass than hear another. I would rather shove at pine cone up..., well, you get the picture.
There are so many instances of abject stupidity on the behalf of this dynamic broadcasting duo, but I decided to use just this one to make my point.
I know this post is all over the place, but it’s been a while since I posted anything, and I feel like getting some things off my chest. Perhaps this will be the new purpose of this little blog of mine. Maybe I can use it to spread the gossip of the North Texas legal community. That probably wouldn’t be too popular, right? Maybe I'll just talk about how things suck. Maybe, oh, who the hell knows.
The point is this blog is at a crossroads. Much like I find myself. Certainly it is a professional blog in the sense that it is associated with this firm. Yet given certain changes in life, I wonder if perhaps everything shouldn’t change.
We live in a cynical world. A world determined to find the worst in people and destroy those that try to do the right thing. Maybe it's time to embrace that. Maybe it's time to call out those in this world that suck.
But what the hell do I know?
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