By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Over the years our host featured numerous articles presenting questionable, if not abusive, novel sentences for defendants convicted of crimes. Now, Smith County Texas Court Judge Randall Rogers hoisted himself to national attention for giving a man convicted of simple assault the choice between marrying his girlfriend within thirty days or going to jail.
At his sentencing hearing, Defendant Josten Bundy, before which he was convicted for an incident where he punched his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend in the jaw, Judge Rogers provided a choice to avoid jail.
Mr. Bundy could either choose probation with a stipulation that he marry Elizabeth “Hanna” Jaynes, attend counseling, and write bible verses or submit to fifteen days in jail. He chose marriage despite misgivings of the conditions. He lamented:
“I just wonder what would have happened if Hannah said no, had we said, ‘you know judge, we would like to get married on our own terms.’ He offered me fifteen days in jail and that would have been fine and I asked if I could call my job [to let them know]. The judge told me ‘nope, that’s not how this works.’”
The humiliation was not limited to Defendant Bundy, Ms. Jaynes also was the recipient of Judge Rogers’ theatrics. While she was present in the courtroom, Judge Rogers asked Bundy, “Was she worth fighting over?”
“My face was so red, people behind me were laughing,” she said. “[The judge] made me stand up in court.”
Eighteen days afterward, the couple married before a justice of the peace.
(from Screen Shot of Source)
In the view of your author Judge Rogers should be sanctioned for this stunt. There is a good possibility that this is not the only unusual and non-judicial punishment he delivered in the past.
We live in a world where there is a strong and tragic social and legal tradition in some places where forced marriages are common; though certainly many girls and women face harsher ramifications that fifteen days in jail for which Mr. Bundy was in peril. This is not an acceptable form of justice in any enlightened society.
While it seems that our couple would have a strong case for annulling the marriage by reason of duress of one of the parties of they so choose, from a personal point of view this couple now must succumb to a wedding ceremony that they did not plan, and outside what was of their own choosing. A wedding is not a formality to please the whim of a lower court judge, or to satisfy a judgement of a criminal court.
By Darren Smith
Source:
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Although the sentence was on its face wholly improper, remember that it was an optional choice by the defendant. He was free to choose the more proper and traditional sentence of routine jail time for the crime of assault (& apparently battery) for which he was charged and convicted.
The marriage option was not his only choice. Having recently moved back to Texas, where I grew up, I was struck by the anachronistic political system holding over in most counties here from its days as a Republic and never really changed, including the elected judiciary and the elected judge acting in place of county commissioners, and the holdover of county constables as separate law enforcement branches overlaying the sheriff’s dept. in every county (and many marshal’s offices as well), making things a confusing hodgepodge in parts. But as with any system, once the power structures are entrenched – they will not change except perhaps through revolution…
But the purely elected Judge thing… It is always ripe for abuse and influence peddling, and it’s a regular occurrence here. It’s a sad thing really. I much prefer the nomination of judges by the bar and then their appointment for long terms, or if necessary an election from those nominated.
wrxdave – the two largest counties in Arizona have appointed judges and the cities and town within also appoint their judges. However, the venerable position of Justice of the Peace is elected. There was a power move by the Supreme Court to force the Justices of the Peace to be lawyers and also appointed (which by the Arizona Constitution they are not required). It was voted down 80-20.
We’re Rednecks, Rednecks!
We dont know our arse from a hole in the ground,
We’re Rednecks…
— Jerry Jeff Walker
I agree with Randyjet’s sentence: “The worst elements of the old Dixiecrat Democrats left the party to join with their fellow enemies of freedom and justice in the GOP.”
This is illustrated well in the Google article on wikipedia on The Southern Strategy which was articulated by Lee Atwater. Lee was later made head of the GOPher National Committee.
Haha D. Smith finds the source of injustice in our criminal law from Fox News… that should tell us something. But hey at least unjust state actions that interfere with liberty is something that can be labeled by it’s rightful definition… depending on who’s involved of course.
Ninian
One of the great attributes of the US is its originality. This quality probably evolved from the desire to sever ties with ancient and restrictive worlds, ergo immigration. Along with this desire to ‘not be told what to do’ came the need to be ‘told what to do’. This is only one of the double edged qualities of Americans.
Another is illustrated most accurately in the retort, “Well, if you like the way they do things there, so much, why don’t you move there?”. Being British you must understand that sometimes being American, even while being wrong, is better than learning from an outsider.
I remember seeing a Mini in Gibraltar in 1967. Great Britain was in decline, primarily because it was still living in the past of a captured resource and consumer world. The British automobile industry was being decimated by the Japanese and Germans, just as the American auto industry would be a decade later. In Gibraltar Franco was trying to get the British out. Painted all over a derelict Mini were Union Jacks and slogans, one of which, “It may be rubbish, but it’s British rubbish.”, illustrated the ties a person may have to the past and more importantly the reaction to being told what to do and how to do it by obvious successes from other countries.
The only thing worse than being questioned is being questioned by a foreigner, or even someone from another state, or even county.
Isaacs:
Your response says it all really:
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
And ev’n Devotion!
From Robert Burns
Foreigners will make comments about America whether they like it or not. They will be cruel – unjustifiably so on occasion especially on the Internet which invites global comment.
America in return needs to get its house on order if it is to command the respect of other Nations. Respect is to be earned, not given freely.
The Texan Judge has belittled your legal system and America seems to be powerless or impotent in an ability to elevate it’s image.
No good can come of this.
What America and Americans think about Britain has no bearing on the image of America this Texan Judge has created in his bizarre behaviour. If you don’t see this, there is no help for you.
ninny – the US does not have a centralized government like puny England. It has layers of government. You have federal, state, city and justice courts. All have jurisdiction over certain matters. Some have over-lapping jurisdiction. In this case it is a simple assault and battery case, so it is held by a justice or city court (usually). Now that court is paid for by the city our county the crime took place in.
Texas is a state. It has its own laws, lots of them. What it considers to be simple assault is laid out in its criminal statutes. What the maximum and minimum penalty are are generally laid out as well.
So, ninny, the only ones the judge embarrass are Texas and his county, if he does that. And it is likely, given that it is Texas. This sentence will gain him support for his next election as judge.
Paul C. Schulte:
I guess that common sense is a flower that doesn’t grow in everyone’s garden.
We have local government here in England and devolved parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
And it doesn’t work either.
Your wheel is still spinning Paul, but the hamster has died.
ninny – think of it this way. Would a decision by a hamlet in Wales reflect on all of the UK? You are (as usual) painting with too broad a brush.
Paul C. Schulte: Welsh Hamlet
Yes one legal case can make a difference. Legal precidence can be made. The law can be changed in a test case and this can affect the Nation. In the States look what Erin Brockovich achieved.
ninny – Erin Brockovich is a movie. Her science was faulty. Lower courts like city courts set rarely set precedent. And even if they do the precedent is for courts their equal or
Paul C. Schulte: Erin Brockovich-Ellis (born June 22, 1960) is an American legal clerk and environmental activist, who, despite the lack of a formal education in the law, was instrumental in building a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) of California in 1993. The case was settled in 1996 for US$333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in US history.
Not a bad result for someone who wasn’t even a lawyer. I understand the law firm held onto the compensation money for rather a long time…..
So it would appear that one case can make a difference and can initiate a class action.
It would appear that the court accepted the science argument and made an award – reported as the largest in US history. So the science was judged as good at the time.
I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about your film. I thought this case would be common knowledge in legal circles.
You got me there.
ninny – it was a jury trial, not before a single judge. I think it was more of an emotional verdict. It happens. The jury decides the verdict and the amount.
Paul C. Schulte:
Well you need to sit down and think about it. Because you seem to be very confused. If your system is broken it needs to be fixed.
ninny – you don’t have jury trials in England?
It would have been good to know the reaction of the ex-boyfriend after learning the judge’s sentence. At the end of the day, justice may have been served.
2 problems here:
1. An unequally yoked marriage.
2. Judge is unequally yoked to job.
Josh – what part of the marriage is unequally yoked?
Randy jet – Don’t let your party affiliation blind you. There are bad Judges all over and the U.S. Supreme Court proved that the last few months. They should be censored for being an activist court.
My father was born in Texarkana and always claimed that it was on the Arkansas side. His mother would sort of smirk, rap him on the badk of his hand and say, “I didn’t raise you to tell lies.”
I have a brother and a sister both also born in Texas but my father, happily, was stationed in Florida when I joined his crew.
As the Supreme Court is to see that the highest laws of all, the Constitution, are followed; on down the line the courts, judges, laws, etc are to see that the laws of the state as well as the nation are followed. However, laws are manufactured by man which results in situations where, from time to time, a degree of interpretation is required. The second amendment is an example where within one sentence there are two quite diverse meanings and the Supreme Court of a time chose to interpret one over the other.
Sometimes the presiding human will ‘temper’ and/or interpret the laws when the circumstances call for a sentence which is not prescribed or written. In any case the crafting of a sentence should be central to the convicted individual with perhaps some personal creativity of the judge.
This appears to be a case where the judge is using the occasion to express his ego centric beliefs. This goes well beyond juxtaposing a generic sentence with one that might be more crime specific such as anger management, community service, or probation, resulting in a welcome contrast to simply ‘going by the book’ and locking him or her up. Here the judge is creating his own society by designing that two people be married and that the convicted person perform within a specific religion, in obvious violation of the sacred separation between church and state and an expression of personal justice that typically brings down governments. There is something medieval about this guy. However, this is Texas.
Paul C. Schulte:
Maybe there isn’t much to understand after all. Maybe it is about throwing the book away after you have finished colouring it in?
It’s a do it yourself, make it up as we go along, raise a posse boy, system based on a colouring book of jurisprudence. Only the sky is normally coloured blue.
I had always thought that the quote “Texas was wide open spaces surrounded by teeth” was a cruel joke. But maybe there is some truth in it after all.
What I don’t understand is why the American Public tolerate this stuff. It doesn’t exactly portray a positive image of the most Powerful Nation on Earth.
Or maybe I am just wrong yet again?
ninny – just start with the idea that you are probably not right, then take it from there. Never heard that saying about Texas and I have heard of lot of sayings over the years. Probably invented by BBC having Brits doing American accents.
Its only a life sentence with good behaviour.
Yes, I could with but little effort find just cause to assail Judge Rogers’ handling of this case, but I actually liked how he handled it.
Maybe it’s my age and upbringing, but I liked how he got to the root of the violence and forced the defendant and his girlfriend to confront their feelings, relationship, and the defendant’s willingness to do violence for her or in her behalf.
jonolan – I have heard, true or not, that it is every girls’ fantasy to have two men fight over her. This one got her wish fulfilled. 🙂
The photo of the judge fit perfectly how I envisioned him. ‘Nuff said.
Yet another example of the stupidity of the TexASS judicical system and its moronic judges
While I love Texas and most of its people, our political class which is the best money can buy leaves a lot to be desired. Now that we have effectively a one party state, we can see the results of it As one of the Democratic leaders, Bob Gammage, who fought to change it from a one party state said, It took the Democrats almost one hundred years to get so corrupt, but the GOP has done it in less than a decade. The worst elements of the old Dixiecrat Democrats left the party to join with their fellow enemies of freedom and justice in the GOP.
The arrogance of this judge is unbelievable.
Just another building block in the distrust of the “judicial” system.
Poor (as in unable to afford competent counsel) or undereducated (as in unable to recognize the violation of their rights) people are routinely abused by low level judges (witness the municipal plantations like Ferguson).
But as randyjet points out, “his honor” gets free publicity and few negative consequences.
Steve Fleischer – he could have taken the 15 days in jail.
Unfortunately, this is common in Texas courts where all judges are elected. The more headlines the better for the judge. In fact, one Congresscritter from my area rode his notoriety as a judge in doling out this kind of sentences on a regular basis that he is now in Congress for life. His name is Ted Poe, as in his namesake of the dark disturbed poet and writer.
There are several issues here.
1. JUSTICE – The Hearing
In an adversarial system justice is surely not the issue. It is about who has the better argument ie who has the best lawyer?
In the Napoleonic Code what is right/just seems to predominate? Some States have adopted this system I think?
2. THE SENTENCE – Should be proscribed? eg in Napoleonic Code. The sentence maybe is a punishment administered on behalf of the State by a judge?
The defendant may not even believe in God.
So in this case if the judge has passed a recognised sentence of jail with a deal being offered to make the headlines. Is this not an example of contempt of court?
I am not saying that judges and lawyers should not have a sense of humour which can be a great weapon to induce change in attitude in the right hands.
But the process of Law needs to be impeccable if it is to demand respect and to maintain its credibility. And it seems to me that this ruling has failed to do that.
ninny – I had hoped that in the time you were not commenting that you would learn about American government. It is clear you have not.
I am with Holmes on this… and I would like to add that I find it
disturbing that he was also to write bible quotes.
It is just disturbing all around.
Justice Holmes – is marriage God’s way of punishing man?
I love these lower court judges that get right to the heart of the matter. Is she worth fighting over? There have been forced marriages for centuries. The term ‘shotgun wedding’ was not made up because someone had a dull afternoon. They can get divorced as fast as they can get it annulled, it is probably a no-fault state.
Amazing..a woman is just a thing to be used by the court to punish a defendant. The judge should be removed from the bench.