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Brian Tran Dr. U. Lynn J unmatcheds GOVT 2302 S11 November 8, 2012 Court Observation composition For my butterfly observation, I was able to sit in a Texas State District Court. The judge of the judiciary I observed was Honorable referee Etta J. Mullin. Everything was pretty much what I expected to see. I wasnt expecting anything outrageous to happen bid on the television. I was expecting everything to be very professional and very boring, like watching the C-SPAN channel. The walls were a dull brown color and most of the furniture was wooden.The Judge sat on a little stand and conterminous to the stand was a seat where sight would go to devote evidence or tell stories under oath. On the Judges right side, there were 2 rows of seats that the Jury would sit in. There were police officer standing in the room and stack sitting down in the audience like me. I couldnt tell if they were just spectators in the audience, or family/friends of the people on trial. When I first entere d the courtroom, I walked in the middle of a court case. Most of the court cases were pretty straight forward. People pleaded guilty and the Judge moved on to the next case.The most interesting case was an assault because it was assault. The defendant of this case also pleaded guilty, but afterwards the Judge talked with the lawyer to discuss what sort of punishment or jail time he should receive. Because there were one-third counts of assault, the defendant was fined $40,000 and 3 years of community service. I thought it seemed fairly reasonable since the one of the victims suffered injuries such(prenominal) as skull fractures. I, however dont think that I am incurd enough to feel what is considered a good punishment for a crime. Other cases were simple things, like people being caught with self- self-denial of marijuana.The penalty for that is a small fine. That reminded me of a time when a guy I knew was caught in possession of marijuana on his was to Waco. He was kept in a h olding cell and I had to take away to Waxahachie to help my friend pay for his bail. Personally, I have never done any illegal substances, and I believe that it is wrong even when Colorado and Washington had recently made it legal in those states. The experience was new and fresh, but I dont think Id ever go back and watch a court case for fun. I can see how the trial could be interesting, but I was fairly bored by the end of my two hours.It wasnt as captivating as an episode of Law and Order. A more memorable event that happened while I was at the court house was that one of the people that worked the (in a family court setting) told me a story about this one family. There were 2 siblings, a brother and a sister, and they were trying to get away with taking their grannies social security check. To do this, the siblings had morphine patches that they would stick on to her spine to make her pop out senile. But one day the Grandmothers friend came over and took her to meet up with the people that worked in the building and everything was good.