“They all just kind of have their own judgments before really examining anything”

Excerpt from Malcolm, a defendant at the Hall of Justice in winter 2022.

Malcolm: The judge has never given me a chance to give my side of the story. The police never took reports on my side of the story. Um, even when I was in custody, even before they arrested me in the ER, you know, they did not include the fact of why it was in the ER, you know? Um, and they have really—from all of the discovery I’ve read, it is very skewed. And it is skewed in—in a way that makes me look, um, like I am, like, a cold-blooded sociopath and not just a person who, um, does have mental illness and, um, was basically being gaslighted by my—the person that I was in love with.  

Interviewer: Hmm. So, what do you think could remedy this?  

Malcolm: Um, if I ever had been given the option to give statements. Um, if I had been given the option to show evidence at some point, um, before all these charges were filed, you know, before I had to spend 90 days in jail and then was lucky enough to bail out, you know? Um, I think that that would be a—a good remedy. Um. It seems to me that… they all just kind of have their own judgments, um, before really examining anything.