Belize City!! and the Slow Wheels of Justice

Belize City
I have been in Belize City since Tuesday and will leave tomorrow evening headed back to Dangriga. My schedule this week has been full. Tuesday, I came with Attorney Antoinette Moore to the Supreme Court for a case she has before the court. Unfortunately, as the slow wheels of justice would have it, we had to wait about 40 minutes before the Judge asked the parties to come into his chambers, only to adjourn the case to Friday, June 13th. That's why I will be here until tomorrow.

I had a chance to sit in the Judge's chambers with them. It ended as quickly as it started, that is the discussion about adjourning the case. That was followed by what was a spirited 30 minute conversation about Barack Obama's democratic win and Clinton's concession speech. The judge, who I will allow to remain anonymous, offered the idea that Obama's popularity comes from his multi-cultural background in an ever-increasing multi-cultural America. He appreciated Obama's "measured" speeches and unwillingness to change with the wavering public pressures about his speech content. However, he felt Obama would need to flex his political wiz and know-how in order to gain the naysayers and clinch the ultimate Presidency. The judge was very cordial and asked lots of questions about the Clinton program and Arkansas, in which I gave both raving reviews, naturally!

One of the things I have noticed is that because Belize is so small, the people (and even visitors like myself) are able to get close to their judicial officials. Not that it is not possible in the states, but the relaxed nature of the interactions is very refreshing to see.

The Magistrate Judge in Dangriga on Monday (June 9th)invited me into his chambers (with Atty Moore of course) and quizzed me on the perceived differences in what I witnessed in his court room over the past two weeks opposed to similar court rooms in Arkansas. (He had invited us back last week, as well.) The two obvious differences are, I explained, the hand-written record (opposed to a stenographer or using computers) and the 'adjournments.' Here, cases are adjourned and adjoured and adjourned, until a simple matter, such as petty theft, could take 1 year or even 2 to be fully adjudicated.

The adjournments I witnessed were to allow a party time to get a document they forgot to bring that was pertinent to the case and a witness who did not show up for the court date because she forgot. In the latter, the Magistrate went into his office and called her on her cell phone to ask if she was going to come. The witness was key to the case. After she informed the judge that she was working with the flood relief effort related to Tropical Storm Arthur as an employee of the social services department, the judge was so kind as to say, "what day would be best for you if I reschedule it?" He allowed her to give her date and said, "now are you sure you can make it on that day?" Nevermind the fact that Atty Moore's client had traveled two hours from Belmopan (the capital) to attend the court date and would simply have to absorb that cost (time off from work, bus ride down).

Afterwards, Attorney Moore explained that because the witness was a state worker helping flood victims, most judges in Belize would be very forgiving when it comes to a situation like that. However, she noted that the case in question had been going on since August of last year and the witness had already not shown up on two prior occasions. It was a relatively simple case that seemed to drag on and on and on.

The magistrate noted that although those scenarios do happen frequently, in many cases, because of the rural and somewhat unmodernized nature of most of Belize, discarding a case quickly here would be an injustice. The time involved could also be due to a limited number of magistrates to handle huge case loads.

Nonetheless, just having that opportunity to share with a Belizean judge in a very casual setting and having the judges be eager to hear and learn from you, is just plain ole' cool!

Tomorrow, I hope to share photos with you of the National Center for Families and Children conference on crime that I attended yesterday and today here in Belize. I was able to obtain additional research information on sexual assault stats for the country that I had not otherwise known about.

Otherwise, I am having a really great time. Had a chance to visit "Old Belize" last night and tour the museum that depicted what Belize used to be like in the 1800's. I have photos to share from that excursion also.

Much love to all,
Idonia