The Big Picture
August 21, 2008
I don’t know Judge Lawrence R. Daniels personally, but I always enjoy witnessing him in action in Baltimore County Circuit Court. The bowtie-wearing Daniels always seems to speak in measured but pleasant tones. He is willing to engage in a back-and-forth with lawyers and correct them when appropriate. He’s intellectual without being a show-off; I imagine he would make a great law professor.
But what I like best about Daniels is he often reminds his courtroom of the big picture. A few months ago, for example, Daniels granted a convicted first-degree murderer the chance to appeal his sentence but warned the man he would be “playing not with fire, but with lighted explosives” because the sentence could be increased.
Tuesday, after a jury left to deliberate the first-degree murder charge against Jason Michael Hammonds, Daniels took a minute to praise the lawyers on both sides for an “exemplary job of organizing their cases” during the seven-day trial. Both sides could leave the courtroom knowing they had presented winning arguments, Daniels said.
Then the judge turned his attention to the 20 or so people observing the trial, mostly family members.
“That’s the way a real trial is to be presented to a jury,” Daniels said, criticizing the “foolishness” of TV lawyers. “My only wish is the public would see the presentation and see what our legal system is all about.”
And with that, Daniels went back to his chamber.
- DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
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