That small court room

By Siyabonga Sayi

I had a short stint as a fulltime journalist after I finished university education. During my time in the newsroom, one experience stood out. Every time I think of it, I recall it as if it were yesterday.

On certain days I would linger around the court room to easily get court stories for publication.

On this particular day I attended a High Court session. I was with a colleague, we sat in there and the first case to be heard was a murder case. A man had been accused of killing his friend and had spent more than a year in remand prison as his case was pending investigations.

As the alleged crime was read out to the court, the accused was seated on an old bench in a box while two armed prison guards vigilantly stood his side. For almost all of the time his gaze was down, away from the people and barely did he look at the audience that was in the court room. It seemed to me that he was in a lot of pain, regret and shame. He did not find the bravery to look at his family who had come to stand by him as he was in trial for one of the worst crimes a man can ever be accused of.

The family seemed to have full support. I could see an elderly woman who was seated on one end of the bench I was on. She kept wiping off tears as she carefully followed the proceedings. She obviously was torn apart. The second woman who sat next to her had her eyes fixed on the accused man. The only time she would take a break was when she looked down at her hands continuously folding and unfolding a piece of cloth she held. I vividly remember her black dress that had red flowers all over it, she wore a white head wrap that seemed as if it was hurriedly wrapped around her head.

Most of the people in this small court room seemed to be relatives of the accused and those of the deceased and of cause us, the journalists who were not emotionally attached to the case and were simply up to pick a story. I kept trying to figure a headline in my head, trying to imagine how I would frame the story, and yet around me were people in great pain of losing their loved ones. All I waiting for was to hear the judge announcing this man’s sentence. 

The longer the session took, the more I got attached to the case and the more I realised the pain this accused man must have gone through and that of the family that were on the brink of permanently losing a bread winner. As the court proceedings went on, I began to realise that this man was not as bad as I had assumed.

Having taken a brief break, the court session resumed and the accused man was asked to stand as his sentence was to be handed to him. He stood up, glanced at the audience where his family was trying to hold themselves together holding in their grief. I saw that old woman holding the young lady closely tight by her side. She seemingly didn’t want to hear what the judge had to say. Behind them were two ladies whom I knew were scribes, seated on the edge of their seats with their attention nowhere but on the judge.

There was heavy silence in the room before the Judge began saying, ‘after reviewing the evidence of this case, I find the accused person innocent of all the crimes he is being accused of.’ As the court interpreter related the meaning of the judgement in this man’s mother tongue he surprisingly remained static, while his relatives had to be driven out of the court room as they were singing in joy.

The man asked and said, “what do you mean by saying I am innocent do you mean I can go home now?” The judge said yes, you can go now, you are a free man. It all seemed like a huge confusing dream to this man who obviously had come to terms with the fact that he was a convicted killer now.

The joy and celebration I witnessed outside that courtroom was one I had never seen, those passing by could not help but pause to enquire on why there was so much celebration among these people.

I stood at a distance holding my note pad, not the outcome I expected but realised how much freedom meant. It dawned to me that being free was a blessing from God, which was mostly appreciated by those who have to lose it. To me it was a normal day to day life yet to others it was a great blessing from the Almighty.

Looking back at that incident I am reminded of the great judgement day where all men will have to answer for their actions. It will be different from this man’s case, he didn’t have a lawyer but on this day everyone will have an advocate who will stand for them, in their best interest before the just judge.

I wonder today and ask myself, if earthly judges, humans who are sinners can be careful in their judgement of fellow people and manage to be just and fair. How much more fairness can we expect from the one who has never sinned, one who created the heavens and earth, one who went at great lengths of losing his only son to redeem us the human race. How much more accurate can he be? Scripture says in 2 Timothy 4:8, ‘in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.’ That is a great assurance that the one who is judging us is righteous and has a crown ready to award us with.   

What I witnessed in that court room prompted me to search the scriptures and there I found Zachariah 3 which had the same analogy. Joshua stands before God who is the judge, and Satan is there as the accuser. The man I saw in that court had a state prosecutor as his accuser, the King James Version says, ‘Satan was there to oppose him (Joshua)’. The advantage that Joshua had is that he had the Angel of the Lord who stood by him to advocate for him against the Devil. 

We all have that same opportunity, we have an advocate already waiting to stand with us as 1 John 2:1 says. It is up to us to put our trust in him, it’s certain that we all will stand in judgement, therefore let’s make the right decisions today so that our advocate can find it possible to free us from the accuser of man, Satan.   

This man was exonerated and returned to his home a free man, but on that great day we will not go back to our houses we will be ushered into heaven, where there is no sin or pain or people who accuse us or those that will still see us as the old sinner we once were.