Criminal Defendants: What I Learned

Want to know what defendants really think about their experience with the judicial system? Add Courthouse Confessions to your reading list. It is a blog by Steven Hirsch, and he interviews people as they leave the courthouse. In many ways, it reads like a more real-life version of Esquire Magazine's What I've Learned series.

Some gems:

Moral of the story is my friends, hang with people in your caliber. If your a person person hang with good people. That's the moral of this story. I'm a good person. I consider myself a good person. On a scale of one to ten I consider myself an eight. Timothy Jones

I kinda felt better on the sofa than I did feel in jail. 'Cause I don't have like a violent history, I don't have no crime, I don't have no record, period. Honestly, I should've stayed at home, it would've been more comfortable. Jamali Brockett

I just got out on five hundred dollars bail and I'm stressed out and I'm mad but um this is life, so this is what it is. Come to find out the marijuana that was supposed to be sold was Lipton tea. Tyrone Carter

I'm here on assault charges which I obviously didn't do. All the assaults that I actually have done, I've never been to court for. Daniel Sbarra

Let me say on the record, I'd like to apologize to the City Of New York for taking a pee. I'd like to apologize to the garbage man that took my pee away in a garbage truck. There's a reason that garbage man gets paid more then the police. Mark Mark Mark

Never buy phones off the streets. You know, I gotta go to a store and do like everybody else does. I'm not really interested in phones, long as I can make a call, you know? Cori DeSilva

Actually I'm proud and happy that I hit the cops. They deserve it. I feel better. Now I feel better. Evan Munoz

Graffiti is a part of my life. I start when i was a kid. Its like a spirit, it's my life. I'm a student in graffiti design. Writing on the wall is like I was here, I was in New York, I was in Paris, I was in Amsterdam. It's like a dog make a pee on the wall. I'm animal. Esteban Gonzalez

So she actually gave me a second chance at getting community service. So when I signed up for community service and they gave me the dates to appear I got drunk again and lost the paper work. Ian Jernigan

As long as I don't sell no more weed to uncover cop, I'm good money. Kevin Dorsey

In my opinion drugs, selling drugs in my opinion is not a crime, in my opinion.... I'm not doing a public service but in my opinion at the time I was doing more like an entrepreneurship, an opportunist, I saw a large market, decided to go for it, supplied their demand. Jonathan Sierra

I stole a bra. I did. 'cause I wanted it, and I didn't have enough money.... Sure, I would [do it again.] I had so much fun coming here to court, I met beautiful people, and I saw that it's not as bad as you think. They were all laughing, the whole time through, we were laughing, joking. Stay good, don't do bad things, you know? Do good things, don't steal. Janet Braha

I may look like sh*t right now, but when I dress up and do my hair, and everything, I look very elegant, very classy. But my dream is to keep studying politics and run for the presidency when I get older.... I'm not gonna say that I'm gonna win, but I can say that I'm gonna try my hardest, because I have a lot of great ideas on a lot of different things, and I think I can make a difference and make a change, a better change in the world.... I feel that I'm qualified for that. Judy Guadalupe Schiller Perez Aversa