The Court Is Not A Court Of Public Opinion But Court Of Law -By Raji Usman Amao

I will be right to say that the gauging of judgement delivered by the court of law is being laced with banters of word from the people who are not oriented but emotionally connected to their mindset and thought-provoking averments saying judges and justices are not following divinely as it is being painted by the ignorable sets of people.

What is Public Opinion?

Public opinion, or popular opinion, is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to society. It is the people’s views on matters affecting them (Wikipedia). In another dimension, the American Political Scientist V.O Key defined Public Opinion in 1961 as “opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heedt”. Subsequent advances in statistical and demographic analysis led by the 1990s to an understanding of public opinion as the collective view of a defined population, such as a particular demographic or ethnic group.

Now, as regards the PEPT judgement delivered few weeks back, some people with narrow mind come to the social media and started ranting this is not what it supposed to be the verdicts of the PEPT and they went as far as to craft out the way the judgement should be delivered. Funnily, we failed to listen to cons and prons of what we are indulging ourselves to believing that everything should work in their favour.

It amuse and bereft me as seeing lawyers and some ignorable law students hurling (insults) on the Justices that delivered the judgement against Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, more to say and less seeing will not let me to know where to start schooling them on what is Law and Public Opinion per se, As the Apex Court will say that “We are not final because we are infallible, we are not infallible but we are final” is clearly stated as to the understanding of learned silk and law students.

Court of Public Opinion is refers to using media to influence public support for one side or the other in court case. This is not applicable to Election Petition Matter because the matter is Sui Generis Case on its own (means it is peculiars on its own), it has been reiterated by a popular American Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes(1907) stated that” Conclusions must be reached in a case will be induced only by Evidence and argument in open courts and not by outside influence” and obviously not anticipating that 85years later advances in technology would mean that potential jurors all over the country could view an incident on video dozens of time and listen to the hundreds of commentators offer their opinions on a case before ever being invited to courtroom.

In the recent years, however, both defense attorneys and prosecutors are more sophisticated about using the media to promote their cases. In the recent trials of Michael Milkin, Leona Helmsley and William Kennedy Smith, public relations professionals were busy behind the scenes on behalf of the defendants, while asbestos litigation set new standards for the use of PR by plaintiffs, a pattern that was repeated in recent cases brought against General Motors and DuPont. PR people were also much in evidence during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.Lawyers and pub­licists must begin to understand their respective roles in order to use the strengths of both pro­fessions,” say Roschwalb and Stack.

There are situation lawyers(with sentimental mindset gauge with public) and public opinionis if they don’t know the genesis of the case at hand for instance somebody who committed murder cannot be spared because he or she takes someone’s life intentionally and the public will be of opinion that they should not be tried in court that it is better to do jungle justice for them rather than bringing to them to book to face the full wrath of the Law. However, are you thinking within your mind that the court should now be at the mercy of public to grant those criminal pardon, it is no cause the criminals are the one to be threatening the peace of the society.

Lawyers also learn that legally you cannot be hurt by keeping quiet, and that you can be hurt by speaking out, because anything you say can be used against you in court. Public relations people, on the other hand, are taught that remaining silent will be taken by the public as an admission of guilt. “Finally, lawyers are taught the legal principle that a client is innocent until proven guilty. In the court of public opin­ion, however, a client is presumed guilty until proven innocent.”

In conclusion,Litigation journalism is seriously undermining the integrity of our legal process,” Gorney says. “The role .of the courts is being preempted and their proce­dures undermined as more cases are tried in the public arena long before official hearings can take place. The arguments are mostly one-sided, devoid of cross­examination, evidence or witnesses

So, coming online start criticizing the court on a particular judgement liveth to the pool darkness of ignorance that you are wallowing in it irrespective of your post, status you have in the society, court of public opinion cannot override tte verdict of the court of law.

Raji Usman Amao is legal writer cum analyst, it can be reach via rajiusman223@gmail.com.