The Perp Walk

Posted by Marc Hodak on June 20, 2008 under Scandal | 2 Comments to Read

Quiz: What’s the difference between

versus

Answer: In Medieval times, the person first had to have been convicted of something before suffering gratuitous humiliation

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I’m preparing for my next semester of “History of Scandal,” and considering Rudy Giuliani’s unique contribution to this history–the “perp walk.” Today, a couple of other Wall Street desperadoes were handcuffed, and marched to the courthouse to face arraignment because, you know, they wouldn’t have just driven there with their lawyers by appointment.

The WSJ Law Blog also raises the issue, and gets some very interesting comments. My favorite:

I thought the perp walk was low and thuggish when I was a prosecutor, and I think so now that I’m a defense attorney. In almost every one of these cases the defense lawyers know that the indictment may be coming and have offered to surrender their clients at a time and place of the prosecution’s request. Prosecutors who think that unnecessary arrest is a legitimate tool will ignore this. (In fact on a couple of occasions I’ve been able to learn of the issuance of the warrant and sneak my client in to the U.S. Marshal’s office in the courthouse to spoil the prosecutor’s little show.)

You’d be surprised at how low prosecutors and police will sink. My partner had a client who was to be arrested (naturally, on a Friday morning so they could keep him for the weekend.) The police and DA Investigator showed up at his house. They had tipped off the press, but the reporter and photographer were late, so they had already put the client in the police car. So they took the client out of the car, walked him back into his house, then turned around and walked him back into the car so the press could take pictures. Of course, the press never reported that — because a pathetic abuse of power by police is not newsworthy compared to juicy pictures.

By the way, did you notice how pleased the police escort looks? You just know he got his hair cut and shirt pressed for this. And now he gets to bask in the adulation of having bagged a hardened criminal. Thank you, law enforcement man! I feel so much safer knowing that this suit is in custody, and we don’t have to worry about (oh, the horror) getting over optimistic information about a trading fund.