Generally you take a very reasonable view on "disrespectful" and other
things. In other words don't be "rude" about her. Which is fine. Desirable
and much to be respected in a personal blog.
However, coming into this, I
thought to myself, "A second generation American; judging someone from the old
country. This is going to be interesting." I was pretty sure, that as an
American she would find ways to tilt the playing field. I was sure that, with a
home jury, this would end up as a rout for Samsung. I wasn't disappointed. In
fact, I had thought that much more effort would be taken to seem fair than
actually was.
At the point where Apple were allowed to show product phones
whilst Samsung's equivalent photos were excluded, I suddenly realised we were
seeing exactly what's wrong with the US justice system. It would be easy to
claim that this could happen anywhere, but then we saw what proper justice looks
like with a simple and clear judgement in the UK.
Judge Koh is bringing the
US system of justice and the USofA its self into disrepute. She is an
embarassment. Every time I want to say something nasty about working with
America (which happens rarely nowadays) I will be able to point her out. Every
time I want to say something nice, I will feel obliged to point out ways of
avoiding incidents like this and to say that not all US judges are like Koh.
I'm sure Judge Koh believed she was being fair. I believe that she is a good
person. At the same time, I'm sure she remembers every story her father told of
fighting the
other Koreans. I'm sure that every time she saw a Korean she remembered her
father telling of an officer who almost had him killed. I'm sure she remembered
people who almost betrayed her mother as she almost died runing away from fellow Koreans. That conflict
of interest; what looks like an inability to give Samsung a fair trial was
certainly sufficient that she should have recused herself.
Judge Koh had a
duty to protect Samsung from a miscarriage of justice. To ensure they had the
chance to tell their story clearly and properly. She failed to do that. In
that failing, she brought, in the strictest sense, the US system of justice into
disrepute (even more than it is already .. we already knew that poor people
don't get a fair hearing). I won't insult her for failing to deliver that, but
it's not reasonable to ask me to "respect" her and that should be said openly
and clearly. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
| 
