Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1031, Following a High-Profile Court Case.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 1031.
© transcript Emily Beynon.
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This episode is a dialogue between Danny and Carol about what's called a court case, a legal action involving a judge and lawyers.
Sounds like fun.
Sounds expensive.
Let's get started.
Have you been following the Shiru case?
Yeah, I have.
I think he's guilty.
You're kidding, right?
He's innocent, and this is a show trial.
The district attorney is conducting a witch hunt for his own political ambitions.
No, he's not.
It is a high-profile case, but that's only because he wants to make an example of Shuru.
People like him should be off the streets.
Putting him in jail sends a message to other criminals.
What kind of message?
The message that the government is cracking down.
I think it's just grandstanding, and Shiru is being made a sacrificial lamb.
You can believe what you like, but I think it's great that the district attorney is taking a stand.
Yes, but he seems to be doing it at the expense of real justice.
Then you need to find a new place to stand, preferably one without blind spots.
Danny begins our dialogue by saying to Carol, have you been following the Shiru case?
Carol says, yeah, I have.
I think he's guilty.
If you say someone is guilty G-U-I-L-T-Y, you're saying that they have done something wrong, that they have broken the law, or perhaps broken some rule.
Danny says, you're kidding, right?
Meaning, you're joking, you're not really serious.
He's innocent, and this is a show trial.
To say someone is innocent...
I-N-N-O-C-E-N-T is to say the person is not guilty, did not do the crime, did not break the law.
So guilty and innocent are the two possibilities if someone is arrested by the police and taken in front of the judge.
The judge, of course, is the person, man or woman, who either decides someone is guilty or innocent or, more commonly, runs the actual legal proceedings, runs what we would call the trial.
A trial.
T-R-A-I-L is the actual event which involves the lawyers from the government and the lawyers from the defense getting together and arguing their case in front of a judge and typically in front of what's called a jury J-U-R-Y.
A jury consists of six or, more commonly, 12 people who decide if a person is guilty or innocent of some criminal action.
Danny says that this is a show trial.
A show trial would be one that is basically political.
The government has already decided that this person is guilty and will be punished, but they have a trial, just so it looks like they're being fair.
We usually associate this particular term with, for example, the show trials in the 1930s under Joseph Stalin in the former Soviet Union.
But of course the term could be used for any case in which the government has already made a decision but wants people to think that.
The person is getting justice according to a fair legal proceeding.
Danny says, In the United States, the district attorney is the...
Government's lawyer, usually the most important or the chief lawyer in any given area.
The United States is broken up into different districts, and these districts, these regions or areas, each have their own district attorney, and the district attorney is the government person, the government official in charge of deciding who is going to get a trial and who isn't.
The district attorney in the united states legal system has a lot of power to do a lot of different things, including deciding if someone is going to we would use the expression stand trial, meaning whether the person was going to have to go in front of a judge and a jury and defend himself.
So district attorneys are government attorneys who are responsible for representing the government in, in this case, a criminal trial.
Danny says that this trial is is being conducted by a district attorney who's on a witch hunt.
A witch, W-I-T-C-H, is supposedly a woman who has magical powers.
Someone who is on a hunt H-U-N-T is looking for something, often something to kill or something to catch, such as an animal.
We talk about hunting deer or hunting cats.
No, we don't hunt cats.
Just kidding.
The term witch hunt however, refers to the practice of looking for people to punish someone Not because they've done anything wrong, but because they are of a different opinion or act in a different way than you do.
The idea of a witch hunt goes back, at least in the US, to the famous Salem witch trials, where several women were accused or were said to have been witches and were eventually arrested and some of them killed.
Nowadays, when someone talks about a witch hunt, they're usually talking about someone, especially the government, trying to find people who are guilty even though they're not really guilty.
A witch hunt also has this notion of being politically motivated, that it is being done not for criminal reasons, if you will, but for political reasons.
It's not about a crime.
It's about politics and using criminal law in this case to promote a political position.
Danny says the district attorney is doing this trial, conducting this witch hunt, for his own political ambitions.
Your political ambitions would be the things that you hope to accomplish in the world of politics.
Political ambition refers to your desire to have a powerful career in politics.
Carol says, no, he's not, meaning no, the district attorney is not conducting a witch hunt.
She says...
It's a high profile case.
The term high profile, P-R-O-F-I-L-E, means that it is getting a lot of attention.
A lot of people are paying attention to it.
It is in the news.
It is in the newspaper.
That would be something that is high profile.
A high profile case would be a legal trial, a criminal trial that a lot of people are paying attention to.
Carroll says it's a high profile case, but that's only because he, meaning the district attorney, wants to make an example of Shi Rui.
To make an example of someone is to make someone serve as a warning to other people.
You may punish someone, not necessarily because they've done something terribly wrong, but because you want other people to take this as a lesson.
Carol says people like him... now referring to Shiru, should be off the streets, meaning they should not be free.
They should be in prison.
Putting him in jail, in prison, sends a message to other criminals, she says.
A criminal C-R-I-M-I-N-A-L is a person who has committed or done a crime, something against the law.
Danny says, what kind of message?
Carol responds, the message that the government is cracking down.
The phrasal verb to crack C-R-A-C-K down is used when someone in authority, such as the government, decides to enforce the rules more strictly, decides that it is no longer going to let people break this law.
So if the police crack down on speeding in Los Angeles, they will start arresting more people.
They will start giving more people penalties, fines we would call them, if they drive too fast.
Danny says, I think it's just grandstanding.
To grandstand G-R-A-N-D-S-T-A-N-D means to behave or to speak in a way that attracts attention, that other people pay attention to, in order to make yourself feel more important or more powerful.
That's what Danny says the district attorney is doing here.
Danny says, A sacrificial S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-I-A-L lamb L-A-M-B is a person who is put into a damaging position or harmed for the benefit of everyone else.
A sacrificial lamb would be someone who is punished for in order that everybody else is better off, in order to benefit other people.
Carroll says, To take a stand S-T-A-N-D is to tell people what your position is, what your opinion is, and not change it.
Not try to be persuaded by others.
To take a stand is to decide that you are going to defend your position even if other people disagree with you.
Danny says yes, but he, the district attorney, seems to be doing it at the expense of real justice.
If you do something at the expense E-X-P-E-N-S-E of something else, you are causing harm to one thing in order to help another thing.
Danny is saying that the district attorney is taking a stand, is giving his opinion, but at the expense of real justice.
Justice J-U-S-T-I-C-E here refers to fairness in the way people are treated, especially when we're talking about the laws of a country or a place.
Carroll says, not from where I'm standing.
This expression, from where I'm standing, is used often to talk about your point of view, your perspective, your opinion about something.
If someone says, from where I'm standing, it sounds like a terrible idea.
The person is saying in my opinion, from my perspective, this is a bad idea.
Danny says, then you need to find a new place to stand. preferably one without blind spots.
Danny is making sort of a joke here.
He's saying that Carol needs to have a new perspective, a new view of things, one that doesn't have any blind B-L-I-N-D spots.
Blind spots are areas that you can't see or that you can't see clearly, often because there is something in your way preventing you from seeing it clearly.
Here it's used really to refer to someone who perhaps has certain biases or prejudices and those biases don't allow the person to see something accurately or fairly.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Have you been following the Shiwu case?
Yeah, I have.
I think he's guilty.
You're kidding, right?
He's innocent, and this is a show trial.
The district attorney is conducting a witch hunt for his own political ambitions.
No, he's not.
It is a high-profile case, but that's only because he wants to make an example of Shiru.
People like him should be off the streets.
Putting him in jail sends a message to other criminals.
What kind of message?
The message that the government is cracking down.
I think it's just grandstanding, and Shiru is being made a sacrificial lamb.
Yes, but he seems to be doing it at the expense of real justice.
Then you need to find a new place to stand, preferably one without blind spots.
From where I'm standing, the best scriptwriter on the internet is none other than our very own Dr Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
