After the Giants won the 2012 World Series on October 29th, many citizens went out into the streets of San Francisco to whoop and dance and chant and high-five one another. One man also expressed his excitement by smashing in the windshield of a city bus with a metal barricade. There were people in the bus. Several other over-excited types followed up by smashing other windows on the bus and then setting it on fire. (By this time the riders had escaped.
The windshield smashing was documented in this great action photo by freelance photographer Susana Bates. The San Francisco Chronicle published the photo, and many people put it up on Facebook or blogs, asking who the utter jerk was. We soon learned that the bus was totaled, not insured for arson, and costs $700,000 to replace. That made San Franciscans even crosser.
Photo: Susana Bates. Bates kindly gave SorryWatch permission for one-time use. Check out her image of lightning striking the Empire State Building: http://www.susanabates.com/#/singles/0new9a
Within a day the smasher was identified (see? a great sharp photo) as 22-year-old Gregory Graniss. He was arrested, and arraigned on charges of felony vandalism November 5th. The Chronicle story quotes Graniss’s attorney Doug Rappoport, saying, “He is very ashamed of his actions, and very, very sorry. And now he’s going to set an example by making amends, and he only hopes that San Franciscans will find it in their hearts to forgive him.”
Rappoport also filed a plea for Graniss of “not guilty” and that baffled a lot of people. “Wait, what?” wrote Rick Chandler for Off the Bench on NBC Sports.com. “[H]e is aware that “not guilty” means he’s saying that he didn’t do it, right? So that picture is showing him pulling a barricade out of a Muni bus windshield? This plea confuses me greatly,”
Some just seemed to find it odd, like a San Francisco Examiner reporter: “But despite being sorry, Graniss pleaded not guilty…”
“His attorney says he accepts responsibility for his actions, but the man still says he’s not guilty,” said reporter Vic Lee for ABC News.
Aw gee. Reporters should know better.
Pleading not guilty is not the same thing as saying you’re not guilty. It is not necessarily a claim of innocence. And it’s not just a cynical ploy to bargain for a softer sentence. It’s the almost invariable first step in a criminal case. If Rappoport, the attorney, didn’t have Graniss plead not guilty, it’d verge on malpractice. The judge would be very likely to refuse to accept a guilty plea at arraignment. It’s just an arraignment, not a trial.
I asked an active member of the California bar (who is also an ex-professional driver and can hand-whistle) to tell me more about this.
He points out that arraignments happen within a few days after arrest. Often the lawyer hasn’t even met the client before, and hasn’t had a chance to talk to the client. It is easy to change a not guilty plea to a guilty plea, and very hard to change a guilty plea to a not guilty plea, so pleading not guilty is the rule.
Pleading not guilty preserves the client’s right to a trial. It preserves the lawyer’s ability to investigate the case.
And while plea bargaining has a bad name, it’s how over 90% of cases are disposed of. Remember, Graniss wasn’t the only violent idiot out there. He didn’t set the bus on fire. Even if Graniss insisted on declaring, “Your honor, I did the crime, and I want to do the time,” he might not want to do the time for the arson. Or the other windows, or for concussing Simon Timony (who tried to stop the arson), or for random acts of vandalism that happened blocks away.
I was appreciating this lawyer’s analysis greatly until he said “I blame the press.” Which rankled, since I am a journalist. But he’s right. Many reporters don’t understand these basic facts about the legal system. It is regularly reported with outrage how some obviously guilty person pleaded not guilty at arraignment – and it’s not explained why that would be.
Since Graniss’s arraignment, another arrest has been made. Police are still looking for more people who took part in the window-breaking, the arson, and for attacking Timony.
Graniss deserves no criticism for his plea. However, aside from whatever the legal system will do with him – and they’re talking about making an example of him – he still needs to apologize. Having his attorney apologize on his behalf is nowhere near good enough. He should apologize to San Franciscans, to Giants fans, and to the people who were on that bus when he was smashing stuff.
But hey. The Giants won the Series!
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