Jeff Wyss – Kampala, Uganda
Throughout law school I had heard professors, a judge, and a dean say that the key to being a great lawyer is to relentlessly prepare. I saw this principle in action the first time in Uganda and it was breathtaking. Dean Gash and I were supposed to meet with Justice Mukasa (a judge in the criminal court) and a couple of high ranking officers in Uganda’s equivalent of the U.S.’s social services departments. We were supposed to discuss Pepperdine and Ugandan Christian University’s involvement in helping Ugandan children charged with crimes and being held in remand homes (kid prisons) get processed and either tried or released within the time frame prescribed by Ugandan law (6 months). Due to a lack of resources, some children are held in remand homes for more than a year before any progress is made on either trying them or dismissing the charges.
Dean Gash and I were arriving separately at 9:00 am to the High Court to meet in Justice Mukasa’s chambers. I arrived at 9:00 am exactly and found Dean Gash had arrived early and was already talking with Justice Mukasa and the two officials from Ugandan social services, one man and one woman. I walked in, introduced myself and sat next to the woman. I was already uncomfortable because I the last one in the room, and I hate being late.
Justice Mukasa began the meeting by explaining to the two officials that we were here to help speed up the judicial process for the kids in the Naguru Remand Home. As he was talking, I could tell the woman was irritated. At the first break in Justice Mukasa’s explanation, she grilled, “Where are these people from?” Dean Gash jumped in and said “We’re from the Law School at Pepperdine University in California. We are lawyers.” Dean Gash reached for his card and handed it to her and her colleague; I did the same. She looked incredulously at the cards. “What is this organization’s purpose? I’m trying to understand why these people are here.” She was obviously skeptical of us and this radiated from her body language, facial expression, and tone of voice.
Dean Gash said, “Let me start from the beginning.” He then proceeded to explain how he had first started working on the cases of children in remand homes in Uganda through Bob Goff, and American lawyer who started a school in Northern Uganda to help repair the damage caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Dean Gash explained how he had come to work on the cases at the Masindi Remand Home and then mentioned that he was going to move to Uganda with his entire family for 4-6 months in January, in part to work on the appeal of a child’s case he worked on in Masindi, a boy named Tumwesige Hillary who goes by Henry.
At the mention of the child’s name, the woman spoke up, her frown remained, and she said, “Yes, I know him. He and his brother brutally murdered a man.” Dean Gash retorted, “Actually he and his brother were in school at the time of the murder. His teacher, the children in the class, and the principal all told the police this. The charges were dropped against both of them.”
The woman then said something to the effect of, “His father beat a man to death. The boy is a murderer in his blood.” Again, Dean Gash countered, “Actually there was no evidence that the father was involved. The charges against the father were also dropped.”
At this point I was thinking, “Nice job Dean Gash. The woman is throwing everything she’s got at you and you’re diffusing all of the bombs with ease.”
However, the woman was still unfazed and her attitude hadn’t changed one bit. She then said, “The boy murdered another weaker boy in the remand home. It’s not even clear that he is a ‘boy.’ He’s likely over 18.” (In Uganda, the maximum sentence for a minor is 3 years, where the maximum sentence for an adult is death). She said this with the confidence, swagger, and irritation necessary to convey the implicit message, “Who do you think you are? You are a foreigner in my country trying to tell me about things which it is my job to know. You are way out of your depth and need to show me some deference.”
At this point I distinctly remember feeling extremely uncomfortable. I was thinking, “This is not going well. This woman obviously does not like us, is not happy that we are here, and thinks Dean Gash is helping a double murdering adult posing as a child get out of jail. He needs to be more passive here and try to salvage this meeting. Obviously we are not all going to walk out of here feeling good, but maybe we can get out of here without really pissing everyone off.”
I knew nothing about Henry’s case except for what had been said so far at the meeting, and I’m ashamed to admit that the woman’s air of authority and confidence made me doubt that Henry was in fact innocent. I remember thinking, “Where there is smoke, there is usually fire. The kid has some tie to beating a man to death, and he murdered a little weak kid in prison. It also sounds like he is probably an adult. This guy is a monster.”
Before I go on, I think a little background about Henry’s case would be useful. Henry lived with his brother and his parents in northern Uganda. His parents were farmers and had hired a man to help them with farming work. One day Henry’s mother asked the man to run to the market and buy something for her. She got some money from under her mattress and walked outside with the man giving him instructions. He told her that he forgot something, ran back into the house, and reemerged seconds later to trot off on the errand. Henry’s mom soon discovered that the man had gone to the mattress and stolen the family’s life savings (about $115). The family was distraught and informed everyone in the village what had happened. Despite a search, the man was not found.
The family eventually gave up looking for the man and accepted the loss. Soon after, Henry and his brother were at school and heard yelling and screaming outside from an angry mob. All of the children ran to the windows to see what was happening, but the teacher ordered them back to their seats. No one was allowed to leave in Henry’s class of 42 students until school was over for the day.
When Henry and his brother got home that evening, they learned that the mob had caught the thief, taken him to Henry’s house, beaten him to death, and the body was buried in Henry’s back yard. Henry did not sleep easy that night. In the morning, the police came to his house, asked if someone was buried the back yard, and upon hearing an affirmative response arrested the entire family.
I won’t detail the horrendous conditions of the temporary jail Henry stayed in except to say that he was not given enough water and had to drink from the toilet. Luckily, the police let Henry’s mom go home after a few weeks. The men in the family weren’t so lucky. The police sent Henry’s father to the adult prison and sent Henry and his brother to a remand home for children.
The children at the remand home preserved order with a sort of Lord of the Flies type government. The Prime Minister was called the Katikiro and he had a cabinet consisting of other officers (Chairman, Vice Chairman, etc.) to execute his orders. The Warden (an adult) knew of this child government system and used the Katikiro kind of like his right hand man. Everything but large offenses, like trying to escape, was handled by the children themselves with the Katikiro making decisions on how to dispense punishments. Henry had been at the top of his class before he was arrested. His competence propelled him up the ranks and he soon became the Katikiro.
The main adults in charge at the remand home were the Warden and the Cook. The Warden also had some other job which meant he didn’t arrive at the remand home until the afternoon. In his absence he told the children that the Cook was in charge. The Cook made the children cook for themselves and she began acting as a default warden, “the Matron.”
The Matron soon began abusing her power. She started marching the children to farms in the area and ordered them to do manual labor. The farmers paid the Matron and she kept the money for herself. This was totally improper and illegal, so the Matron would make sure the kids got back to the remand home before the real Warden arrived in the afternoon and made sure they didn’t tell him about it.
One day a little sickly kid with asthma arrived at the remand home. The kids had a ceremony/procedure when new kids arrived where they learned all about the new arrivals. Henry learned the first night that the kid had asthma and was not healthy.
The next day the Matron took the kids to a farm to do manual labor. The sickly kid started falling behind in his work and the Matron ordered Henry to beat him to punish him. Henry refused and explained that the kid had asthma. The Matron accepted this begrudgingly.
The next day the same thing happened: the kid fell behind, the matron ordered Henry to beat him, and Henry refused. When Henry refused to beat the kid, the Matron told him that if he didn’t beat the kid then she would have all of the other children beat Henry. At this point Henry reluctantly agreed, and gave the kid three whacks with a stick to his butt (but he did it less violently than customary). The Matron noticed his leniency, became enraged, and started beating the kid with her umbrella.
The Matron then decided to teach the kid a lesson by “burying him alive.” Now, this isn’t as bad as it sounds and was really just a tactic to scare the kid. She made him lay between two mounds of dirt (potato mounds) and then had children bury his body with dirt such that his head was still out and he could still breathe. The villagers in the area saw this going on and saw the kid’s distress. They started yelling at the Matron to stop and dig the boy up. She finally relented and gave the order for the children to dig him up.
The next day the kid was falling behind again, so he tried to run away and escape. But, given that he was little, sickly, and had asthma, he was quickly caught by the other children. The Matron decided to teach the kids who were newest to the remand home a lesson and ordered that they give the kid 40 whacks with a stick to his butt (remember Henry only gave him three the previous day). The new kids administered this punishment at the direction of the Matron.
After the punishment the kid looked pretty bad so the Matron allowed him to sit under a mango tree. He started mumbling and shouting that he was feeling badly and needed water. The Matron refused to give him water, but realized that he was pretty sick. She told Henry and his Chairman to take the kid back to the remand home, clean him up, and then take him to a doctor. When they got back to the remand home, the kid was dead. Both Henry and the Matron were charged with murder.
Henry was in the remand home almost two years before there was any action on either of his murder cases. I won’t go into what happened at his trial, partially because this is already too long and partially because Dean Gash is writing a book about it, but let me just say that what happened was outrageous (as if what already happened to Henry isn’t outrageous enough). I wanted to explain the circumstances of Henry’s murder charges in relative detail to convey that it is hard for me to even imagine how Henry could have been a more sympathetic, innocent defendant. I actually met him later on and the best way to describe him is polite and gentle. It was also clear that he was very smart; he aspires to be a doctor.
Back to why this is relevant: I was sitting in Justice Mukasa’s chambers, being convinced by the woman’s confidence and antagonistic attitude that Henry as a “monster.” I was hoping that Dean Gash would back down and that we would be able to at least slightly lower the degree to which the woman did not like us. In my experience, when someone has openly displayed that type of negative attitude towards me, there is no reversing it in the short term. The best I’ve ever been able to do is to cut my losses and get out of the immediate situation.
To counter the woman’s assertion that Henry was probably an adult, Dean Gash began with, “Actually, Henry was tested three times to see if he was an adult. This first occurred on [such and such a date] after he was arrested. He was also tested twice during his trial, and all the doctors concluded that he was under 18.” (In Uganda, birth certificates/reliable records are basically non-existent so doctors look at children’s teeth to decide if they are under 18 or not). He then went on to explain in precise detail the relevant circumstances surrounding the death of the boy and why Henry was completely innocent. Whenever the woman raised an issue, he countered it immediately with detailed facts from Henry’s case.
It was truly remarkable to witness. Dean Gash knew every aspect of Henry’s case intimately. It was like Henry was sitting there himself, explaining what happened. But no, it was better than if Henry was sitting there. My sense from meeting Henry was that he would have been too polite, too deferential to the woman, just like I had instinctively wanted Dean Gash to be. Dean Gash was fighting intensely on Henry’s behalf. I’d almost describe it as vicious. But vicious isn’t quite the right word because it was a viciousness that Dean Gash masked with an outwardly calm and collected emotional state. He didn’t raise his voice, he observed all social norms of polite discussion, and he didn’t convey any animosity in his body language. It was as if he was saying, “I know more about this than you will ever know and you will soon agree with my conclusions.” But that isn’t totally right either because it sounds arrogant, and he wasn’t arrogant at all. He was graceful. It’s probably a grace that comes from simultaneously being as fully prepared as possible while believing with your entire being that what you are doing is fundamentally good.
I watched in amazement as the mood of everyone in the room shifted to being in favor of Henry. Justice Mukasa even spoke up in outrage that it didn’t make any sense why Henry was even charged with murder when the Matron had ordered him to punish the boy. The woman completely changed her body language from negative to positive and concluded the meeting by thanking us for being there while flashing us a giant smile. Never have I witnessed such a complete reversal of a first impression in such a short time. I was awestruck. I will probably remember that meeting for the rest of my life.
Later I learned Dean Gash’s story and the enormous amount of work it took to get him to that level. I immediately thought of the multiple times I had been told that if you wanted to be a great lawyer you needed to “relentlessly prepare.” It was the first time I realized how powerful that advice really is.
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