The Cullman Tribune Debates: Cullman Circuit Court Judge, Place 2

0:41 welcome to Cullman tribunes 2024 candidate debates we are here with uh candidates for Cullman County Circuit

0:51 Judge Melvin Hasting is with us Emily ner Johnston uh opted not to accept our

0:59 invitation we will continue with the same set of questions as we would have Mr Hasting

1:06 tell us a little about yourself yes sir thank you WC I just want to tell you I

1:10 really appreciate uh Cullman tribute giv this opportunity for uh the voters to meet the candidates to to know what we

1:17 stand for and uh maybe convince them why they should vote for us but I'm Melvin

1:22 Hasting I'm lifelong resident in Cullman went school at Vinemont uh graduated from Vinemont went school at Wallace

1:29 actually taught Wallace for a little while and uh UAB got my bachelor's degree and then went to law school at

1:35 night time at Birmingham School of Law while I was teaching down at Wallace I

1:39 was going to school at night time having a law practice based in Cullman for 22

1:44 years uh even though as based in colan I've tried cases all over the state I've

1:49 tried all kinds of cases all over the state so uh decided uh here here's

1:54 another opportunity for uh me to be on the ballot for circuit court judge judge

1:58 Williams is uh reti reing she's kind of a Force retirement because in Alabama

2:02 now the the law is once you reach a certain age you can't be on the ballot

2:06 for as a judge any kind of Judge you know appeals judge Supreme Court Circuit

2:11 judges District judges so she's reached that age uh there's an open seat so uh

2:16 going give our voters an opportunity to to listen what I got to say and know

2:20 about my campaign okay thank you let's get to the questions uh question number one what in

2:27 your background education or work experience has prepared you to become a judge so my campaign uh as y'all

2:36 probably see my sign says experience matters I think campaigns probably need a slogan to kind of go with it uh needs

2:44 to be a true genuine slogan uh voters voters probably want to know why they

2:50 ought to vote for one person or or the other or support one candidate or

2:55 another and uh this race definitely has played out the the experience issue is

3:01 is is Major that's what I hear out there I knew it was going to be an issue uh

3:06 I've tried cases I've tried every kind of case you can try in front of a

3:10 circuit court judge uh not only in Cola County I've done them all the counties

3:14 around I've probably at least half the counties in Alabama in 22 years I've

3:18 tried a case in front of circuit court so I got extensive experience in there

3:23 that matters because uh a judge doesn't just sit up there and and overrule or

3:29 sustain objections I mean there's a lot of evidentiary matter comes in there's a

3:33 lot of motions that come in that judges rule on uh I'm one of six uh attorneys

3:40 in Cullman County that are certified to handle capital murder cases uh I've tried capital murder cases that's a

3:47 total different ball game capital murder cases and I think this is very important

3:51 for people to know because when someone's charged with capital murder and uh they're stared down to death

3:57 penalty we don't want to putt nobody to death it's innocent or not not guilty of

4:00 it so what happens is the trials are really really extensive there's a lot of

4:05 rulings on it it's it becomes a big case it is a very important case and then the

4:11 Supreme Courts in Alabama you got supreme court United States looks at those cases extensively uh strictly uh

4:19 we call it strict scrutiny they scrutinize every single ruling that that a judge makes any rulings that may

4:25 affect a a person's fairness or whatever else that conviction will get overturned and you got to start from day one trying

4:31 that case again so I have the experience I've tried a couple of Captain murder

4:34 cases I've actually represented I think four or five defendants charged with capital murder uh and like I said we've

4:41 got some pening and colan uh but but even though the uh the criminal side of

4:46 circuit court is what most people are concerned about because everybody wants a safe colan circuit judges also do do

4:53 the uh do do divorces custody cases they do workers comp cases they do civil jury

5:00 cases you uh do landline disputes property dispute cases I've done every single one of them multiple so all of

5:07 that experience combined if I'm elect and I really think this is my best shot

5:12 to be elected I think people have connected with me they understand that I

5:16 would really want to be a Circuit Judge we have a connection uh I'm the

5:20 experienced candidate so uh on day one in January I can take office I I can sit

5:26 there and be a Circuit Judge okay that's a long answer but I had a lot to say in

5:30 it I'm sorry question number two in fact you have already looks like you've

5:35 already uh partially answered question number two but we'll go ahead and give this to you what kinds of cases have you

5:41 tried before a judge and how did you do uh I've tried every every kind so and

5:47 and that's a very good question because in each case there are winners and there

5:52 are losers uh I mean you can't win every case you you base it on the facts the

5:58 law you you present it to a judge there's there's a dispute obviously one

6:02 person says one thing one person says another thing there's a dispute that the

6:06 judge has to make uh make a decision on so uh when you when you say fairness

6:14 a lot of times people get out and campaign say hey as your judge I'm going

6:17 to be fair well one part is going to think you fair that's the winner the

6:20 loser is probably going to think that you're not fair uh you know impartial is

6:24 the better word uh which means you give everybody an equal opportunity present their case and to uh uh listen to the

6:33 facts and and and follow the law no matter even if you don't like it

6:37 sometimes you just have to follow the law you have to be tough a thick skinn

6:40 to be a Circuit Judge it's a tough job it's there because you are affecting

6:43 your decisions affect uh people's lives and their livelihood so so I take that

6:49 seriously uh my my experience I have like I said I have tried every single

6:54 kind of case that that is in front of a Circuit Judge uh I've been been with

7:00 numerous circuit judges across the state all of them a lot of them have different

7:04 ways they do stuff and approach things uh I've learned the goods and the bads

7:09 from it so uh there's not a single kind of case it's a from Circuit Judge that I

7:14 haven't tried so I think my experience helps me out a lot uh with that

7:19 mentioned impartiality and that's actually a word in the third question how does a judge Act

7:28 impartially so it's uh it it can be it can be tough okay so when nobody asked

7:35 to be uh in front of a Circuit Judge I never want to stand in front of the

7:39 Circuit Judge because that means I've probably well you committed a felony more than likely so you don't want to be

7:44 there you don't want to be in a divorced child custody situation uh I've actually been in front

7:49 of a Circuit Judge on a workers's comp case but we settled that case and I

7:52 actually got a car wreck cases pending where someone had pulled out in front of

7:56 me and I got injured pretty good on it uh but nobody asked to be in front of a

8:00 Circuit Judge but I think people expect when you are in front of that judge that

8:05 they're going to hear your side of the story they're going to hear the other

8:08 side of the story and you're going to rule straight up and down every single

8:12 time the way that it should be ruled so so here here's the question the other

8:18 night at The Forum there was a question asked about impartiality and recusal and

8:23 getting out of a case and conflict of interest and there are some rules that

8:28 that you that you got to look at there's some rulings by the Supreme Court if a

8:31 judge should have a case or whatever else but here's my view of it if you're

8:36 sitting there questioning do I have a conflict in this case is there a side

8:41 that I take better than take uh more favorably than the other or is there a

8:46 lawyer that I maybe look like I favor more than the other or whatever else if

8:50 there's any issues that you question should I hear this case you just get out

8:54 of it so so if you so to be totally impartial if you question question

8:59 should you hear this case you get out of it if you feel like no I can hear this

9:03 case and be impartial that's do so there's a lot of I mean I'll give you a

9:07 good example uh I'm I'm a victim of of fail so I've had a lot of stuff I mean a

9:12 lot of stuff stole from me and even recently so generally of course I'm

9:17 going to be biased I don't like thieves I don't like people stealing stuff from

9:20 me and stealing stuff from me so but but if that ever gets to a point where I'm

9:25 where I'm thinking you know what I don't like thev and I'm want to teach you a

9:28 lesson type stuff I'm probably not being impartial if I get to that point I

9:33 probably going to get out of the case so so it's the facts of the case it's the

9:37 lawyers involved it's the type of case there's a lot of stuff you got to think

9:41 about but at the end of the day voters are elting you do a job you got to do

9:45 your job question number four and this is a piggyback on on that one we all have

9:52 certain biases whether they come out or remain in our minds if you were to be

9:57 convinced that that a defendant was guilty or for that matter innocent at the outset of a trial how do

10:05 you still guarantee a fair trial so the a Circuit Judge is more or less a

10:14 referee in a in a trial you have a defense attorney and you have a

10:18 prosecutor that's presenting the case you don't interject yourself and that's very important it you can't interject

10:24 yourself into the case as a judge maybe the prosecution is not good doing a good

10:28 job maybe the defense attorney is not doing a good job or whatever else but as a as

10:34 a Circuit Judge you still got to be the referee you have a place in that you sit

10:38 back and allow it to play out now of course if it gets out of hand and uh

10:44 there's there's uh there's violations happening you have to stop it because you're the referee you have to stop it

10:51 but uh that's not my job and one of the things uh like I said I have tried I

10:56 don't know how many how many criminal cases I've tried more than 50 I've I've

11:01 tried more than 50 in 22 years probably more like 75 so I know the uh I I can

11:06 almost read you the uh the jury instructions and one of the jury instructions in a criminal jury trial

11:11 and even in a in a civil jury trial the jurors are instructed you shouldn't look

11:17 at me how I act how I rule as a judge uh try to base your decision on you are the

11:23 FactFinder you determine innocent or guilt if I look like I have favor one

11:29 side or the other you need to disregard that so so the Circuit Judge really does

11:33 it even though they may be thinking yeah you're guilty of it or well they

11:37 shouldn't be prosecuting this guy uh the jury determines that stuff but now also

11:43 but this is very important as a Circuit Judge because it happens every once

11:47 while it's rare it's happened to me maybe a couple of times uh if the state

11:53 does not present a case Beyond a reasonable doubt we're talking criminal if they don't present the case and you

11:59 know they don't present the case you're obligated Circuit Judge to to to find

12:04 that person not guilty and not let a jury do it but that's that's a rare

12:08 occasion but it does happen and it has happened in colan all right question number five the

12:16 Tribune uh published campaign Finance lists there more we did it in the last

12:20 election we've done it uh this time as well and so on that question of campaign

12:25 Finance what do your donation and expenditure lists say about you probably says I spend a lot of money

12:35 I spent a lot of my money on this election uh people I don't

12:41 know I'm not a go out hey give me money type person I probably should be and

12:47 that way I'd have more money in my bank account but I don't go around and and

12:52 ask people for money there are some people that always donates to me I know

12:56 who those donors are I've picked up a few more that's uh that's giving me

13:01 money but you know I've had a lot of people and actually really this last

13:06 week I've had it I haven't done my campaign Finance for this past week but

13:10 I have a lot of people come and throw me 50 or throw me a hundred bucks usually

13:13 it's like a $100 so that's all I got but I I really appreciate all of all of that

13:19 but I'm not the person that goes out and tries to get the money I know I know a

13:24 group of people that's always going to donate uh for the other side and that

13:28 that's fine uh but this campaign is mostly me it's mostly Melvin Hasting it's my money uh I

13:35 don't I don't know I guess the voters can decide how that how that goes I'm

13:38 not going to be influenced all right question number six cases especially big cases like murder

13:47 can drag on for years in the system can the process be faster and if so

13:55 how so one one of the First cases that champ Crocker probably the first case that

14:01 champ Crocker uh tried this year uh as a district attorney was or his office was

14:08 uh a 2018 murder case so in April I think it was of this year 201 of last

14:15 year 2023 we tried a case from 2018 it's five years old uh and that person's been

14:23 sitting in jail for 5 years waiting on their trial but that victim's family has

14:29 also been waiting 5 years to get Justice uh and have a trial to find out

14:36 what happened in that case what really happened so so how do we how there's 30 murder

14:44 cases I tell people that they don't believe me there are 30 murder cases

14:47 pending right now at least 30 in Cullman County six of them are capital murder

14:52 cases where someone's looking at the death penalty so uh if if the if the

14:57 state chooses to go that route so those are very important there's also robbery cases there's rape cases there's

15:04 burglary cases there's all kinds of very violent cases that are pending in Cullman everybody deserves their day in

15:10 court and but it's the prosecutor's job to get that there but again as a circuit

15:15 court judge you're the referee at some point you got to say hey that guy or

15:20 that lady is sitting in jail for three four five years they need they need

15:25 their case tried the victims are sitting there three four five years they need

15:30 this case they need closure so you've there's a lot of stuff so let's just go

15:35 back to the murder you've got investigators you've got uh you got to get the forensic pathologist up there

15:41 from the state the state I don't know how many they have probably three or

15:43 four that testifies all over the state uh and and actually have to do autopsies

15:49 too so you they have to line up you have to have the forensics line up uh you got

15:54 to have witnesses I mean we we're hey there's times we getting ready to go for

15:59 a trial and the and and there it's a witness problem maybe so and so get sick

16:04 or their family family member died or whatever else and we've had to postpone

16:08 those cases so there's a lot to it but we have got people shouldn't be waiting

16:14 five years to to have their case tried there's people can you imagine this WC

16:19 some old some some career criminal because we have a lot of them and

16:22 Cullman has broke into your house or your vehicle stole your stuffff uh destroyed your house destroyed your

16:30 vehicle and 5 years later you're still waiting to get Justice and get some

16:34 money from from him that's not fair none of that's fair so I know champ has been

16:40 working hard on trying to get those resolved I know the judges are pushing

16:45 uh to get those things resolved because they see the big picture but we we got

16:49 to be careful you can't just get rid of cases to get the numbers down

16:52 everybody's entitled to it we're just going to have to work harder so the

16:56 answer to the question is I told this uh yesterday there probably going to be a

17:00 lot of days you can't go home at 4:30 you going to have to stretch it on out

17:03 to 8 or 8:30 9:00 we may have to stretch a a jury week over until the next week

17:08 or something like that but you're you're imposing on juries uh I mean if you're a

17:13 juror that's a big job you got a life too and it's hard to ask a jury to sit

17:18 there for two weeks and listen to a case because they got kids they got to feed

17:21 kids got to go to school they got spouses uh they got they got work they

17:26 got obligations too so so but it's something that I I know is important to

17:31 everybody and I and I and it's important to everybody now and it's and it's still

17:36 going to continue to be important because guess what every I don't know I

17:40 guess champ probably every three months has a grand jury there and he's probably

17:45 adding another 100 cases to the so that case load ain't getting down any you

17:48 know what I'm saying you add more and more cases so we're going to have to do

17:51 a lot of work but everybody's trying it I I know people gets impatient the

17:56 judges are trying uh uh the prosecution's trying as far as the criminal cases uh we just may may have

18:04 to try a little bit harder or look at other avenues okay next question how do you

18:11 feel about plea deals so as a Circuit Judge again let me step back you got your own role so your

18:20 role is to allow the prosecutor and the and the uh and the defense attorney do

18:27 what they did a lot of things go in plea deals people gets kind of aggravated but you know you

18:33 may have a victim that says I don't want to deal with this you may have a

18:37 victim's family that says I don't want to relive this I you know let's go back

18:41 to murders maybe there's a victim's family that it they have uh two or three

18:46 four years later they have they have moved on uh they don't want to relive that

18:52 there may have been some material witnesses that that can't be there that's disappeared or or died or

18:58 whatever else so sometimes uh the best option for the prosecutor is to do a plea deal so as

19:08 long as everything's fair and everything's legal they know their case a Circuit Judge should always stay out

19:14 of it uh you just allow the process to go on but with that being said if

19:20 there's something that's really unfair or there's something that of course if it's illegal the Circuit Judge can that

19:26 Circuit Judge does not have to accept the plea deal when somebody enters a

19:31 plea agreement and it's in front of a judge there's a box in where the judge

19:35 either accepts the plea deal or they reject it 99.9999% of the time they accept it

19:42 because the attorneys know the uh know what the issues are there's a reason

19:47 this is plead pled out and the judge should not interfere but like I said if

19:52 there becomes a problem with it then a judge may have to step in I hope I hope

19:58 uh as a Circuit Judge that I will always be able to trust the the attorneys in

20:02 the in the process allow them to do what they're what they need to do and then me

20:07 just be the referee all right our next question on Mental Health according to sheriff

20:14 Gentry a number of prisoners in the county jail at any given time need

20:17 mental health services what is the proper balance between help for the mental ill and enforcing the law what

20:24 would what would you do as a judge so uh some of the things that we have done in

20:30 Cullman are accountability courts uh one the one that's been the longest process is drug court so drug Court's been

20:37 around for a long time this person has got in trouble with uh with drugs it's

20:41 an opportunity for maybe a firsttime offender to come get that to do some

20:45 stuff to to address the problems and uh and to get that out uh get that case

20:50 hopefully dismissed and them not make that mistake later on the next thing that kind of came in phased in a few

20:56 years ago was Veterans Court because we realize and I say we because the judges

21:01 asked the prosecutors they asked a lot of the lawyers that handles a lot of

21:05 cases what are some things we can do uh they come up with a veterans court

21:10 because we realize that sometimes we ask a lot of these vets you send them over

21:15 you teach them to you really teach them to be Killers I mean that's that's what

21:19 a soldier is sometimes you you train them to to to to do Warfare and to do

21:24 stuff you put them in in very horrible situations they see a lot uh and then

21:29 they've got to come home and and try to adjust some of them can some of them

21:34 can't so what we've realized is hey maybe we can help them out so I'm answer

21:39 I'm I'm I'm giving you the long answer but this is important so veterans court

21:42 what we what they do is they actually have older vets there most of them are

21:47 some of the older vets we have a couple of the younger ones there too people

21:50 that's been there and if you get accepted into veterans court uh you have

21:56 a mentor which is a vet which which has been there with you they they understand

22:01 what you're going through and they try to help them through that process and

22:04 and judge Turner does that he does a good job it's very very successful court

22:09 so the next thing is since the state and the for whatever reason decided that

22:15 we're not going to fund mental health no more we're just going to throw people in

22:18 jail that's got mental health problems the judges has recognized that we need a

22:22 mental health court judge Nicholas has headed that up he's one that does it so

22:27 if we identify person has mental health problems and uh that mental health problem is causing them to do things

22:34 I've represented a lady on it I know exactly a case right now her mental

22:38 health she was committing a crime but it really didn't realize she was committing

22:41 a crime her mental health status really affected her so we have helped move her

22:47 case through she gets Social Services uh they're they're accountable by their certain things they got to do they can't

22:53 keep on using as excuse to get in trouble uh they get help at wellstone

22:59 and uh and get their case resolved most time they get their case dismissed so

23:03 the mental health and Sheriff gent is right there there are people over there

23:07 that's held in jail that we know they have mental health issues and uh mental

23:11 health court is very important and it's something that I I definitely want to

23:15 get involved in it with judge Nicholas and uh and help people move through it

23:20 the next question is related to that and this is a a particular uh controversy

23:24 that gets debated among people should drug addiction and abuse be treated as a

23:29 mental illness so 22 years uh I I have represented thousands of them thousands

23:38 of people charged with drug crimes so my experience this is this is me this is

23:43 Melvin Hasting talking what I've learned and what I think uh a drug addiction is no no

23:51 different than a smoking addiction a drinking addiction a uh what in an eating addiction whatever else that

23:58 person most of them have something in their life and it could be an event it

24:04 could be a life event it could be their lifestyle it could be their childhood

24:07 how they grew up something in their life there's a hole there and and I really

24:14 believe that most people are using drugs uh to fill that hole some people

24:22 are unfortunate uh I know this for a fact I I I've personally known people

24:27 that's like this some people uh get injured and uh they get on L tabs get on

24:32 pain pills cuz they hurt and you can physically get a I know that for a fact

24:37 myself I got I caught myself when I had some major back problems I was taking

24:42 some uh perks sets then I quit taking them I mean I only took two or three

24:47 days but I quit taking them I got sick as a dog and I talked to the doctor

24:49 about it he's like whoa Melvin you're getting physically addicted to them and he took me off of them and I didn't take

24:55 them anymore that's how fast you can get a addicted to a drug so there are some

25:00 people uh that that's been in unfortunate situations either as a child or as even as adults because I've seen

25:07 adults do this too they start taking them pills they don't realize that they

25:11 get physically addicted to them and then they become what we call a druggie and

25:15 but they have an addiction and if you can help those people conquer that

25:21 addiction that that's what that's what the goal is that's what we try to do so

25:25 I don't look down at someone cuz I've had addictions in my lifetime too I

25:29 don't look down at someone that's got it I try to we try to help them out all the

25:35 judges we know who who's who who's there and serious and got a problem that we

25:40 can try to help out uh there's some people that just they just done it but

25:45 so they've got a hold they're trying to fill it with the drug you got to you we

25:49 got to do everything we can to to help them out but at some point I guess you

25:55 do have to you have to punish them they have to be punished as maybe a way to

25:58 deter them and show them hey you can't you can't use it as an excuse you can't

26:02 say hey I've got a drug addtion so I'm going to go steal everybody's uh get

26:07 breaking their vehicle and breaking their houses and steal stuff and go pawn it off or sell it and trade it for drugs

26:13 you can't let that excuse that person's definitely got to be punished because they can't use their drug addiction as

26:19 an excuse for committing other crimes but if the underlying problem is a drug

26:23 addiction we got to do everything we can to help them recognize it realize it and

26:28 hopefully change her life our last question if a defendant is convicted in a criminal case how will

26:37 you sentence uh what kinds of things will you consider in making your decision all right so that's a very good

26:44 question you must have known what happened yesterday so yesterday the the Cullman County Bar judge Nicholas had

26:51 this had this set up for us and Judge Williams was there all the judges was

26:55 there was involved in this there are some things in Alabama that is called

26:59 sentence and guidelines those sentence and gu it's a sentence commission that's been that's been uh formed by the

27:05 governor and everybody else it's a Statewide thing it's being forced because these Federal lawsuits prison

27:12 overcrowding uh there's a lot of stuff factored into it so we had the guy over

27:17 that come talked to us uh yesterday and uh addressing all the issue of prison

27:24 reforms and everything and and stuff like that there are some things that have changed with sentence and

27:29 guidelines I see where they're headed with all this stuff so property crimes uh what we call you know the steing uh

27:39 uh uh ID uh identity theft uh debit card theft uh burglaries of of buildings uh

27:48 breaking in Motor Vehicles those kind of things are addressed in sense and guidelines uh

27:56 violent crime of crimes against somebody like will you assault or rape or murder

28:01 or kidnapping they are not addressing them so the judges are it is mandatory

28:07 that you follow these guidelines so a criminal history come it becomes into play in that so a first time offender

28:14 more than likely when you follow the guidelines they're they get probation they automatically get probation a judge

28:21 has a discretion so depending on the situation uh that person is probably going to get probation because that's

28:27 what the guy line say or whatever else but uh so they're they're getting a lot

28:32 more strict about that they're making judges kind of uh forcing them to you

28:37 got to go by them guidelines that's that's addressing prison population uh problem that that Alabama

28:43 faces uh but now as far as the the victim crimes you got somebody that's

28:47 been assaulted or you got a you got a sex crime or you've got a robbery case

28:53 or obviously a murder case I think you have I it would be be unethical for me

28:58 to say I'm going to give them the maximum sentence they're going to jail

29:01 for the rest of their life that is unethical for me to do that that's

29:04 unethical for any any judicial candidate to say that I'm going to do that you

29:10 can't do it because all of them because you're you're making a promise or a

29:14 campaign uh promise to people that's that's just unethical it all depends on the facts of the case you know you know

29:22 maybe maybe somebody's charged with assault the jury finds them guilt of assault but in my heart I feel like you

29:29 know what that person was probably defending themselves uh selfdefense or maybe there's defending somebody else that person

29:39 shouldn't get the maximum sentence they shouldn't get the same sentence as somebody just comes out there and

29:43 decides they're GNA beat the crap out of somebody so uh so each case has its own

29:49 uh has its own set of facts you have to take those facts in consideration uh and

29:55 you have to do it I mean people has to hey you're you're you're responsible for

29:58 your own actions and uh I think you have to look at all the factors what's

30:03 happened since then is that person remorseful what is the victim's family wanting uh what can you do within the

30:10 bounds of law to give that person punishment and go on but one more Factor

30:14 if I got a few more minutes one more factor is very important I've been a

30:18 victim of theft at my office so I've had somebody at worked in my office my my

30:22 assistant was out this person took I I called them when they took $2,000 from

30:27 me now I was really aggravated at that person because they stole that much

30:31 money and no tell how many thousands from me before I caught them uh so that

30:36 first day or two or three or first month I was like heck yeah you're going to go

30:40 to prison I'm gonna send you I'm GNA make sure your butt goes to prison and

30:43 teach you a lesson six months later I'm sitting there thinking you know what if

30:48 that person's sitting in prison I still lost my $2,000 I guess uh I guess I can

30:53 get some satisfaction out of them sitting in prison but I'd really like to

30:57 have my my $22,000 back so that person didn't go to prison but they they wasn't

31:01 doing what they're supposed to do so uh so that so Judge Williams I think it was

31:07 uh revoked that revoked that person's probation uh Matt Gentry is a sheriff put them in a work release that person

31:15 went to work guess what I got my 2,000 bucks back so I think there are a lot of

31:20 victims out there of like the and breaking in Motor Vehicles all that stuff you know the impulse is let's put

31:26 them under jail and throw them under jail but if you're the victim in the

31:28 case it feels pretty good to get your money back and uh and and setting them

31:34 at even though we got to protect people's constitutional rights they just still import it setting hey restitution

31:40 you goingon to pay $20 a month and I know you owe $220,000 to this person that you just uh

31:46 destroy that much property from them and they're out 20,000 bucks $20 a month is

31:50 not going to get it uh a defendant shouldn't walk that somebody that's clearly guilty of of stealing from you

31:57 shouldn't walk into a court courtroom dressed in their guest jeans and their nice clothes and $200 shoes and say

32:05 judge I can't afford to pay over $20 a month that you took somebody else's

32:10 property uh you ought to be the one more or less suffering not that poor victim

32:15 over there that had the property done so so there's a lot of factors to take

32:19 consideration how you sence people and what you do with them okay well thank

32:25 you Mr Hasting as we finish up here if there's one more thing you'd like people

32:31 to know as we conclude yes sir thank you very much so so WC let me let me tell

32:37 you my my campaign is experience matters uh that's very important and it's so

32:42 true and it's so genuine and uh I tell this story because this is true this is

32:49 why experience matters if you so so if you're a victim in a case and and and somebody is tried

32:58 in circuit court and they're convicted uh by a jury that person gets an automatic appeal so that case goes to

33:05 the Court of Criminal Appeals it can go as far as the Alabama Supreme Court them

33:10 appell at courts the only thing they look at is the Court's rulings did was

33:16 that person given a fair trial was the was the evidentiary rules followed uh

33:22 was there mistakes made by the judge that that allow things to happen that

33:26 affected person's jury that that person's trial where they didn't have a fair trial so uh they don't R they don't

33:34 look at the facts they don't retry the case they're totally looking at what did

33:39 the judge do and that's dealt with by Bree by the by the attorney general and

33:43 the defense attorney so what happens is if you don't know what you're doing and

33:48 you make mistakes uh as a judge and that all of them do they're all human but if

33:53 you make them big mistakes that you shouldn't make you'll have somebody waiting for a trial a victim waiting for

33:59 trial 3 4 years uh 2 3 4 years hopefully we can cut it down but uh they finally

34:06 get Justice the case gets tried person gets found guilty the judge makes the

34:11 wrong rulings and then that poor old victim gets that phone call from the da saying

34:18 I'm sorry to tell you this but there was a lot of rulings it was not done right

34:23 the Alabama Supreme Court has reversed that conviction we have to start all over again so that person that just got

34:29 Justice now and this now listen appeals don't happen overnight some of them take

34:33 two years so you've waited four years got your trial r two more years just get

34:38 that phone call saying we're going to have to retry this case again so can you

34:41 imagine being a mom a dad a brother sister husband wife let's go back to the

34:46 murder victims of somebody that uh that got murdered and uh you finally got

34:52 Justice the person that did it went has got found guilty and there's a lot of mistakes

34:58 made in that trial and or or it could be one major mistake made in that trial it

35:03 gets reversed then you have to start all over again that's not fair it's not fair

35:07 to the defendant it's not fair to the victim's family it's not fair to the

35:11 state because we spend thousands of dollars they spend thousands of bucks to prosecute people

35:17 so that's when experience matters I can sit to I can see it uh on day one I

35:24 don't know exactly what day in January you take office but as your Circuit

35:27 Judge on day one I can put on my black robe I can sit in that judge's seat and

35:32 I can make rulings because I've been there I understand what it means to be a

35:37 Circuit Judge I'm ready to be a Circuit Judge my experience puts me there that

35:41 doesn't mean that I'm perfect I'm going to make mistakes but hopefully the mistakes that I make will be very very

35:48 limited it's not going to affect people's uh people's trials whatever else I've been doing this 22 years I

35:54 don't know how long judge Nicholas and Judge Williams been doing it but we

35:58 still learn stuff every single day every day when we go to court that's there's

36:02 something that comes up and they'll say well I didn't realize that and I say

36:05 well I didn't realize it either until I read and read the law so it is a

36:09 learning process uh law evolves there's a new legislation that comes out every year there's new rulings come out every

36:17 year you got to be on top of your game and if you're not in court every day uh

36:21 you can get lost and the job can get get too big for you this job is not too big

36:26 for me and if uh people will give me an opportunity and vote for me on March the

36:31 5th uh cuz that's when the the election is going to be decided March 5th there's

36:34 no more elections after that if you give me the opportunity I promise you you

36:38 will not be disappointed uh I'm sincere about this I love colan County I love

36:43 our circuit courts I love our judges I love everything about it and I want to I

36:48 want the opportunity to to use my experience to do the best job for colan

36:53 County and I definitely appreciate it thank you yes sir