RICHMOND, Va. — In the latest episode of “Untold – A WTVR Podcast,” host Catie Beck sits down with David Hicks, the former Richmond commonwealth’s attorney who now serves as a judge in the city’s general district court system.
He spoke about his unique perspective on the criminal justice system, having it experienced it as both a prosecutor and judge.
“I probably am harder than many on what I consider predatory behavior,” said Hicks. “My best mentor was a gentleman by the name of Murray Janus, and he was just a fantastic lawyer, and I just learned so much from him….He said there really should be two different types of jails. There should be the jail for the really bad, dangerous people, and there should be the jail for the people who do stupid things. And if that were the case, trust me, the jail for people who do stupid things would be about 10 times as big as the jail for dangerous people. So, part of what hopefully your worldview brings into perspective is you being able to distinguish between this is a situation where there's an individual who really is predatory and dangerous, versus this is a person that did something stupid, versus there but by the grace of God go I.”
Hicks also talked about being the product of an inner-city New Jersey family, and how his life changed when his father was murdered when he was a young teenager.
“My brother-in-law, I will never forget, my older sister's husband, about 6:45 comes in and he tells me ‘Your father's been shot.’ And then 10 minutes later or so, I remember him saying he's dead,” said Hicks. “And interestingly enough, this was 6:00-ish on Sunday, the 15th of December of '74. The next thing I remember, it was late January when I went back to school for the first time.”
Beck and Hicks also discussed one of the more high-profile cases that has come across his docket in recent years: The time two Guatemalan immigrants were accused by Richmond city officials of plotting to perpetrate a mass shooting on the Fourth of July… a celebration that two of Hicks’s sons attended.
“So, the question that I had to put to the prosecutor was, look, before I hear word #1 on this, I need to know whether or not I can even be on this case,” said Hicks. “And I asked the question… is there any evidence whatsoever that these individuals were in fact involved in a potential plot?”
A link to this latest episode of “Untold – A WTVR Podcast” can be found at the top of this page. You can also find us on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.
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