The Judge looked very pissed off. “Ignorance is no excuse, Mr. Fletch.”

“Ignorance is no excuse?” I repeated, thinking to myself.

“Of course it’s a fucking excuse. What the hell are you people on? You think it’s reasonable to try people for laws they’ve never even heard of, much less agreed to? You think I’m going to go down for this so-called crime when the only way you can make it sound legitimate is with meaningless sayings like Ignorance is no excuse? What the fuck ever happened to building a case? What happened to logical debate, and proving an argument? What happened to innocent until proven guilty, huh?”

I looked around the room, at all the blank faces, then back to the judge. This obviously wasn’t sinking in.

“I’ll tell you what, Judge: go fuck yourself.”