Like the fear of waking up to find yourself buried in a coffin, 6 feet under, defendants in custody fear that they will be forgotten as their family and lawyers walk from the courtroom.  In Little Rock, they have good reason to be afraid.

According to reports by  the Chicago Tribune and  the AP, one bailiff in Arkansas had finished locking away Adriana Torres-Flores, charged with selling pirated CDs, but held because she was an illegal immigrant, when his attention was diverted.  He went about his work and then went home.  But he forgot one thing: Ms. Torres.

Torres-Flores, 38, appeared in court last Thursday on charges of selling pirated CDs. While others pleaded guilty she pleaded not guilty, but Circuit Judge William Storey ordered her held because she is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, deputies said.

Hankins locked Torres-Flores in the temporary cell and meant to have other deputies drive her back to the county jail. That never happened. No one heard Torres-Flores pounding on the cell’s steel door or looked through its peephole Friday, as snow blanketed Arkansas and Storey did not hear criminal cases.

However, the sheriff’s office said Hankins was on duty Friday.

The bailiff discovered Torres-Flores on Monday morning when he went to put another prisoner in the cell.

There is no one suggesting that anything about this was right, least of all bailiff Hankins, who feels awful (not to mention monumentally stupid) about all of this.  There’s no doubt that he didn’t mean to forget her in the jail cell.  There’s no doubt that this was a terrible accident. 

So, beyond the fact that poor Ms. Torres was subjected to this traumatic situation, why bother with this story?  While it’s not anywhere near as weird as the woman whose skin/fat grew around a toilet seat, it serves to make one important point: 

Human beings screw up.  It defines us.  We all make mistakes, and have the constant potential to be knuckleheads (I was reminded of this great word by  a commenter who used it to describe me, together with other choices words that are less colorful).  As we argue our way through people’s lives based upon the say-so of individual accusers, we need to keep this in mind.