District Attorney Cody Womp
Appearances
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
I think that that's what this job is. This office, any prosecutor's office, should be victim-focused or why are we all here? And certainly crimes matter that don't have victims. You can argue that there's a lot of crimes that do have victims that we don't necessarily categorize like that, but... We should all prioritize crimes with victims as prosecutors.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
And that's what my message is to this office all the time. We have to make sure we're taking care of this community, not just public safety, but taking care of people in this community. And so in these cases, when you... prepare for a trial like this one or any trials that we have where we spend years preparing, you really get to know the victim well.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
And so by the time you get to trial, you know their family, you know what they were like when they were 15 years old, you've heard all the stories, you really get a sense for better or for worse. Sometimes you learn bad things, you know, but you get to know them. And so by the time you get to trial, it really is like, for me, personal. You know this person. You know their family.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
They're in your office. You've seen them struggle throughout the last two years since their daughter died. You've seen the ups and the downs to a certain extent. And so it is personal. By the time you get to trial, in my opinion, all you really want to do is fight for them. Because you've been through this process, seeing it from their point of view. And so it is.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
It's hard to not make it too personal. For me, I have to remind myself to just take a step back sometimes because it It can affect you and it will affect you if you let it. But to a certain extent, I think that's a good thing. I hope that I always feel that way. And if I don't care like I do now, I hope that I'll leave this job and do something else.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
Any cases involving children, the rape of a child case that I tried in Bradley County was one of my first big trials. And being able to get a victory for a child like that, who afterwards will say, I didn't think anybody was going to believe me. Because kids don't come forward often because they don't think anybody's going to believe them. Um, and they're scared.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
And so to, to have a victory for a child where the system believed them and protected them, like we're supposed to, it makes you feel like this is not just a profession. It's a passion. It is, you know, it's for me, it's sort of who I am. Um, but any, any case with the children, um, but a case like this with a, with a victim who
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
really was just 1000% innocent in all of this and did not deserve to die and was not involved in any type of criminal activity. And, you know, this was just so random and did not have to happen that it makes it a real privilege to be able to to fight for her. But any of these trials, and most of the trials I've tried have to do with victims.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
Most of the cases that my office tries have to do with victims. We try drug cases here and there. We've tried a theft in the last year, but for the most part, we focus on victims and that means that we take these cases to trial.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
I hope that the closing argument resonated with people across the country. First of all, I think that there's more victims of crime across the nation and across our state than people realize, until it happens to you.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
And whether you're just a victim of a burglary or you're a victim of a violent crime like this one, there's a lot of victims and survivors throughout our community that we forget about.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
You know, something may happen two years ago and the person goes through the court process and then over time they're forgotten about and nobody around them really understands what they went through or the fact that they're a survivor of this type of crime. So I hope that the community realizes that there are people fighting for victims and especially victims and survivors.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
I hope that they can say, and we've gotten some of this feedback. I was a victim or I was a survivor and my boyfriend did this to me in 2009. And some of the greatest emails I got were those kind of emails like, I was in tears during the jury verdict because this happened to me and I didn't think anybody cared. And that really means a lot to me. Like that's a reminder of why we're doing this.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
So I hope the community knows that there are offices like ours that are doing it for all the right reasons. Me too. Absolutely.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
I think such an example of that from this trial when it, it was a little bit early on to really hit home for the jury because Katrina was our first witness. But how identical she looks to her daughter. So much. Always, yeah. And I mean, always stood out to me as like, oh my gosh, she is up there on the witness stand. She looks exactly like her daughter.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
We're going to show her driver's license so that you can see. Yeah. They are real people. They have moms that sometimes look just like them that are willing to testify on their on their behalf. And so, yeah, I mean, what Mommy, y'all didn't know as much about the case at that point in time because she was our first witness.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 10: After the Verdict
But looking back, I mean, her mother looks exactly like her daughter who this has happened to. And I thought that, I mean, honestly, I think it's a sweet moment for me to see her on the stand. And what a mom, you know, what a mom. Katrina Bean is the mom that we all aspire to be. And so I thought that that was a sweet moment.