Magistrate Joseph Mifsud’s unconventional way of handing down judgments again caught legal practitioners by surprise when he included a poem by Mother Theresa as he sentenced a man to jail.
In a judgment handed down on Monday, the magistrate declared a man who assaulted a policewoman guilty of a number of accusations, including being a recidivist. He condemned him to a two-year effective jail term, a €5,000 fine and placed him under a three-year treatment order.
Apart from using the lengthy judgment to declare that violence against police officers was never excusable, the magistrate then went on to take the opportunity to share some wise words with the accused, doing so through a poem by Mother Teresa.
The poem by the Albanian nun, Life Is, is a reflection on life and day-to-day struggles that one faces. Including the entire 15-line poem in his judgment, the magistrate said the court wanted to “take the opportunity to put forward this reflection”.
In court, Dr Mifsud also urged the man to “take the right path” and stop abusing drugs.
This is not the first time the magistrate has made headlines in court.
In January, he played a song of popular Maltese singer Mike Spiteri before delivering a final judgment, also in a criminal case.
Sitting at the bench, he used his tablet to play Mr Spiteri’s song before he proceeded to read out the judgment in which he quoted part of the lyrics.
In this week’s case, the magistrate also quoted parts of Mother Teresa’s poem when handing down the case, with those present thinking he was simply quoting the nun to make his point; they were not expecting the entire poem to be the included in the judgment.
Legal practitioners described the incident as unprecedented, pointing out that this was not standard practice and magistrates were not known to include poetry in judgments.
However, they pointed out, it was not surprising that Magistrate Mifsud would do something of the sort.
Pointing to the Mike Spiteri song incident, they said that in legal circles, such unconventional behaviour has become expected of the magistrate.
Dr Mifsud is also known to be a very religious person, often quoting the Pope and other prominent religious figures in court.