Job shadow

I went to shadow a PD this week. I was to watch a trial. I woke up at 7AM for the first time in a month, put on my suit and rolled the minivan out to middle of nowhere courthouse. Watched some pleas (which was fairly interesting) and then the defendant showed up. The jail people screwed up and hadn't dressed him in civilian clothes. The defendant was a larger man so he needed his own clothes. Because of this his case was continued. I got to watch all of an hour of court.

The pleas were interesting. I remember from one of my crim pro classes that in order to accept a guilty plea there has to be a factual basis for the plea. Our professor never really explained where this factual basis came from. The judge I watched would read the elements of the crime to the defendant, ask the defendant if he understood all the rights he was waiving and if he remembered signing the plea agreement. After doing that she would take a minute to review the police report and inevitable say "I find the police report contains facts sufficient to support the plea."

I got an email from one of the attorneys I worked with over the summer. The appeal I wrote for her is going up for a motion on the merits on March 14th. Not looking good for my client. In the email she said "I suspect you will have the jurors eating out of your hand." That inflated my ego a little bit.

I continue improving

Grades came out awhile ago. I had one class where I did the reading beforehand everyday, created an outline, studied with my group extensively, took numerous practice exams and got my lowest grade. I had another class that I showed up for only because attendance was taken. I did not do the reading, I will be able to sell that book as "Like New" on half.com. I didn't even pay attention during class. Two days before I took some practice exams. I did better in that class than I did in the class I actually tried at (although it was my second lowest grade). At least for the first time ever the final I walked out of thinking "I kicked that tests ass" was my highest grade. Overall I did well in two classes and not as well as I would have liked, but well enough in the other two.

Hooray

Obama won Iowa.

Went back to visit the office where I interned today for lunch. Found out that the baby seagulls in the nest on the roof across the street "disappeared" one night. I think they spared me the gory details. I might go back on Wednesday to watch oral arguments. A prisoner sent a letter to my organization asking me to call his attorney to yell at him. That attorney was one of the attorneys I worked with over the summer. He has oral arguments for that prisoner on Wednesday.

Meet with Senior Intern at the office. She gave me a copy of "The Nine" by Jeffrey Toobin. I read a couple pages of it earlier and like it so far. Thank you Senior Intern. I'd read more of it but I want to watch Leno and Conan without writers again.

Leno surprised me with his ability to write jokes. I thought it was a complete hack. Turns out he is just mostly a hack. Conan was a bit disappointing. I wish the networks would just give the writers what they want. It seems fair to me.