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.

Boston Legal

I watched Season One of Boston Legal in its entirety today. An absurd show, that I found absolutely hilarious. I only hope that I can use my internship with the PD office as a springboard to becoming the next Denny Crane. Denny Crane.

Season One ended with an episode about the death penalty. Now most of my audience gets to blog about ethical concerns that come up with real clients. I get to blog about ethical concerns that come up from watching TV shows like Boston Legal. Lame, but deal with it. Anyway that episode really pissed me off. I realize most of Boston Legal is just absurd satire on firm life, but this episode was slightly different. I would not be surprised for a second if the facts of the death penalty case from the show were taken from real life. It was a Texas case where an African American man with an IQ of 80 was accused of murdering a gas station clerk. DNA evidence placed someone else at the scene. The defendant confessed after 16 hours of interrogation and had no memory of actually committing the murder. His trial attorney gave no opening statement and failed to cross almost all of the prosecution witnesses and failed to investigate important leads. He also admitted to being on cocaine. The court couldn't care less. That pisses me off.

I don't know why I wanted to write about this episode. I've always been against the death penalty. Death penalty cases always piss me off. I don't know why an episode of Boston Legal pissed me off so much. Maybe because it was after a 12 hours marathon of television (which I realize is a luxury I will not have much longer) but that episode moved me more than John Grisham's book "The Innocent Man" or anything else I've read. It pissed me off more than the movie "The Life of David Gale." It struck a cord with me for some reason.

God I hate the death penalty.

Life is good

Today I ate pizza for dinner and forth meal (thank you taco bell). It is 5:12AM and I have not yet gone to bed. I am really enjoying having no responsibilities. I'm sure the backlash will begin soon and boredom will set in, but right now after the stress and drama of law school a simple life of watching TV and eating lots of pizza while consuming adult beverages is perfect. I wish I had an XBOX 360 or a Wii.

On Thursday I'm going to do interviews for a documentary a friend is making. The camera will be on the subject and I'll be the voice you hear from off screen asking the questions. I really think it will be a good line on the resume and will allow me to break into the acting world. Good bye public defense, hello Hollywood. I might even get to run the camera a bit so I can put actor/director on my resume. Yeah things are looking up for me.

In two weeks I will meet up with Super/Senior Intern and go visit the office where I interned. I'm excited. I've missed everyone at the office and Senior Intern a lot. A couple days after that I'm going to shadow someone at the office where I will be next summer. I predict that next semester there will be a lot of posts of me whining about how awesome the job shadow was and how badly I want to be in court doing what I saw. I know its going to happen and I apologize in advance.

Show the Rodneys some love:

Heading home

I don't feel the sick, scared distraught in my stomach that I felt after finals as a 1L. I know now that how I think I did on a test means essentially nothing. I'm not going to worry about it at all during the break. Short of a family member or close friend dying nothing is going to ruin the next 28 days. A full lunar month of freedom.

I partied too much to take part in my normal post finals routine of staring at the ceiling for an hour or so. Your mind is unable to do anything but zone out. There is nothing to distract your thoughts from just wondering. It usually ends with me falling asleep and taking a little nap.

Finals shouldn't suck this much

I'm a 2L. Finals are supposed to be less scary. I'm more scared this semester than I was last year. I think not caring all semester might have something to do with my increased feelings of woe. I've studied about the same amount but I felt like I was playing catch up for a lot of it. I console myself by remembering that the curve is easier this year and everyone else cares even less.

I may require a liver transplant once I am done.

Talked to my PD office a couple days ago. During the Holiday break I'm going to going observe for a day. I'm excited for 2 reasons. 1. I get to meet future coworkers and see the type of work I will be doing and 2. I get to suit up. I got a new french cuff shirt with a spread collar. I'm going to wear an awesome pair of cufflinks and tie an obnoxiously big Windsor knot. I'll probably wear my faux-Gucci shoes as well. Long story sort I'm gonna look good.

I also recently discovered that my blog is the number 1 google result for the search "fake pocket square." Not really my target audience, but awesome nonetheless.