As an astronomer-cum-lawyer and a big word nerd, I am thrilled to see that the Supreme Court took a break from being serious yesterday to learn a new word:
Gwen Filosa, of the New Orleans Times Picayune, reports:
My favorite choice quote: “This matter is not new today,”[ADA Joe] Meyer said. “Every judge in this building has confronted this issue of there are people dying out there because of irresponsible activities by defense attorneys. There are people every day refusing to testify.”
He seems to have confused “zealous advocacy” with “irresponsible activities.” Interviewing witnesses is what we’re *supposed* to do! Not interviewing witnesses, especially in a case as serious as rape, could variously be called “malpractice,” “ineffective assistance of counsel,” or “a violation of the attorney’s duty of zeal.”1
Brethren, every time a judge or an ADA pisses you off, be thankful you don’t have to deal with what our comrades in New Orleans do.
Edit Thursday, 7/15/09, 9:29 PM. See how I make a note that I’m editing my story when I do it? Gwen Filosa and nola.com don’t do that. In the nola.com story as it existed this morning, it said that the investigator spoke with the children while they were out with a sitter as the mother rested after a medical procedure. That section has since been removed. WIth the facts as they are currently presented, it looks like the investigator just took the kids. Not so, according to Filosa’s own prior reporting. This edit earns the “bad journalism” and “media criticism” tags, which were already in the dictablog tag cloud, but hadn’t yet been applied to this post.
Yesterday at the public defenders’ conference:
The presenter, a psychologist, puts up a picture of two teenagers in profile, nose to nose, forehead to forehead. The teenagers are breaming and blushing. She asks “what’s this a picture of?”
The audience, immediately and unanimously, “statutory rape!”
Actually, she was looking for an “above the waist” answer: ‘young love.’
Oh.
Above the Law reports on a story about a 1L (first-year law student) at Minnesota who got hit by a stray bullet while leaving a nightclub in Minneapolis. At his blog, he recounts:
So it’s around 2:30 am on a Monday morning and I’m sitting downtown bleeding on the side of the street. Random people coming from clubs stopped as they saw the blood coming from my back. I had a pretty good idea that I was going to miss this morning’s civil procedure class…
Shot in the back and worrying about civ pro… only from a 1L!
ATL doesn’t do the story justice though. You have to read the first-hand account for such hilarious gems as:
A nurse then tells me that they are going to have to take off all my clothes. Do I have a problem with that?
Me: “I have a bullet in my back. It’s not the time for modesty.”
A few minutes later I’m covered with those wash-rag-like hospital blankets. A homicide detective comes in and asks me a few questions. I remind him that I’m not a homicide case yet…
The dude’s blog his hilarious. Seriously, go read it.
Saw this pair of signs last night, I still don’t quite get it… note that the signs are posted by different companies.
