Babies!!

My wife and I just had a baby girl!! It's pretty amazing that she's finally here.

While I was out of the office on paternity leave I missed some court dates. I keep hearing congratulations from clients who had court dates. I've never had such considerate clients before. It's like they forget the reason we know each other for a second and their faces brighten. Or maybe, I forget why we're talking to each other?

I just talked to a client who had a girl, just like us, and only a week after mine. It was a pretty funny conversation actually. We congratulated each other, and had a little laugh. It was a nice change of pace from my normal client conversations.....

Sensational!!

Here's CNN.com's current front page story:

"A call to the Secret Witness tip line helped police break CNN's first featured cold case: the slaying of college student Brianna Denison, investigators say. James Michael Biela, a 27-year-old construction worker with an alleged thong fetish was arrested last week. Biela is charged with murdering Denison by strangulation."

If the picture of the pretty white female on the front page didn't grab your attention, the fact that she was murdered and the words "thong fetish" should pull you into the story. So much for James Michael Biela's public image. Goodbye "presumed innocent," it was nice to know you ever so briefly. What can I say, but "what the fuck CNN? When did you go Nancy-Fox-News-Grace Crazy?"

I blame Nancy grace for a lot of what's wrong with the Media, and I am probably underestimating her. Can I coin a new phrase? I'll call it "The grace Effect." Any time a SENSATIONAL news story bubbles to the surface of the shit-pool that is crime reporting and gets more attention than it deserves, we'll blame The grace Effect.

Off the top of my head, stories that got graced: Maddie and Caylee are two recent ones. Sadly, I don't have to describe these beyond their first names. They're little white girls, so they get the extra attention. Just thought of another: Elizabeth Smart. Here's a video of Elizabeth reminding us that Nance's crazy is deep and probably shared with her crazy ass audience.



Yes, I know I didn't capitalize Nancy's last name. I'm just hoping that catches on too, and maybe it'll rub off and she'll actually get some grace, or class, or just manners.... yeah, I doubt it too.

Why 'Crime' vs. 'Law'

I wrote this entry back in May of 2008. I left it in the editing stage without publishing it until now. Why? I have no idea. But I was looking at the CNN 'Law' page recently, and that prompted me to go ahead and release these words:

"Crime" sells. Is "Law" boring?

CNN used to have the "Law" section on the front page of their web site. It has been replaced by a link to their "Crime" page. There is still a page dedicated to "Law" but it is not necessarily the sensational coverage that is devoted to the "Crime" stories. "Crime" must sell more virtual papers. Who wants to read about 'lawsuits' when you can look at 'prosecutions?'

What's the difference? Why not cover the crimes under the "Law" section? I suppose people have always been obsessed with crime and criminals in a romantic sort of way. That all depends on media exposure etc. The movie "The Assassination of Jesse James" shows an interesting perspective on this phenomenon. Jesse James went from evil killer to murdered victim in the public eye. His killer was assassinated as well, and nobody mourned him. He had killed a celebrity.

Of course, white blonde women are the media wet dreams in the "Crime" section. It doesn't matter if they are the victim or the alleged criminal, if it's a white female, it's covered. If she's blonde, well that just means NATIONAL coverage. Look at the Barbie Bandits from here in Georgia. It was well reported that they were "Bank Robbers" who stole thousands from a bank. Their minimal sentences were well covered by national news outlets. Their black, male co-defendant's sentence hardly registered on the local news though. He was found to be much more culpable than the blondies, and he got 25 years to serve his involvement in their scheme.

I guess as a criminal defense lawyer, "Crime" is more interesting to me too.

Judge Sets Bond for Her Own Husband

It has come to light that a Georgia judge in a current contested election had previously set a bond for her husband in a case where she was the alleged victim. This is against all rules of judicial ethics and certainly impeachable. The crazy part is that the judge is defending herself in the media. Typical political responses started up right away, such as, "you shouldn't be getting into my personal life."

http://www.crossroadsnews.com/articles/2008/10/01/news/01_hunterbond.txt

When I clicked on the story, the newspaper's website showed ads on the story page. In a very appropriate and well placed coincidence, the ad that showed up on that page was an ad for the very same unethical judge.

Appellate Decision

My case was quoted today in a newsletter for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers! I wrote an appeal for a case that my predecessor won at trial, which the State appealed. It was my first appeal (I didn't really know what I was doing) and I got quoted for my favorable outcome. I didn't win the appeal, but I was successfull on one important aspect. I guess that's why we have to be happy with small victories.

It's so exciting to see your name in print!

Badboy

I had a client today with a pretty large tattoo on the inside of his forearm. Not too unusual. This tattoo said, "Badboy" though, which is descriptive and informative.

Slow posts

Posts here seem to slow down as my schedule gets less hectic. When I am busier at work, I look busier in the post department. That seems a little backwards to me, and I've only just realized this phenomenon. Everyone else seems to not post when they're busy, or when they're working more hours. Weird.

Needless to say, business has been slow lately. I'm going to be out of the office next week, which means I've handed my trial calendar over to a co-worker. She's in the division I came from, but she's got trial experience with felonies. I normally wouldn't want to dump trials on someone, but my judge is very irrationally anal-retentive about scheduling and would never move a calendar. Unless of course you are a fellow prosecutor, and then you get whatever you want. So, trial week stays the same, I will just be missing all the fun. I've still prepared my files, called defendants, tried to find witnesses, and all the fun prep work. But there's only so much to do when the only witness is your step son and the only testimony will be, "he punched me."

My co-worked pointed out that everytime I am on the eve of a trial calendar I say, "I'm a terrible lawyer and I need a new job." She says it's just the stress. I say I'm being practical. We'll just agree to disagree for now. This calendar is different of course, I'm not trying the cases. I doubt that there will be any trials anyway. Nothing has been going lately. Though that's probably because I've been preparing for trial. There's a strict law of the universe that goes along with misdemeanor cases. The more you prepare for trial, the less likely it is to go forward on the day of trial. So, the client who is most positively sure that his wife won't testify is the client who is most positively going to have to have a trial. The more sure you are that the state won't find that witness, the more likely they are to have that witness and two of his friends. That's just the way it works.

"I did hit her, but..."

Today I had a client in tears telling me that he had been in and out of jail for several months based on "these females" and lies. He was pretty upset in the holding cell outside the courtroom, and didn't want to enter a plea that would give him 60 days to serve followed by probation. That's far too long to spend in jail for "these females." So we had a bond hearing to try to get his bond reduced to something he may be able to make. Before the hearing I told him not to talk about the facts of the case itself, and not to make any admissions because they will use those against him. During the bond hearing he insisted on talking to the judge, so I reminded him not to mention anything about what happened on the night he was arrested. He told the judge that he had a job and that he wanted to get out, and then he said, "I mean, I did hit her, but..." and then I cut him off. Good work. If you were trying to get your bond denied and trying to give the State evidence to use against, you... mission accomplished!

My Desk Has Emerged

With Tuesday's trial calendar going away, I have suddenly found myself with fewer things to do than normal. This has helped my desk catch a breath of fresh air. The papers and files that had cluttered the top of my desk, now clutter either: a) the trash b) my file cabinet or c) someone else's now-more-cluttered-than my desk. It's nice to see that faux wood plastic/composite top to a lawyer's trusty work surface. I didn't realize how long it had been since we last saw each other.

Sadly, it will begin to get covered again soon. August is looking rather hectic with two trial calendars within three weeks of each other. Hopefully though, August will also include a trip up north for my parents to see my pregnant wife just before she has to stop flying!

Fixated on me

There is a guy who hangs out in front of a convenience store near our office. He has some serious mental health issues, but generally he's a nice guy who always says hi and makes coherent small talk. He sometimes gets behind on his meds and ends up in jail and we stop seeing him on the streets for a little while. Then he gets out and he's back on the square downtown and we chat about his situation.

Yesterday morning I saw him there and he called me over. He kept thinking I was someone else and asking about what he needed to do on his case. He told me several times that he was heading over to the county's mental health services to get his medication. He also gave me his doctor's name and number and told me that he would be at his appointment, (which is today). He's usually pretty much homeless, or close to it, so I bought him a coffee from the nearby shop. He really wanted a pack of cigs, but I only had $2 in change in my pocket, but he seemed happy with a coffee.

A few hours later he called and said that he was on his way up to my office. He showed up here and started such a delusional rant we were all taken aback at the things he was saying. He kept asking me for money because he thinks that I'm his caseworker. He couldn't get it out of his head that I'm the person that is supposed to give him his SSI check or cash or whatever. His ranting was going on and on until finally my supervisor called me over and told me to just leave him in the lobby. He'd get tired of waiting and leave, which he eventually did. I talked to one of our clinical social workers about him. He has fixated on me for some reason. Who knows why? Maybe my name is similar to some counselor he had in the past? Maybe he really appreciated the coffee that I bought for him?

He called again today and told me that he is over at the mental health center waiting for his appointment for his shot. Hopefully he's telling the truth and will get medicated soon. He also said that he spent the night there last night after I wouldn't give him his money. That started another rant regarding gettnig money from me. He asked if he should come to my office after his appointment to get a couple of hundred dollars... He also asked several times if this was really me on the phone. He sounds really paranoid and delusional, it's so sad to hear him repeating all this crazy stuff. It's also really hard to try to correct him in his delusions. I can only say "no, I'm not your caseworker" so many times. I don't really know what to say after a while. He eventually hung up the phone.

I hope he's getting his shot right now!