I just saw on Rachel Maddow that Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina has mandated that ALL state workers must answer their phones, "It's a great day in South Carolina." (She must watch Bravo TV because that sounds like what Jeff Lewis requires his employees to say when they answer the phone.)

Wow. Let me just say right here, right now. I would not, will not, ever, EVER answer calls from my clients on death row by telling them it's a great day in the state that wants to kill them. And if I were a capital public defender in South Carolina, I wouldn't either.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury...

On the whole, I am glad that my career path led me down the road of appellate work. I like the writing and the focus on the law. I like waxing poetic on grand concepts, which doesn't happen much in the nitty gritty of trial level work. (It probably shouldn't happen so much on the appellate level, either, but it works for me.) I like that I can avoid early morning work as 8 am and I do not get along well. And I have been assured by friends with district court experience that district court judges would drive me crazy with their sometimes more casual approach to applications of case law and statutes. Not to disparage anyone. There is just a certain level of winging it that goes on in district courts (an effect of over-crowded dockets?) that would break this precision-loving lawyer's heart.

I am certainly not sorry I have not ever had to conduct jury selection and I sincerely hope I never have to. But that is a topic for another blog post. (coming soon)

But like any smart-ass lawyer (is there another kind?), I do still fantasize about conducting that awesome cross-examination that catches the complaining witness in a lie fatal to the state's case.

And I have always wanted to give a closing. A killer closing. A closing in a case like that in "Twelve Angry Men" where guilt seems so obvious, where everyone fully expects the defendant to be found guilty, where the media has already sentenced the guy to life in prison, but where one brilliant lawyer (ok, so in the movie it was a persistent juror, but work with me here) piece by piece shreds the state's case so thoroughly that the vote for acquittal takes all of 5 minutes. What defense lawyer doesn't want to give that kind of closing at least once in his or her life? I've given oral arguments that I felt really good about. I've even given one or two where I think I changed a judge's mind. But that closing argument still haunts my dreams.

I've been thinking about that this week as the Amanda Knox appeal trial (where in Italy the appeal is essentially a second trial of fact, unlike our appellate process which only looks at the law) has been in closing argument. Because her trial also involves some civil suits (which hurts my heart because they really need to be separate), there have been 4 different parties giving closing argument since last Friday. Amanda's lawyer has yet to go. As you might recall, I got sucked into the internet craziness that surrounds this case back in June when I wrote what I thought was a fairly innocuous blog post. That post is by far (by a magnitude of at least 4) my most read post. By far the most comments of any of my posts. And it introduced me to the weird, undergound internet world of Amanda Knox Guilters. A cabal, really. They're nuts, as you might have learned if you followed any of those 250+ comments. So because I'm a compulsive researcher, when they started challenging some of my views, I researched so I could respond. Not assuming that I would refute everything they said. I certainly wouldn't have assumed that everything they would spew was nonsense. But it is. And they go around the internet continuing to spew their nonsense.

So now, without really meaning to, I have gotten sucked into this case. I have read 4 books on it. I have corresponded with people. I have come to realize just how much misinformation persists about this case. Even the BBC's online news archives still includes stories that are provably false, with no update, no asterisk, no retraction. So it's become easy to understand why regular, intelligent Americans who aren't as obsessive as I am still think she might have had something to do with it, if for no other reason than that she lied too many times, changed her story too much. (She didn't, but it's become part of the white noise surrounding the case that too many people simply accept that as gospel truth.) And if you know me at all, you know I can't let that stuff go. This case has become my perfect storm this year: a wrongful conviction, misinformation all over the internet, and illogical arguments. You know what all of that means for me, right? I HAVE TO FIX IT!

And so my dream has morphed from not just giving any old closing argument, but giving THIS closing argument. Because I know this case that I have absolutely no connection to, and I now know I would rock this argument. No, I would knock it out of the park. I would knock it so far out of the park, it wouldn't even be able to see the park. It would go all the way around the world and come back into the park. And I wouldn't have to resort to name-calling, like the civil lawyers against her have. I wouldn't need to write a 400 page document like the Judge did in justifying her conviction. (Hint: if you have to work that hard to make your case, you don't have a case.) No, I think I could bang that argument out in half an hour. And I could get a jury to acquit in 20 minutes. (The first 15 minutes would be the jury oohing and awing over my brilliant closing, of course.) Because the "case" against her is so ridiculous and I am in most in my element when I am knocking someone else's totally illogical claims down. You really want to see me go on a tear? Say something really illogical in my presence and I will go all kinds of Julia Sugarbaker on you.

But I won't get to give that closing. Or any other closing any time soon. So it will remain just a dream. But I will have you know that in my dream, I nailed it. Whatever closing I had in my head that day, I freakin' nailed it.




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Location:Ladies and gentlemen of the jury

I really wish Adele's latest song "Someone Like You" weren't so darn good. Because it gets played all the time. On pretty much every radio station. As it should because it's a really good song.

But, damn, that song hits close to home! Way, way too close.

On a side note, I also wish (hope) that someday, I would be able to attend a CLE again. But it's not looking good for the foreseeable future. Sigh.

On a completely unrelated note, I wish I could be 5'6 every day. I was today, thanks to my fabulous new (Target) shoes with the 4 1/2 inch heel.* I like being 5'6. That was always my dream height. Sigh.



*Yes, I can walk in them. I walk in all kinds of ridiculous shoes with ridiculous heels. It's flats that give me trouble.

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Location:Wishes

I'm hardcore, part 2

"Moneyball" may well be a great movie about baseball, but for a real, true, hardcore Royals fan (like this blogger), there's a problem. (Fortunately as far as this movie is concerned, there may not be that many real, true, hardcore Royals fans left.)

See, in this movie, as in most sports movies, there was a key game situation that highlighted the dramatic climax. As a movie-viewer, I was supposed to root for the A's to win this game. (As a person who follows baseball, I knew how it turned out, too.) And, yet, the key game was against my Royals. Turns out, I was right all those times I declared myself not a die-hard Royals fan, but a die-never fan. Because while watching this scene, which was supposed to be nerve-wracking for the movie-viewer who wants the heroes of the movie to prevail, this Royals fan was rooting for the other team. I was rooting for Joe "The Joker" Randa and Raul Ibanez to score. And I cheered when Mike Sweeney hit the big 3-run homer. And in the pivotal, final at-bat, when I was supposed to be rooting for the nice guy we'd been following for 2 hours, Scott Hatteberg, to come up with a big hit, I was rooting for Jason Grimsley to strike that motherfucker out.

They may suck, be incompetent, have terrible pitching, have no power, and regularly lose over 90 games a year, but gosh darn it, I will always, ALWAYS root for my Royals.

Allen Ault, a former prison warden in Georgia who personally participated in executions, just spoke on MSNBC in the aftermath of Troy Davis' murder. The man sounded tired, somber, and sad. He spoke about the toll that participating in executions takes on the corrections staff. He spoke about how  he could see no justification for it. He talked about meeting with victims' families after the fact who did not feel any peace or sense of closure after an execution. He explained how he always had psychologists available to speak to his staff after an execution because they would need therapy for dealing with what they had just done.

So we engage in a punishment that is so morally questionable, the people who carry it out need therapy. And that's not even getting to the attorneys. Or the journalists who have to watch the executions.

There are so, so many reasons I am opposed to the death penalty, but this has always been one of them. Asking our fellow citizens to take part in an intentional, premeditated killing of a human being is far, far more than we have any business asking.

What a waste

I like to see people involved, energized. Not just thinking about what's wrong, but what they can do to fix it. So I hate to criticize when people do get involved, find a cause and pursue it. But...

Parents call for boycott of Ben & Jerry's Schweddy Balls flavor

Seriously?? This is what you're getting up in arms about? Communicating with the media about? Trying to organize a boycott about? Because ice cream with a "vulgar" name is somehow harmful to children, oh you concerned moms?


Here's my suggestion, not that you asked or care what someone who thinks Schweddy Ball ice cream is funny and is downright in favor of Hubby Hubby ice cream (and the gay marriages that flavor is celebrating). I think if you really give a hoot about children, your time, energy, and resources might be better aimed at fighting cuts to education and arts programs. Perhaps creating some after-school activities that could include at-risk children. Maybe organize literacy drives, pairing tutors with children who aren't reading well. Team up with Big Brothers, Big Sisters because mentoring kids is one of the best things we can do to keep at-risk youth from going down a bad path. Buy books for libraries. Form softball leagues to get kids involved in team sports. (The stats for girls involved in teen sports are really encouraging. They go to college and they don't get pregnant at great rates.)


These are just a few ideas I came up with off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other things you could come up with, things that would suit your particular communities and interests. In short, there are lots and lots and lots of great things you can do to help children and show your concern as moms. None of them have anything to do with raising a stink about the name of a flavor of ice cream.

Godspeed, Troy Davis

The Troy Davis case is one we death penalty opponents have pointed to for years. One of my first ever blog posts was about that case, written for a different site but eventually transferred to this blog. I have revisited the case over the years here. You can search through my archives to find those posts. I am frankly too tired and beaten down to do that work for you right now. Because today is the end.

Today is the day I and other abolitionists had hoped would never come. There are no more appeals to be made. There are no more clemency petitions to file. There simply is no more hope. There will not be a last-minute miracle to save Troy Davis from the sentence that a jury imposed on him 20 years ago.

Plenty of courts and attorneys and clemency board members have looked at this case over the years and said, "Well, a jury found him guilty and I don't see any reason not to just go with that." Never mind that members of that jury now disagree. One was quoted recently saying that if she had known then what she knows now, she would never have found him guilty.

The problem with this case, of course, is that a jury did once find him guilty and he cannot now prove his innocence. He can make a very, very compelling case for reasonable doubt. He can point to lots of evidence that another man was the shooter. (A man who is one of only 2 original trial witnesses who have not subsequently said their testimony was the result of police pressure.) But he can't definitively prove this other man was the shooter. And so he loses on review. Because once upon a time a jury convicted him.

And apparently that's good enough for us as a society. We are deciding today, by executing Troy Davis, that we are ok with uncertainty in the process we use to intentionally and with premeditation kill people. So many people want to proclaim that they're only ok with the death penalty in cases where guilt is clear, obvious, 100% certain. But reality doesn't yield those cases very often. And even if it does on occasion, it also quite often yields cases like this. Cases that are filled with uncertainty but which nonetheless resulted in a guilty verdict and a death sentence. Maybe those 12 jurors were once upon a time convinced Davis' guilt was clear, obvious, 100% certain. But they aren't now and our death penalty system, the one that so many people support with this naive notion that we only use it on people who are obviously guilty, offers no way for the jury to now be heard when they say they're no longer certain. In reality, our criminal justice system does not have 100% certainty. So if you support the death penalty, you're supporting this kind of outcome. One where an awful lot of people have an awful lot of reasonable doubt, but once upon a time one random collection of 12 people did not have doubt so we'll carry on with an execution.

Well, I'm not ok with it. This isn't good enough for me. There is nothing that I can do, though. I will wear black today, though I wear black so often no one will realize it signifies anything. And I will continue to fight against the death penalty for all the other Troy Davis' out there with the hope that next time, the ending will be different. But the end is here for Mr. Davis and in this moment I can find nothing more to say than it really, really sucks.


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