Job security?

People in my line of work like to play at who can be the most cynical. When we see some kid or totally dysfunctional adult with a new child, someone's likely to sigh and say "Oh, well, it's job security!"

We're not running short on work these days, but with this recession governments are running out of money to pay us to do it. It's not like we were at the top of the priority list to begin with. Puts me looking for work elsewhere, and not at a good time for it.

Frustrating.

Memorial Day: 65 years later

When you go Home, tell them of us and say:
"For your Tomorrow, they gave up their Todays."

Happy belated Memorial Day.

The CSI Effect

Prosecutors these days complain about the "CSI effect": the belief among jurors that a case isn't proven unless there's some whiz-bang lab work involved. Most cases, of course, are more about individuals saying "this is what I saw". Prosecutors have to try to work around the CSI effect. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. I stole this from a colleague, but it's too good to pass up:

Q (prosecutor): Who here watches CSI? (Lot's of hand raise)
Q: Juror #7, do you believe CSI is realistic?
A: No
Q: Can you give me an example of how CSI is unrealistic?
A: All the women wear low cut blouses.

Do we speak the same language?

Couple odd expressions today:

Tried to call a teenage client and got his voicemail. Among the other things on his outgoing message:

"If this is Sweetie calling, I love your bitch ass!"

I don't think the girls I knew as a teenager would have found that endearing.

Then, in court, some kid had a t-shirt on with "PIMP" in large letters. I grew up in a town with a notorious prostitution problem; until I grew up and left I thought every town had pimps and hookers hanging out openly on the downtown corners. Pimps, especially, were considered disgusting lowlifes. Somehow these days it's considered a positive thing.

I must be getting old, saying that I can't understand today's youth.

Speaking of which, I recently found a web site with graffiti found on the walls of Pompeii, written sometime just before it was buried by a volcano in AD 79. Note that the ancient Romans could be pretty earthy, so it's not for the easily offended. The interesting thing is that so much of it sounds like stuff my clients write on walls today.

Some things never change...

A view from the other side

Last week a defendant here was sentenced to 60 years to life for a truly ugly crime: he broke into a house and raped an 11 year old girl at knifepoint in her own bed. Some excellent police work and he wonders of DNA testing, along with a brave little girl who remembered what he looked like, nailed him for it. This state doesn't do parole as such; the sentence you get is the sentence you serve, less good time which is minimal to none in a case of this type. The "to life" provision is a workaround of the problems with the sex offender civil commitment statute; after he serves the minimum, whether he ever gets released is discretionary with DOC. The conventional wisdom among defense lawyers is that DOC will never release anyone serving that type of sentence.

It's probably academic anyway; given the average inmate's attitude toward sex crimes against children he's not going to survive the initial sentence. I recall getting a panicked call from the mother of a guy I represented who was doing some prison time for drug offenses; he was being told by the other guys on his cell block to show them the legal documents from his case proving that he was there for drugs, because if he was there for a sex crime against a child he was going to get seriously hurt. Actually, lawyers are regularly asked for fake documents by clients who are going up for sex crimes precisely to avoid that scenario; no one I know will do it.

The thing here is that I knew the girl's parents; I worked with her father on occasion, thought the world of him, and attended his funeral a few months before the rape. As much as I try to have some professional sympathy, I can't help feeling satisfaction at this SOB's predicament. I guess it's hard to maintain the professional detachment when the crime's against someone you know.