Ending and Beginning
I suppose it is time to update. My year has been great. Law school is fabulous. I shall leave the dreary academic details -- moot court, law review, Dean's List, Professor's Research Assistantship -- for another time. No, wait, how about I skip that and move on to better things.
Legally speaking, my summer, again, is in Pikeville, KY. A bastion of death penalty and boots. It seems that people have been busy with homicide. I have three current death eligible cases in front of me. As the legal clerk for the easten region of Kentucky's Department of Public Advocacy, that means I am the answer person. Specifically, I am the book chick. I prefer to be arguing eloquently in Federal court, but the experience here is wonderful.
The books in front of me and various papers are currently related to arson and the Kentucky hate crime statutes. On top of that, or buried below however you want to look at it, sits the Federal statute as well. This is called covering all bases and trying a slight of hand that would eventually knock the hate crime statutes off the books as unconstitutional. Its the little things in your day that are the best -- like shoehorning an angle to blow apart the Grand Canyon.
This summer I had the opportunity to attend the statewide Public Defenders conference. As a clerk, I worked the event and was allowed to sit in on all the CLE classes I wanted. Clearly, I headed towards the Life in the Balance, Juvenile Issues, Clandestine Meth Lab Seminar, and Hearsay Post Crawford. In otherwords, I was sitting in grotesque factual places with geeky interpretations. Does it bleed? Great. I am there. Is it appellate? Great. Ill bring coffee. I met some fabulous people from the capital post-conviction section. Even struck up a friendship with one of the recently departed Oken's (see entry below) counsel. Partied with the best of them -- in a socially acceptable way of course. But I will admit I felt a tad like wolf in sheeps clothing. That is of course is because I am somewhat of a death penalty mercenary. I can play both sides and sleep at night just fine.
My afterwork plate is full with more law geekdom -- assisting a professor on a law journal article on Larry Dudley Hiibel's newly decided case and preparing for the time when once again I can stand in front of a podium and chatter incessantly and with panache at a panel of judges, also known as moot court competitions. I live for that stuff, and death of course.
Legally speaking, my summer, again, is in Pikeville, KY. A bastion of death penalty and boots. It seems that people have been busy with homicide. I have three current death eligible cases in front of me. As the legal clerk for the easten region of Kentucky's Department of Public Advocacy, that means I am the answer person. Specifically, I am the book chick. I prefer to be arguing eloquently in Federal court, but the experience here is wonderful.
The books in front of me and various papers are currently related to arson and the Kentucky hate crime statutes. On top of that, or buried below however you want to look at it, sits the Federal statute as well. This is called covering all bases and trying a slight of hand that would eventually knock the hate crime statutes off the books as unconstitutional. Its the little things in your day that are the best -- like shoehorning an angle to blow apart the Grand Canyon.
This summer I had the opportunity to attend the statewide Public Defenders conference. As a clerk, I worked the event and was allowed to sit in on all the CLE classes I wanted. Clearly, I headed towards the Life in the Balance, Juvenile Issues, Clandestine Meth Lab Seminar, and Hearsay Post Crawford. In otherwords, I was sitting in grotesque factual places with geeky interpretations. Does it bleed? Great. I am there. Is it appellate? Great. Ill bring coffee. I met some fabulous people from the capital post-conviction section. Even struck up a friendship with one of the recently departed Oken's (see entry below) counsel. Partied with the best of them -- in a socially acceptable way of course. But I will admit I felt a tad like wolf in sheeps clothing. That is of course is because I am somewhat of a death penalty mercenary. I can play both sides and sleep at night just fine.
My afterwork plate is full with more law geekdom -- assisting a professor on a law journal article on Larry Dudley Hiibel's newly decided case and preparing for the time when once again I can stand in front of a podium and chatter incessantly and with panache at a panel of judges, also known as moot court competitions. I live for that stuff, and death of course.