i need legal counsel ~

some notes: Goodie Proctor's got my Poppet

reason number two why i never finished this project when i first had the idea is that courtroom drama skeers the pants off of me. i dunna get all the ins and outs of legaleese (let alone in a corrupt courtroom).

and then there's just some overall bizarre behavior throughout the witness testimony on the part of the defense. like: why did Mr. Poppet want to suppress Client A's confession, then later try to insinuate a confession of another sort (which got shot down right quick). i keep trying to come up with an understanding of his strategy on this one, but the only thing i can think is that the confession was only going to further implicate the others (particularly the Chammy and Mrs. Hen) and do nothing to mitigate Client A's guilt.

on the one hand it seems like Mr. Poppet ought to be trying to help the rest of the counsel prove some shred of innocence for all of their sakes. on the other, i don't get the impression that the counselors were exactly on cooperative terms. more like dog-eats-dogs and every man for himself.

my overall impression of Mr. Poppet's handling of Client A's case was that he didn't really put much effort into it except to try to prove that Client A was a coward who couldn't hurt a fly. my feeling overall is that no one really liked Client A (not even his cohorts).

maybe it's indicative of the general prejudice against Client A that even i haven't bothered giving him a funny nickname. hmmm....

: o p

is anyone on my flist in law school? know anything about criminal law?

in other news, no news. i just dunna seem to have much to say lately.

oh for shame ~ !

found this bit of choice meanness while reading this morning (in When the Bells Tolled for Lincoln by Carolyn L. Harrell:

General Ord had issued an order for Richmond citizens to pray for President Lincoln... [A] Richmond minister found only five or six persons in the congregation who would gather for the required memorial service. Hattie Blenheim, one of the congregants, later wrote that when the minster spoke from the pulpit, he said:

My friends, we have been ordered to meet here by those in authority for humiliation and prayer on account of the death of Lincoln. Having met, we will now be dismissed with the doxology: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"

not the least of which is disturbing about this is how impossible it is to imagine a government that would mandate such a service on a defeated people in the first place. yuck.

: o p


a bonus tidbit from the Chicago Tribune, April 17, 1865