Murder 101 Project
The Criminal Justice Society is giving a presentation on its Murder 101 Project today at noon for Social Justice Monday. Their current case, Sergio Reyes-Brooks, is currently at trial. An attorney has contacted the Criminal Justice Society and asked for help in another murder case. If you are interested in this volunteer opportunity contact Donna Larsen, president of the CJS.
An article about the Murder 101 Project can be read here. For additional information on this and other CJS events, join our Facebook page and/or TWEN site.
Criminal Justice Society Presents: Legal Education Certification
Criminal Justice Society Presents: Legal Education Certification
Take the time to improve your legal knowledge. Four 45-minute lunchtime lectures will be given throughout the month of March by some of the top legal minds in the Seattle area. Each student who attends will be given a certificate showing they have taken the time to become a better lawyer. Put THAT on your resume. Tuesday, March 31st, Noon, in the Courtroom – Attorney Eric Weston will talk about closing argument – from how to use it to focus and structure everything else you do in criminal defense, and a cookbook approach to writing and delivering. He will also answer questions about public defense and prosecuting, having done both in his 18 years as a criminal lawyer.
Facebook page for this event.
Teen Prostitution Panel in April
CJS Presents: Teenage Prostitution Policy Panel: Rethinking Our Approach to Prostituted Youth
Please join us on Thursday, April 16, 2009 for this important policy discussion on teenage prostitution. Together we will question whether the prosecution method is truly the best method of dealing with prostituted youth, and we will look at ways in which legal professionals and community members can join forces to tackle this enormously pressing social issue.
Our guests include:
- Professor Raven Lidman from the Youth Advocacy Clinic;
- Ms. Ye-Ting Woo, Assistant US Attorney, Western District of Washington;
- Dr. Debra Boyer, author of “Who Pays the Price? Assessment of Youth Involvement in Prostitution in Seattle”
- Ms. Terri Kimball, Director, Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Seattle Human Services Department
Heavy Appetizers and Refreshments will be provided. To RSVP or for more information, contact Beverly Ibsen, ibsenb@seattleu.edu or Donna Larsen, larsend2@seattleu.edu.
Co-sponsoring the event are the following Seattle University School of Law student organizations.
Thanks for your support!
ACLU SYLAW International Law Society
Click here for the offical page on this event.
Meeting Notes
CJS MEETING – January 27, 2009
Notes for those who didn’t attend:
Elections for officers will be held March 9, 2009. An information session for people who are interested in joining CJS will be held on March 2, 2009 from 12:15pm to 12:45pm. The March 9th meeting will allow anyone interested in running to get up and pitch why they should be elected, then paper ballots will be handed out and then collected at the end of the meeting. We should know that day who the new officers are. These officers-elect will contact current officers who will guide them through the CJS processes. If you have any information for the “big red book” located in the CJS desk now would be a good time to put it in there. Future officers will need to know how we did things when we started the club, who we know, what we did, etc.
In March we will start a lecture series called “CJS Presents – Legal Education Certification.” This will be a series of four lectures given around lunchtime (and lasting around a half hour) where students will bring their own lunch and listen to the attorney talk about the subject for that day. The topics will be: motions, statistics for lawyers, the jury (and voir dire), and cross examination. The lecture will be given by a local attorney who has special knowledge in this area. Students who attend will get a certificate of completion they can put on their resume.
Kaylynn has forms for anyone interested in doing a ride along with the police. I thought this would be a great tie in with our gun club idea (which has apparently stalled) and maybe a visit to a forensics lab. There are so many aspects to criminal law, and knowing about how police do their job would be a great thing to know. I’d like to have a public meeting (meaning different than the officer’s meeting today) next week and sort of introduce this idea. I am going to try to get the gun club thing moving today by talking to the deans and finding out exactly what they want and how we can get it for them.
Beverley and I have talked about doing a panel on teen prostitution sometime in early April. I think Professor Ainsworth has some special knowledge about this and we plan to follow up.
Murder 101 is currently working on the Reyes-Brooks case which goes to trial in mid-February. There are still openings if you know anyone who is interested in participating.
Donna
Death with Dignity Act
The SU Criminal Justice Society would like to thank Emily M. Gause, a 1L in Section B, for stepping up and coordinating this discussion. From coming up with the topic to inviting faculty, she did a lot of work on this I want her to know we appreciate it.
Noontime Discussion
Monday, November 3, 2008
NOON- 12:50 pm
Room C5
Topic: “Death with Dignity Act” Initiative 1000
Featured Professor: John Mitchell
Please join the Criminal Justice Society for it’s first Noontime Discussion of the year. Our discussion topic will be the “Death with Dignity Act”- Initiative 1000. This initiative, on the November 4th ballot, will legalize physician assisted suicide in Washington State. Please join Professor John Mitchell and members of the Criminal Justice Society in a discussion on this very controversial topic.
Pizza and cupcakes will be provided.
Two articles on the topic:
The Seattle Times recently wrote this piece:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008259886_oregonlaw13m0.html
This is the Initiative 1000’s website:
http://itsmydecision.org/
An exciting week…
This week is an exciting week for students who are interested in criminal law. On Monday, the 22nd of September, we have criminal defense lawyer Kennet Phillipson coming to talk to us about the controversy surround the removal of Judge Nault from criminal court proceedings. This will take place from 6pm to 7pm, which makes it a great opportunity for evening students to attend a CJS event. We have been lacking in that capacity so far this year, and I apologize and plan to make up for it soon!
Also on Monday we will be holding a Murder 101 WIKI training at noon in room C-3. At this meeting students who have completed their Murder 101 Commitment Forms will be given discovery in the Sergio Reyes-Brooks case. Also, anyone who attends can participate in WIKI training. This training takes about 10 minutes and is required of all students interested in working on Murder 101. WIKI’s are encyclopedias of knowledge and a great way to keep track of large amounts of information culled by multiple sources. We will be using WIKIs on all our cases. This enables multiple people working on a large case to bring information together in one easy to use database. Using a WIKI is fairly simple; if you can use MS Word, you can use a WIKI. There are a few differences which is what we will be going over on Monday.
Another program we would like to start this week involves creating a webpage where criminal justice professionals can get information they need, such as rehab facilities in a particular town, or who to talk to about paying restitution, etc. This is an opportunity to work directly with criminal justice professionals all while learning valuable information that will help you to be a better attorney. Write to me at larsend2@seattleu.edu if you are interested in this opportunity.
We also have a great Take an Attorney to Dinner coming on Wednesday night with Aaron Pelley. Email Andrew Rice for more information on coming with us!
Murder 101
Murder 101 is a new project developed by the Criminal Justice Society. This is an opportunity for law students to graduate with real world experience. Working on a murder case gives students an opportunity to work one-on-one with a Seattle-area criminal defense lawyer, experience court appearances, understand investigative processes, and write about legal issues that matter.
Murder 101 will participate in four murder cases at a time. Each case will have a student who will be the lead (a 2L or 3L) in the case; that person will pick a second student as backup on the case. Then several other students will get the opportunity to work on the case doing various projects. All students will have the opportunity to go to omnibus hearings, read the discovery, attend depositions, investigate the case, and write memos to the rest of the team. Each member of the team will have a faculty advisor, ethics advisor, research advisor, moral support guide, and case work back-up partner in order to assure an environment of quality, competency, and to reduce the stress associated with working a murder case. Check back for more information on this project or email me if you are interested in participating.
I am currently working as a legal intern on a murder case that is coming up for trial in a few weeks. In June of this year I emailed a criminal defense attorney who lives about a mile from my house. I told him I was pretty sure I was worthless to him as someone who just finished their first year of law school, but that I’d make copies, type memos, or sweep the floor if I could hang out at his office this summer and observe his defense style. He called me back within five minutes of my email and told me he had taken a second-degree murder case pro-bono. The case is about a 17-year-old who killed a man who had been molesting and stalking him since he was 13-years-old. To read more about the case, click here. If you are interested in watching the case at the courthouse, check back here, and I will post when the trial starts.
Other opportunities that are cropping up are a training to be held at SU School of Law to train law students to help adults seal their juvenile records. If you are interested in attending the training join the CJS TWEN page, click on forums and add your name by replying to my post on the topic.
Hands up, who misses James Dold? James abandoned us to attend the University of Maryland Law School. It was one of his dreams to attend UM, and I’m happy he gets to fulfill that dream, but I still miss the guy. Speaking of other schools, check out the two videos below. While 1L’s might not ‘get’ many of the jokes yet, check back at year’s end and rewatch them. For the rest of you, yes, they are long, but worth every minute, I swear.
I’m not saying our school is boring, unimaginative, or stuffy, but how awesome is this performance by faculty and students at the Virginia School of Law? I looked them up on Wikipedia and found they have putting this show on since 1904.
Wikipedia says: Each spring over a hundred students write, direct and perform in The Libel Show, a comedy and musical theatre production that was first organized in 1904. Its performers roast Law School professors, student stereotypes and life in Charlottesville throughout each of its three nightly showings. Professors write and sing their response to the students’ jokes at the penultimate performance.