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.
Victory
Thanks for all the support on the recent Murder 101 victory. I’d like to thank the following people who helped work on that case: Abraham Ritter, Richard Glenn, Jay Garrison and Professor John Mitchell (who gave me some good advice).
If you are interested in joining Murder 101, we have some research opportunities coming up, which would entail working briefly on a specific issue and has no long time commitment. Let me know if you are interested.
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.