PERSONALS

We received this post, a first of its kind:


SWF, assistant public defender, <30, face="Arial">And three witty readers were moved to post:

kendall coffee here. call me. i don't bite.

funny.. where is the pic

Pity... if you were Sandra Day O'Connor, I'd be interested.

Rumpole Responds: Well this is a first. However, nothing says that our blog cannot contribute to true romance… or just hooking up. Certainly many lawyers have found love, if not lust, within the confines of our little world.

Speaking of marriage… a former Judge was interviewed in the NY Times today on what its like to be incarcerated. Here is an excerpt:


A Fallen Judge Rethinks Crime and Punishment
Until 2001, Mr. Amundson, who is 56, was a highly regarded judge who sat on the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the state's second-highest court. Mentioned in legal circles as a likely nominee to the State Supreme Court…Then he was caught taking $400,000 from a trust fund he oversaw for a woman with the mental capacity of a 3-year-old, money he spent on marble floors and a piano for his house as well as model trains, sculpture and china service for 80, all bought on eBay. The Judge was prosecuted and sentenced to prison.
The former Judge said: "Judges can say they have no idea what's going on in prison," Mr. Amundson said from a worn couch in the halfway house. "But if you know what's going on and you are still callous, God help you. If you are part of the system that does the things the system can do, God help you."

Rumpole Ponders: prison is unfortunately a necessarily evil in any society. There will always be a certain number of people who can never live in society. But in the United States Of America, more people are incarcerated then were incarcerated in the Soviet Gulag of the 1950’s-1970’s. Over two million Americans are now in prison. One in every 142 residents are now in prison. Source: usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aaprisonpop.htm

Here’s an interesting snapshot: In 2003: "California has a total population of 33 million people and 159,390 inmates. Germany has 82 million people and 56,000 inmates. Indeed, the California DOC employs nearly as many people as Germany imprisoned."Source:innocentinprison.org/information/usa.html

How does an industrialized nation like German have less people incarcerated than the State of California? Something is broken here.

Finally, anonymous weighs in on multiple topics:

Roy Black is one of the finest human beings in our legal community.On another note, Rumpole suggested that defense attorneys (and PDs) are not wannabe prosecutors. NOT TRUE. Any former ASA will tell you that the most vindictive people bringing charges in the courthouse are the PDs that have an opportunity to file for a rule to show cause against some police officer or victim that failed to appear for a depo.

Rumpole sez: Roy is a wonderful person. We presume him innocent, and would be disappointed if any charges were filed.

Some defense attorneys abuse the depo process… and some police officers have a wanton disregard for any subpoena they receive. We think Judges can sniff out the defense attorneys that set unreasonable depositions and the witnesses who don’t give a damn.

See You In Court after the long weekend.

Remember this weekend: over 30 years ago a distinguished American dared to dream of the day when his children were judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Are we there yet?