"This court finds the defendant guilty."

That's what I heard yesterday when I conducted my first hearing. Actually the process got cut short because I agreed to a plea bargain, so I didn't actually get to conduct the hearing. But I had prepared my questions, got three cops lined up for testimony, and had some face time with the judge in the courtroom. Got my name on the official record.

A plea bargain means the defendant has to plead guilty, but we allow him to plead to a lesser charge. Incidentally, I made sure he got the same punishment as he would have had with the higher charge, and if he ever commits another DUI this will still be on his record as a prior offense, but he wanted the lesser charge for immigration purposes; if I'd insisted on the higher charge, he would have been deported.
The trick is, I'm not allowed to consider his immigration status when I negotiate a plea. That would actually violate the constitution. So, I had to consider other factors, such as the fact that the only evidence I had against him was the testimony of a few cops; there was no breathalyzer. Also, it is the DA's office policy to plea bargain; we don't want everything going to trial. My supervisor gave me approval to accept this plea bargain.

It meant that I didn't get the experience of actually conducting the hearing, I didn't get to question witnesses on the stand. I need the experience before they'll upgrade me to more difficult hearings or other types of court actions. I'm anxious to get more challenging tasks because that will give me better experience. But, of course, I'm not going to refuse a plea just for my own personal benefit.

Look at that, I'm already sacrificing my own best interests for the sake of Justice. And I'm only an intern. But you know what, I still get to count it as a victory. If we had conducted the hearing, it's possible the defense would have won. (I think odds are small, but it could have happened.) As it was, I got the defendant to plead guilty. So it's a conviction. Thanks to me. I think that counts as a notch on my belt. Not that I actually have notches on my belt, but I am concerned with being an effective DA and being able to do a good job with the cases I am handed. And I think I did a good job in this case.

Now I have to rewrite my moot court brief. I thought moot court would be a breeze because I have lots of experience writing briefs, more free time than the rest of the class, and most of them are 1L's who don't know what they're doing anyway. Well, it's not easy. It's fucking hard. Hastings is obsessed with moot court, we literally have the best team in the world (we just won the competition in Paris), and we're possibly the only school in the country that has the "ten error rule." That means you can't pass the class if your final brief has more than ten errors. Really fucking demanding. The result, of course, is that Hastings students have a reputation for writing phenomenal briefs, and I will too once I get the hang of it. But it's frustrating because the damn class is much more demanding than the DA's office. So I'm ending up putting more work into a simulation than I would into the real thing. And my bosses at the DA's office are already telling me they think I'm doing a great job.

Well, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do. It's going to be a tough week.

J

P.S.: Wanna brighten my day? Sign my guestbook! I get like 20-30 visitors a day and yet there are only a few entries in my guestbook. I feel lonely.