What is Allocution? Take II

Last week Blonde Justice and I exchanged notes about the meaning of the word “allocution.” I noted that the U.S. Attorneys' plea offers generally indicate whether the AUSA (Assistant U.S. Attorney) wants to waive or reserve allocution. I thought that meant they were waiving or reserving the right to argue at sentencing about specific terms of the sentence, such as how long a period of incarceration might be, or how how many hours of community service, etc. Blondie explained that, in fact, “allocution” is a term of art that usually refers to a defendant's formal recitation of guilt. That made sense to me and I thought I had it figured out.

However, now I'm looking at a plea offer from the AUSA and it says (among other things) the United States will agree to:

___Waive _X_Reserve Allocution (the right to allocute at the time of sentencing)

So what does that mean? It doesn't make much sense to me that the prosecutor is saying she's reserving the right to demand a formal recitation of guilt from the defendant. Instead, the prosecutor reserves the right “to allocute”—that suggests the prosecutor is going to do something, not the defendant. That's why, in this context, “allocution” seems to refer to argument, and the verb “to allocute” seems to mean “to argue.” And if that's true, it's stupid. And if it's not true, it's still stupid because it confuses me and I don't like to be confused.

The lesson here is really this: If something confuses me, that means it's stupid. If everyone will just remember that we'll all get along much better.

Confusing matters further, the plea offer also has a blank for the prosecutor to check that reads:

_X_Limit allocution to: ___(insert period of time here; e.g. 30 days)___

So what can “allocution” be if you limit it to X days? Does that mean the prosecutor reserves the right to argue, but agrees not to argue for more than X days in jail? Or, um, what?

But, and so, if anyone has any more thoughts on this allocution question, I'm listening. It's very possible I'm just being dense. It's also possible I'm looking for reasons to say the prosecutors are being pompous and stupid, even if such reasons don't really exist. Hmph.

Posted 06:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | 3L crimlaw

GW Helps Loyola & Tulane Students

This in email from GW's student body president:

A formal announcement will be going out shortly from the Dean, but I've been working with the Administration regarding the fact that Hurricane Katrina has displaced all the law students from Tulane and Loyola.

As a result, we will be accepting around 20 students for this semester to attend GW as visiting students. The plan is to have them start on Tuesday.

Cool. If we had any extra space, I'd be happy to host one of these students. Since we don't, I hope other GW students are in better places for that sort of thing. According to the temporary Tulane website the Association of American Law Schools is sort of coordinating this temporary student thing and lots of schools are helping out. Although these students would probably have preferred to just stay at their schools w/no hurricane, this might end up being a pretty cool little part of their law school careers. I mean, how cool would it be to be able to just sort of visit a different school for a semester (or two)? Would you go to Arizona? Boston? California? D.C.? I think I'd try to go to Idaho, but that's because youdapimp I'm strange.

Posted 06:13 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | 3L

Katrina: Police Behaving Badly

Sean over at Objective Justice has been tracking news about police participating in looting in New Orleans. I was actually skeptical at first b/c the whole looting angle is something I expect the media is blowing way way way out of proportion because it gives it something sensational to talk about and because looting is perversely more palatable than “gee, this is a human tragedy and no one really seems to be doing much about it.” However, it seems pretty clear that the cops—at least some of them—are part of the problem. Salon reports that in the French Quarter the cops were using their guns and authority to protect their barbecue from hungry residents:

In contrast, some residents of the French Quarter appear comfortable, well-fed and relaxed. About 150 New Orleans police officers have commandeered the Royal Omni Hotel, part of the international luxury chain of Omni hotels that is housed in an elegant 19th century building, complete with crystal chandeliers and a rooftop pool. “All of the officers that are here, I can tell you in a classical sense, are gladiators,” says Capt. Kevin Anderson, commander of the Eighth District of the NOPD (French Quarter). “To be able to put your family's concerns aside to protect the citizens of New Orleans, it's just an awesome job,” he says. Across the street from the Royal Omni at the Eighth District police department, several police officers keep a wary eye on the street with shotguns at the ready, while some fellow officers grill sausage links over charcoal barbecues. They are under strict orders not to communicate with the media. Capt. Anderson does confirm, however, that locations where officers were housed came under gunfire on Tuesday night. No officers were injured. “It is a very dangerous situation that we're in,” Anderson says.

So the cops are “gladiators” in a classical sense? Does that mean every man for himself? Read on in the story to learn how the cops are offering protection to upper-class restaurant owners in exchange for prime rib. Meanwhile, thousands of people are basically trapped in the city's convention center and FEMA didn't even know authorities had been telling people to go there. Who knows how many thousands are still on the streets, or who knows where, without drinking water or food.

You all know this, and maybe it's still too early for recriminations, but there's a growing realization that the relief response has been inadequate. And why is that? Um, Iraq? Does anyone believe that we wouldn't have tens of thousands more National Guard troops working on relief and evacuation efforts on the ground in the affected area if we didn't have so many National Guard resources committed in Iraq? Don't you think they'd be doing airdrops of food and water, or mass helicopter evacuations—if those helicopters weren't already in use in Iraq? And it's not just Iraq; a Seattle disaster-response leader put it:

“It's terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism,” said Eric Holdeman, director of King County's Office of Emergency Management. “It's what all the funding is directed towards.

”New Orleans shows the result when known problems aren't addressed because we're fixated on something else.“

Meanwhile, Yubbledew holds press conferences and flies over the area like a perverse tourist. Yeah, he's got my full support for that.

Posted 06:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | crimlaw general politics