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

Contradictions of Disaster Porn

We call what's happening in New Orleans a natural disaster, yet its worst effects were almost entirely man-made. We say it's a surprise that the results of this storm have been so severe, yet something exactly like this has been predicted for years. We're amazed to learn that so many people apparently ignored warnings to evacuate before the storm, as if we don't know full well that probably close to a third of the people in New Orleans simply had no resources to leave. We decry the looting, pretending again from high atop our horses of righteous indignation, that we don't understand what it means to live in utter poverty. There are so many questions we won't see asked or answered on our idiot boxes because the asking and answering might make us uncomfortable, disrupting the hypnotic trance of our voyeuristic fascination with the latest footage of poor people waving for help from their rooftops or climbing out of store windows with arms full of goods they didn't pay for (forgetting, apparently, that there was no one there to pay and people still need to eat!). Do you wonder why it fascinates you? Do you wish you had cared about these people and their problems before they were placed in mortal peril? Do you wish that acknowledging all of these contradictions would force us to face them and do something about them?

I do.

Posted 09:22 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | general politics

Katrina's Aftermath

Scripting News is following the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, and it looks like New Orleans may not have seen the worst of it yet. One of the links there is to the New Orleans Times-Picayune weblog where you can find frightening stories such as this:

Those trapped in the city faced an increasingly lawless environment, as law enforcement agencies found themselves overwhelmed with widespread looting. Looters swarmed the Wal-mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, often bypassing the food and drink section to steal wide-screen TVs, jewelry, bicycles and computers. Watching the sordid display and shaking his head in disgust, one firefighter said of the scene: “It’s a f---- hurricane, what are you do with a basketball goal?”

Police regained control at about 3 p.m., after clearing the store with armed patrol. One shotgun-toting Third District detective described the looting as “ferocious.”

“And it’s going to get worse as the days progress,” he said.

In Uptown, one the few areas that remained dry, a bearded man patrolled Oak Street near the boarded-up Maple Leaf Bar, a sawed-off shotgun slung over his shoulder. The owners of a hardware store sat in folding chairs, pistols at the ready.

Uptown resident Keith Williams started his own security patrol, driving around in his Ford pickup with his newly purchased handgun. Earlier in the day, Williams said he had seen the body of a gunshot victim near the corner of Leonidas and Hickory streets.

“What I want to know is why we don’t have paratroopers with machine guns on every street,” Williams said.

Like-minded Art Depodesta sat on the edge of a picnic table outside Cooter Brown’s Bar, a chrome shotgun at his side loaded with red shells.

“They broke into the Shell station across the street,” he said. “I walked over with my 12-gauge and shot a couple into the air.”

The looters scattered, but soon after, another man appeared outside the bar in a pickup truck armed with a pistol and threatened Depodesta.

“I told him, ‘Listen, I was in the Army and I will blow your ass off,’” Depodesta said. “We’ve got enough trouble with the flood.” The man sped away.

“You know what sucks,” Depodesta said. “The whole U.S. is looking at this city right now, and this is what they see.”

In the Bywater, a supply store sported spray-painted signs reading “You Loot, I Shoot” and “You Bein Watched.” A man seated nearby with a rifle in his lap suggested it was no idle threat. At the Bywater studio of Dr. Bob, the artist known for handpainted “Be Nice or Leave” signs, a less fanciful sentiment was painted on the wall: “Looters Will Be Shot. Dr. Bob.”

...

The scene called to mind a refugee camp in a Third World nation. Liquor flowed freely and tempers flared amid complaints about the pace of the relief effort, which seemed to overwhelm the agencies involved and the city’s inability to contain flood waters.

Yikes. Vigilantes with guns against looters? Sounds like a pretty volatile situation, to say the least. I'm not sure about the Third World refugee camp analogy though; do Third World refugee camps have free-flowing liquor?

And, of course, there's always that little thing about oil—damaged production facilities in the Gulf mean the price is going up. Good thing Yubbledew is cutting his vacation short. I bet everyone suffering from Katrina will feel much better knowing the record-setting vacationer is in charge—especially since he's the guy that helped make sure the area would not be prepared for a disaster like this. Yeah.

Posted 06:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | life generally

Day One 3L

Um, did school really start? Apparently so, even though I didn't have to be anywhere until 5 p.m. yesterday. This is going to be an odd semester; it looks like my earliest class is going to start at 3:50 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 p.m. Mondays, with no class Wednesdays or Fridays. That leaves lots of time for the clinic and the mock trial competition. I sort of swore I would never do another such competition but it turns out I need one credit to fill out the schedule and I figure it will be good practice of the skills I'll be using in the clinic and later in “the real job.” Anybody want to be my partner?

So anyway, it looks like classes will be Public Interest Lawyering (PIL); Race, Racism, and the Law (RRL); Clinic; Mock Trial; and Journal. I had PIL last night and our instructor introduced herself this way: “I am absolutely, positively, a hairy-legged feminist.” Sounds good to me. Her candor on everything was refreshing, as was the feeling that in that class I'm surrounded by other people who are as disinterested in big firms and big money as I am, and probably even more interested in social justice than I am. I think it's going to be a great class.

I haven't started anything other than clinic, but bad news on that front: My client was rearrested in his stay-away zone the day after he was released. Crap. But I guess this will be a good lesson in what to do when stuff like this happens, which I know with some clients is going to be all the time.

Posted 10:04 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | 3L

Blawg Review 21 & 22

The latest edition of the carnival of law blogs, Blawg Review #21, is now up at My Shingle and it's packed with great links to some of the best content around the blawgosphere, including: Should law profs wear jeans? Carolyn Elefant says no, and while I admire her greatly, I respectfully disagree. Law is far too stuffy and the dress code at every level is exceedingly ridiculous. Law profs should wear jeans and lawyers should wear jeans and judges should wear jeans. Law should not be the province of those who dress “correctly”—it belongs to the citizens of the nation it helps govern and only a small fraction of those people can afford or want to wear monkey suits and all the rest of the extraneous trappings lawyers seem to think are so important. This is yet another reason I hope to someday practice law in the Rocky Mountain region. Sure, there are firms there that require the monkey suit, but if you head out into smaller communities you'll find that “dressing up” means nice boots or shoes, jeans, a clean button-down shirt (often western cut but not necessarily), and a sportcoat. Boots, tie, and cowboy hat optional. That's much more my style.

Yeah, you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. And yeah, standards are different for women, but they are also more relaxed, I believe.

If you think about this as a pedagogical question and ask what kind of message you're sending by your dress, there are obviously arguments on both sides. However, I read the support of suits as a silly ploy for power, an attempt to “establish authority” in the classroom. Authoritarian classrooms, like authoritarian regimes, suck, and that's just one reason law school often sucks. So do your students a favor law profs and drop the silly games. Wear what you want and be a human being, not an “authority figure.”

Oh, and just to add to the mix: I had a prof last year at GW who wore some kind of leather-like pants. He never wore a sportcoat or blazer, and I'm pretty sure he wore jeans a few times. He also had some wild shirts with flames and other crazy decorations on them. He was a little goofy, but his dress code didn't make any difference to me. I'm glad he wore what he was comfortable with. Everyone should do that.

TANGENT! Anyhoo, once you've finished reading all the great stuff there, be sure and follow these submission guidelines to send your posts in for Blawg Review #22. The host will be Blawg Wisdom and the theme will be “back-to-school.” But while the focus will be on that theme, #22 will obviously include posts on a wide range of topics. So find a good post or two—either your own or something you read from somewhere else—and send it in. And thanks for playing!

Posted 10:47 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | meta-blogging

MPRE?

Now that I'm finished with my rant: If you also still must take the MPRE, note that the next test date is November 4th, registration deadline is Sept. 27th, and the cost is $55.

Now can someone tell me how I'm supposed to study for this thing? Isn't there some BarBri prep deal?

And what's with this MBE, MEE, and MPT business? Are there other tests I still need to worry about besides the bar exam, or am I correct in assuming that these tests will just be folded into the regular bar exam if your state requires them?

Thank you in advance for helping to reduce my cluelessness.

Posted 08:37 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack | 3L

I Have No Use for Adobe Acrobat

Rant occasioned by checking out the MPRE, which I still must take:

You know what? I'm tired of websites telling me I need Adobe Acrobat to view pdf files. It's not true. I use a Mac, which means I have the speedy and feature-rich Preview, plus if you have the Schubert|it PDF Browser Plugin, you can just view pdf files right in Safari—and w/zero wait time, unlike the laborious process of loading Acrobat on a Windows machine. So while I have Acrobat on my machine, I never ever ever use it. So hey people, stop w/the Adobe Acrobat pimping, will you? Acrobat is slow and clunky as far as I'm concerned, so I don't want to hear anything more about it. Thanks. ;-)

Posted 08:27 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | mac geek