I got the chance to make my very first arguments in front of a court today. They were small, but important: way cool! I was doing felony arraignments with one of the lawyers I have buddied up with, and she gave me three cases to argue after we interviewed the in-custody clients.
Here's what you have to understand about felony arraignments and our office (the PDs). Felony means "serious" crimes. Arraigment means arguing bail. The PDs office means that your clients can almost never ever pay any type of bail, as they are broke. So the only real chance of getting our clients out, which of course is the goal, is getting an NBR (no bail required). Except judges hate doing that, because with serious crimes, it looks bad to release someone without at least some sort of bail hanging over their head. So we RARELY get clients out during felony arraignments. In fact, I have heard other clerks gripe about not wanting to argue them, because they are futile.
Well, I did okay.
Actually, I got 2 out of my 3 clients released.
The sheriff's deputies were actually rooting me on at one point. Felt pretty damn cool. My first case was a homeless guy in on terroristic threats. The biggest problem there was not the charge (as terroristic threats is a trumped up, stupid ass charge in the first place) but the fact that this guy cant be pinned down to one location. The judge even wanted to make it a condition of his release that he give an address. I fought on that and won too. "The incident charged here did not even begin with my client, but with a fight instigated by the complaintant. My client has no history of violence and there is not even the inference that he might pose a threat to society if released..." I win!
My second client was in on a felony DWI charge. This means he has at least 4 DWI's in his history. Thanks to MAD, the judges always try to appear as harsh as possible on these. However he had no criminal history besides alcohol related offenses, and we were willing to have him put on alco-sensor (constantly monitors your BAC), so my argument was that there was no threat so long as he was sober, and alco-sensor would assure us of that. Here the prosecutor was relying on the fact that TWO OTHER JUDGES had refused to NBR this guy.... And yet, I through in some good biographical info and... I still WIN!!! Yeah!!
I came back to the office and was getting high-fives from some of the lawyers, my bosses... Felt pretty damn good. At one point one of the supervisors said something along the lines of, "...future in this office..." Wow. That feels damn good!
Im going to go play in the sun for a bit!
Musical Fodder for my Writing:"When in Rome" Nickel Creek,
Why Should the Fire Die
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