field trip

Last week I went with a senior, Law and Justice class from East Side Community school here in Manhattan on a field trip. We went to see the opening of a double homicide case. The guy on trial was involved in a robbery/kidnapping. He got 60 bucks from the people he robbed (he does not deny that he robbed them). One of the other participants got a car out of the deal, but he later had to abandon it. Anyway, it was interesting to hear the opening arguments of the prosecution and the defense. We also go to hear the first witness. It was a member of the Crime Scene Unit (better known to those of us in the know as CSI-ha). I don't know why Lt. Dan (aka Gary Sinise) was not there, but considering this crime took place in 2001 he might not have been here then.

Yes, you heard me correctly 2001 (if I was to too put that in caps so that you could see it better it would be @))! ). We asked the DA that was with us about the promise of a speedy trial. He said that, that does not apply to murder cases, and if it did there are ways to get around that. Glad to know that they have to still "get around" parts of the Bill of Rights instead of taking away all my freedoms. Maybe if they take enough of them away they will have a "treasure chest of rights" (kinda like the treasure chest of merits we learned about in Mr. Wilkinson's church history class). If they do get enough of my rights to fill up the chest maybe they can give some of them to the guys held in Guantanamo, but I digress.

It was fun to watch the opening of a trial. Afterwards, we went down stairs watch the first stage of the trial process. I can't remember what it is called, but it is where they argue about bale. While we were there, we got to watch the judge yell at this 17 yr old guy. He had broke the "order of protection" to see his baby's mother, who is just recently 16, four times. She gave him bale, but it was 100,000 in cash, so he probably sat in jail for a few days. It was humorous to watch, but not fun to think about.

anyway that was our field trip