Anthony's not crazy about the lace. He said it looks like "dead white lady."

From 3/23...

Well I am very excited to see my Tokyo bff tonight! He is coming in via train from NYC for a conference this weekend. I really won't get to see him at all after tonight, but he gets a bed at my place anytime. ;) I am thinking cheapeats at Grendel's Den if we can get there in time for the half-off happy hour I abused so frequently in my 1L year of law school.

It has been really gorgeous weather here lately. Sadly, it is something I often get to look at with the windows open while I do, for example, a torts survey quiz for my bar class. :/ I haven't done anything torts-related in two years. And I wasn't all that good with torts back then, either. Whoops.

I did get to watch a fairly interesting murder trial yesterday. I had never been in the Suffolk Superior Courthouse before. It is far less sexy than the courthouse next door where the SJC sits. And then there's my municipal courts building where I work, which is the weirdest building in how much space it actively wastes. It's sort of mystifying. So in any case, I had to observe a trial for class (criminal) and you know, why not go big. So I picked the one murder trial off the list, because the other murder trial was already in jury deliberations. That probably should have jogged my memory, but alas, no.

So my murder trial involves an Allston stabbing from 2009. I know where it happened and I've been over there many times--however, the murder occurred at 2:20am, so I am not especially worried. I saw two cops get cross-examined and it was very interesting. I definitely have opinions about the quality of both sides, but this may not be the appropriate place to say either way.

And while I was in there, I realized the jury that was deliberating in the other trial across the hall was for the September 2010 Mattapan massacre. The jury had been deliberating for seven days, and it was apparently unheard of that on the sixth day the jurors unanimously voted to continue another day. They were 11-1. There were 19 charges involved (two defendants, so 10 and 9 charges, as it turns out) and as we know now, they had all agreed to acquit one guy but could not agree on the other guy. As it turns out (or as I've read on the internets), they all wanted to convict the other guy except that one juror. But that juror would never give reasons and wouldn't even properly consider evidence until other jurors would explain that you sort of have to consider the evidence. I can't believe no one murdered that juror. They did not acquit the second man, however, and I do understand (well, appreciate is probably the better word) the outrage of the families of the victims.

The verdict came down, my case had to suspend for the day due to (amongst other things) needing to have the officers on hand for the event. There were tons of cameras and spectators but also lots of family members--mostly victims' family members. It was not a pretty sight.

Ok, so I wrote all that yesterday. Tokyo bff is here now and we had a very nice evening. I got caught up on some fairly frustrating drama that has arisen with his fiance's sister. Family drama! But otherwise things are well and the big wedding (notwithstanding said family drama) is soon to be upon us with hopefully no hitches or problems. I am working all day today in the hopes of getting to relax a little after 8 when he's done. For which I should probably pick up a bottle of red!

Also, at the suggestion of the professor for whom I work, I have just somewhat whimsically applied to American University's LLM program. Hey, they accepted me for their dual program in 2009, here's hoping this can be a plan D? Or with a scholarship, Plan A? But before it's considered complete, I also have to harass professors for YET. ANOTHER. letter of recommendation. Oh well.