Crazy, Interesting True Story

Excerpt from my criminal law casebook:

"On 23 March, 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this.

The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went though the window striking Opus.

When confronted with this charge, the old man was adamant that he did not know that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to kill her. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.

The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.

There was an exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's death. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun through a ninth-story window.

The medical examiner closed the case as suicide."

Source: Cases and Materials on Criminal Law, Fifth Edition, Joshua Dressler

True story. I read this last week in the criminal homicide chapter specifically about unlawful conduct. Crazy eh?

D.A.M

A boy that was a big part in my life passed away this weekend. I am sad.

To DAM: Thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for everything. I hope you are at peace.

District of Columbia

I am going to DC in the summer! I will be interning at law firm that specializes in international trade regulation. I am very excited! My office is only two minutes away from the White House... so very downtown. The internship seems pretty solid. I really wanted to get an internship in DC and am so lucky to have been given the opportunity. Ah bliss! In addition to being a determined and hard-working little legal extern, I also plan on being a complete and total tourist. Maybe to the point of pathetic. I even want to get a Flip to document my adventures. Hah. Hopefully I will be able to venture over to New York and Boston as well! Eeeeeee!

Home is amazing. I love being able to do nothing and just relax. Shopping, sleeping, gaming (I beat Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare!!!), eating, spending time with family and Lily, watching movies on HBO... is pretty much all that I have been doing. SUCH a fab time :) Also, major success in shopping today. Big cities are wonderful!

P.S. I am probably not going to be posting in the next couple of days... so MERRY CHRISTMAS! xox

D O N E

Hello! I had my last final this morning! AHHH! I can't believe I am finished my first semester! 1/6 of law school done. The past two weeks have been quite... umm.. stressful. I am so glad it is over. We don't get our grades till late January which is a bit unnerving.. but meh! Three weeks of no school! :)

To celebrate, Nikki and I decided to take a trip to Salt Lake. We first observed court at the Matheson Courthouse. Such a pretty building. We loved it. I asked an attorney about appropriate "courtroom etiquette" then later observed his trial. He gave a little shout out to us before he started his cross-examination which resulted in the the judge directly welcoming us. We felt pretty special. It was on record too. Heh. Now we are at the Salt Lake City Public Library. Really pretty building as well. Free internet too! I took some pictures with my camera phone and transferred it via bluetooth to my laptop. Isn't technology so great? Here are some images I JUST captured...

Doesn't Nikki have such big pretty eyes?

Really modern building. I love it. A guy was having his picture taken right there a few minutes ago. I think he was a wannabe model? Building a portfolio maybe?

Wow, so inappropriate to do in public...

WAHOO! (notice my laptop has K and L back?)

I am going home tomorrow! Not to excited about going on a plane.. but should be a fantastic break! LILY!

First Final Done

I had my first law school final today. It wasn't too bad - I'm still alive! It could have been much worse... MUCH WORSE. It could have been killer hard and I could have had a panic/anxiety attack resulting in me not breathing, passing out, hitting my head traumatically on the corner of a desk and incurring a fatal head wound. Who knows (a 2L and I came up with that unlikely scenario). Yeah, it wasn't that bad. But wow, the three hours flew by! It was the quickest three hours of my life! Maybe even faster than the extended versions of LOTR... Anyways, this has to be short because I'm studying for my 8:30 am property final on Friday. But I wanted to share this:


No, this did not happen during my exam (thankfully). I was stupid and put my outlines, textbook, powercord, mouse, etc.. on top of my keyboard instead of just closing my computer and putting everything on top like a normal person would. (I didn't want my computer to go into hibernation if that is any consolation). I think the powercord dug into the keyboard and popped out my K and L. So it's been quite awkward to type this out. It happened as I was leaving the test room and it was quite upsetting. I arranged with Lenovo to get it fixed asap. I really hope it can be done tomorrow so I can type efficiently and accurately on my Friday final.

I also wanted to share this:



I heard the song awhile ago but just saw the music video. Love it! Shoutout to Alana because she actually reads my blog... :) I hope you like it! I will come study with you guys as soon as I feel ready.

Christmas!

I am so excited for Christmas! Yesterday I helped Megan and John decorate a bit of their Christmas tree. Since my mom has already decorated our tree in Texas, I was so happy to help with one this year. My roommies of current and old are also trying to arrange a night to see the temple lights in Salt Lake. Yes! I hope I can make it! I am also super super excited to go home. It will be such a nice break. Can't wait to see my family and Lily! :)

Exams are approaching quickly - I have my first one on December 9! Ahhh! Crazy! Anywho, got to go. Class starts in 10.

Have a wonderful day!

Space Button?

Question: which finger on which hand do you use to hit the space bar?

I think most people use their right thumbs... but I use my right index finger! Weird. However, this might just be on my laptop (the keyboard is smaller). I swore I used my thumb before though. Hmm. I will have to check with my desktop.

Am I done my memo 3 yet? Nope. Am I blogging to avoid finishing it? Yes. I am also alone in my house on a Friday night at 8:55 pm. I guess this is what happens when you're in law school.

New Moon tomorrow with Megan and John though! :) Don't hate.