Post #4: Internship At Midway Point

My 80 hours of internship and the projects I've done are focused mainly on the largest case McArdle Law Office has right now. I've thus far reviewed roughly three years worth of investigation, summarizing our defendant's conduct and actions relevant to one of the counts of the indictment (one of his charges). I've also compiled an Excel spreadsheet on all of the defendants in this case who have plead to certain charges, and what those charges are (stipulation of facts) and when each defendant plead to their charges. Today I'm working on composing a calendar that defines when our defendant was doing certain things to match up with his actions claimed in the investigation, and I'm going to add in the conditions of bond to the Excel spreadsheet on all of the defendants who have plead. On top of that, I'm probably going to be reviewing the case and doing a couple o extra things for other open cases.

The spreadsheet really helped me understand what a plea bargain does for a defendant. If you plea to a charge, you can likely be granted immunity for all of the other charges against you, which means that the prosecution won't charge you for the other things that you have done wrong as long as you agree that you are guilty to some things and provide a fact sheet that can implicate other defendants. Do I agree with this? For serious crimes, not at all. I think this is great for drug related crimes, however, because in West Virginia drug sentences are petty serious--if you're going to commit a crime in West Virginia, avoid the drug stuff. A plea to a drug crime is still going to result in serious sentence, but implicating other people can bring an entire drug ring down and rid a community of a number of problems. In this case, I think co-defendants are going to be let off of the hook for the most part. I can see how pleas save the court money and time, lots of it, but immunity for some of these charges, and bail? That's ridiculous, in my opinion. if these defendants are half as guilty as their charges, they shouldn't be allowed out because they agreed to one or two of them.

In everything I do, one of the major goals is to define exactly what is relevant to our defendant, for if there is a charge that may not apply to the person we represent, we have a point to argue. In the writing process, I can better learn how allegations, no matter how well they may be backed up, are not necessarily factual, though persuasive writing may make it appear that way. At the end of this internship, I want to be able to discern fact from well written legal allegations, and have writing gain the persuasive characteristics common to legal documents while remaining concise. I think that at least my thought processes, as reflected in my writing both on the job and in my blog posts, is starting to show new understanding and my arguments are taking better shape.