Thursday, June 23, 2005

6/23/05

7:20 a.m. I was really hungry when I left my surveillance yesterday afternoon. So, with as much dignity as one can muster when wearing velvety red pajamas with little silver stars all over them, I walk into Panera to buy a bagel...or 12. "Those aren't all for me," I tell the cashier. Liar. "I'm having a party. A pajama party." Stop talking, Polly. Less is more.

I get home at about 5pm and change into shorts. I make myself a mug of tea and go out on the rocks by the lake. There are young couples sitting on the hoods of their cars watching the surf and holding hands. I hear Blink 182 drifting out of a window and blending with the sounds of waves crashing and little kids squealing on the beach below. "...don't waste your time on me, you're already the voice inside my head. Miss you. Miss you." Good song.

There is a second half to the story I told about my first cases. That was only one scene. But judging from the response, I feel like kind of a jerk bringing you all down again. So I will tell another story.

This case was actually documented by a French film maker for HBO in 2001 and won Best Feature Documentary in 2002. It was called, Murder on a Sunday Morning. It's about a young black man who was wrongly accused of a crime he didn't commit. It follows the whole story from the murder to the trial. I worked with the detectives involved in this case and was present at the autopsy of the homicide victim.

Gotta cut this short. More later. My Subject is finally active...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeff, Jeff, where are you.....

OK, holding place in line for Jeff his "Firstness"

Anonymous said...

aw P, do tell.. it was a good kinda bringer downer, made us all appreciate those around us, and reminded us we're still human.
nice pjz btw! i went clubbin wit mine once, luv em to bitz.

Anonymous said...

…hoping to do a documentary about a wacky lawsuit. When they couldn't find one...

They couldn't find a wacky lawsuit in Florida! Incredible! And a good thing for an innocent young man.

In my indignation about some crimes, I can imagine "bending the rules a little" to gather evidence. But there is no excuse for taking the easy way out in a murder investigation.

The evidence HAS to be what leads to a proper conclusion. Otherwise it will lead a jury to a wrong one.

The PD's team had justice in mind, instead of "just" the law.

I've served on a jury in 2 murder trials in my life (I won't do another one). There can be no substitute for good forensics and honest representation of the facts of the case by the lawyers.

“All Things Considered” aired a commentary by John McWhorter yesterday. His observation that black-on-black violence has become part of the background noise of living in the city is really troubling. Troubling to think that our all to human police could be influenced by the sheer pressure of the crime they have to deal with every day.

Thanks, Polly for reminding us that there are still people who seek justice. IMHO they labor daily, on both sides of our adversarial legal system.

OBTW - your pj's sound like something that Mrs. Brat would LOVE!

Anonymous said...

Polly - please don't think that since the story was a downer that we DON'T want to hear the other half of it! Please post it! This is riveting reading!

Anonymous said...

Polly - please don't think that since the story was a downer that we DON'T want to hear the other half of it! Please post it! This is riveting reading!

Anonymous said...

DOH! I did NOT double post here!

Anonymous said...

Yep, Polly; we wanna hear em anyway.

Anonymous said...

What Higgy said.

And very funny, first-in-line.