Course grades POSTED!

Hello Students!

I have posted your final course grades on CUNYfirst.  I have not yet posted them in the Gradebook here on OL, and that Gradebook is not up to date generally.  It will be updated next week.

THANK YOU all for a terrific semester!  I really enjoyed working with each of you and I hope you had a positive experience.  I wish each of you and your families safe and peaceful holidays, and a restful break.  If I can ever be helpful to any of you, in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  I hope to see you all in the New Year!

Cheers!

KC

How to Get Away with Murder – Md Hossain

LAW IN CULTURE PROJECT- ASSIGNMENT: PART TWO

        The source I have chosen for my Law in Culture Project is a show called How to Get Away with Murder, which is an American TV show that focuses on a group of law school students that are selected by their criminal defense professor/practicing attorney. This show is a fictional legal drama that depicts many aspects of a lawyer, paralegals, how law firms function, and how the court system works. The show How to Get Away with Murder starts with Annalise Keating, who is the lead actor and a top criminal defense attorney who has her own firm. She is also a law professor at Middleton Law University. This show is very relatable to me personally because of the aspects of how life may be in a law school as a student. Professor Annalise Keating taught courses to the freshmen who entered as the first year, and every 4 years she selects 5 students she calls the “Keating 5,” and they were Wes, Asher, Connor, Mikaela, and Laurel. In Annalise Keating’s firm, she works with Bonnie and Frank, who are her paralegals, and helps with casework. The student and her paralegals help Annalise with many cases as each episode in this show presents a new case. As a college student majoring in BS in Science and Paralegal Studies, the casework helped me understand how important a paralegal’s job is because they assist attorneys with all legal litigation, research, and jury handling, among other things.

 

         As a defense attorney, Annalise depended on her paralegals and students who were picked to help her out with cases. In this show, there were many examples of the tasks of legal and service work. Bonnie and the Keating 5 pick witnesses and juries, do background research, analytical research, draft papers, and provide the proper legal treatises and statutes. For example, in Season 6, Annalise Keating defends an identically named wrongful death lawsuit, Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Taking on a death row client is nearly impossible to defend in light of unfair trials for prisoners of color and oppressed ethnic black communities who committed the same type of crime. Knowing the statistics, Annalise still argues for Mr. Lahey, which leads to an appeal of her decision to not only fight for her defendant but also take a petition for the prison system and oppressed ethnic black communities that get unfair trials or have to wait for trials for a long period of time. Annalise and her assistance from Bonnie and the Keating 5 helped her draft a writ of certiorari (we learned that in class! Now that I know what that is and how it works) and her legal reasonings as to why she is not happy with the decision, they aid her with all the facts that were presented in this case, the legal reviews, witnesses, and evidence, but also with a public petition to show that it is an important jurisdiction that needs to be changed. Bonnie and Keating 5 received signs of prisoners who shared their concerns. This show truly shows how the court system works and how paralegals and attorneys coexist in a legal work environment. Without the help of Annalise, she would not only win a case that the US Supreme Court hears and the writ of certiorari drafted by her law firm, she would win legal litigation, not just that one in particular but every case in any jurisdiction.

        Watching this show really helped me focus on my decision to become a paralegal and eventually study to become a licensed attorney. In reality, the courts and how they’re handled by judges and attorneys are completely different, but the work behind the cases is the same; it takes hours of hard work and efficiency. This class helped me understand the authorities a paralegal cannot do and is able to do. It’s completely different from a lawyer, who studied law and has proper jurisdiction and qualifications to practice law. I did not know the difference between watching “How to Get Away with Murder” and the role of Bonnie, who was a paralegal. I thought they were the same. I truly hope I can one day be in Annalise’s shoes, defending people who are in need.

Final exam grades posted! & last class (Tu Dec 20)

Hello Students!  I hope you had a productive weekend and your end-of-semester activities are progressing well.

Your final exam grades are posted in the “GradeBook” here in OpenLab.  Most of you did terrific!  I’m working on your final course grades and will let you know when those are posted in CUNYfirst.

Tomorrow (Tu. Dec. 20) is our last official class session!  As the syllabus notes, it’s a wrap-up of the course, and a look toward your future in our program.  I’ll be available in our regular classroom with your graded final exams, and candy, and CUPCAKES!  You are welcome to drop by to address topics related to our course or our program, or any other topics you’d like!  You are also welcome to use the time in any way you deem most beneficial at this challenging end-of-semester period.  I will be in the classroom till 10:30am or so, then if no one is there you can find me (and cupcakes!) in the department office, N622.

See you tomorrow, or otherwise soon!

KC

 

FINAL EXAM!! Thurs. Dec. 15!

Hello Students!

I hope you enjoyed our review exercise today, I did!  You did great!  Just a reminder, our final exam is this coming Thursday, Dec. 15, in our regular classroom, regular class time.  Please bring something to write with, and your big, smart BRAINS!  That’s it!  Please STUDY HARD!!  Especially our past quizzes and exams and class notes (all posted in “Class notes & materials”) and your own notes!  Here are some suggested topics.  Please arrive on time!

Have a pleasant evening, see you Thursday!

KC

Another Federal Court opportunity!

Hello Students!

Federal Judge William Kuntz has invited us to attend a criminal court proceeding in his courtroom at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (across the street from City Tech) this coming Thursday, Dec. 8 starting at 3pm!  It will be a conference in the Federal government’s criminal case against Frank James, the accused “subway shooter” who allegedly opened fire on a crowded rush-hour train in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn back in April.  Among the issues Judge Kuntz will consider is Mr. James’ request to move his trial out of NYC to Chicago, because he does not believe he’ll get a fair trial here.  You can read more about that request in this news article.  This trip is totally optional!  Just if you’re interested.  If you’d like to attend, please email me or let me know in class.

See you tomorrow,

KC

The source I’ve selected for my Law in Review project is Vincenzo, a movie that was released on February 20, 2021 produce by Kim Hee-Won . The main character in this movie is a mafia also a lawyer with a strong sense of justice. The majority of what I observe occurs in the courtroom. According to what I understand, he spent the majority of his life in Italy but decided to travel back to his native country in search of hidden gold. However, when he arrived, the location where the gold was hidden had already been brought by another person, so he had to flee to retrieve it. In the process, he became involved in a conflict with a corporation. Vincenzo soon understood that the people who bought the Geumga Plaza, who have the gold, are also among the causes he was fighting for. He also came to the conclusion that there is no justice in the nation, and that using the law in the courts was insufficient. The majority of the courtrooms where trials have taken place show ethical legal conduct.

Law In Culture

The source I chose is a memoir called My Beloved World by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The book was published January 15, 2013 and focuses on Sotomayor’s childhood and life, including her path into the legal world. 

My Beloved World begins directly from her childhood and leads all the way up to adulthood. Sotomayor tells us how life was like being a young Catholic raised girl living in the Bronx with diabetes, a father who loved drinking, and her entire family living nearby. Sotomayor navigates the readers through her childhood, teen years, and well into adulthood. Along the way we experience a lot of struggles, tears, joy, and both good and bad memories. We see many interactions with friends, family, teachers that help and mentor Sotomayor, and are a major influence on the person that she is today. 

The memoir portrayed legal concepts through mini stories. During her time at Yale Law School, we’re taken through her experiences in both her personal life and academically. She joins many Latin/Hispanic clubs, does internships, attends various events, and eventually begins working at the District Attorney’s office when she graduates. When she first started out as an assistant, she was assigned to one of six trial bureaus, which included up to fifty experienced prosecutors and support staff. The new assistants did not expect to enter a real courtroom for at least another year, as this was normal. Instead, after a few weeks of working on a case assignment, it was ready to go to trial. Sotomayor tells us first hand how the legal system works, and how the workings within a court are with her firsthand experiences like this one. 

Since My Beloved World is a memoir, it presents the legal world in an accurate manner, at least through the way Sotomayor sees it and interprets it. Her journey into the legal field begins much before law school, but that is where it is heavily spoken about. I would recommend this book to others because although this story is about Sotomayor’s personal life, it is also a story about growing up in difficult situations and making the most of it. The story is about succeeding regardless of who you are, and where you are. As long as you have the motivation and willingness to succeed, you can. I personally love this book, I’ve read it multiple times as a child, and now as an adult. It had a really big impact on my life because I relate to Sotomayor. Many of the things she went through throughout her childhood resonated with me and my own experiences, so seeing someone like me succeed was a big thing for me as a child. Sotomayor and this book are the biggest reasons why I have an interest in the legal profession. While working on this assignment, I conducted some of my own personal research and found that a recent study from the ABA (American Bar Association) finds that 5.8% of lawyers in the US are Hispanic. The HNBA (Hispanic National Bar Association) found that Latina’s make up 2% of all lawyers in the US. After reading these numbers, it just makes Sotomayor’s story much more impactful to me, and the numbers serve as an additional source of motivation.

Law in culture

Veronica Mars is the film I chose for my Law in Culture assignment. The chosen film is about the main character, Veronica Mars, who is a student that works as a private investigator under the supervision of her detective father, Keith Mars. Veronica Mars, played by actress Kristen Bell, is about to graduate from law school and is interviewing with prestigious New York law firms when she receives a call from her ex-boyfriend Logan, played by actor Jason Dohring, who has been charged with murder. When Veronica goes to Neptune to assist Logan in finding a solid defense lawyer, she soon develops suspicions about the way the case is being handled and finds herself drawn back into the life of an amateur detective life she had thought she had left behind. Spoilers! Logan is innocent. With the help of Veronica Mars, she was able to prove his innocents with her excellent detective skills. 

Although it seems like Veronica Mars was a natural talent to be a private investigator or a detective, she is actually an aspired attorney who attends Law school. She is a very resourceful person. What makes a good case is having factual evidence to back it up. She strives for justice. Lawyers rely largely on their capacity to do an in-depth study on topics relating to the cases they work on for analytical and research skills. She goes above and beyond during her investigations, searching for documents while trying to prove Logan’s innocence. 

Did it actually portray the legal field? Like most films, no because it’s a teen drama. The film “Veronica Mars” was more of a criminology and detective base type of file. I feel as though the traits that she has displayed would have made her a good candidate to be a good lawyer.  I really enjoyed re-watching this film again. Veronica Mars greatly influenced my interest in law. Just the main character, Veronica mars, strong will persona and striving to help people get justice inspired me a lot. I hope I can go to Colombia University just like her. 

Law in culture

The source I chose is titled “Abducted in plain sight”. It is a true crime film that was created by Skye Borgman and was released in 2017. The documentary focuses on the real story of Jan Broberg, who was kidnapped twice throughout her life by the same man, Robert Berchtold.

Jan Broberg was born on July 31, 1962, in Idaho, while growing up she had the company of the parents and two sisters as well as a family friend who everyone adored and was referred to as ” B”(Robert Berchtold). In the documentary Jan says that she felt as if Robert was her father, everyone said they had a “special bond” and that the family trusted him so much to the point where they would let Robert sleep in the same bed as Jan, nobody suspected that he had ulterior motives.

One day, when Jan was twelve Robert asked her mother for permission to take Jan horse-riding after school to which her mother agreed. Robert’s plans were different and evil. When he got Jan into the car after picking her up from school, he drugged her and escaped to Mexico with the captive child. Jan says that when she woke up, she was in a dark room with Robert lying next to her, she was confused and when Robert woke up, they would listen to a tape recording that he purposefully made to brainwash Jan into believing that there were aliens that were going to kill her family if she did not have sexual relations with Robert and got pregnant. They called this ” the mission”.

Jan believed they had to assume their role in the “mission” and Robert proceeded to engage in sexual actions with the minor, he raped her for days and she believed they were accomplishing their mission. Robert and Jan got married in Mexico and because he wanted to go back to the United States as a married “couple” he had to ask Jan’s parents approval for the marriage to which they refused and flied to Mexico, they took Jane back to the United States and reported Robert for the kidnapping. When Robert returned to the US he was charged with kidnapping, although he had not been charged for rape as officials could not find the evidence. Robert was sentenced to serve 5 years in prison, but his sentence was reduced, and he ended up serving only 3 months in jail.

After this ordeal Jan’s parents allowed Robert to continue to see Jan after getting out of jail, it was revealed in the documentary that Robert made the way back into the family and engaged in sexual activities in separate occasions with both of Jan’s parents while also raping the little girl when he had the chance. Jan developed Stockholm syndrome and believed to be in love with Robert. Jan was so brainwashed that she wanted to keep seeing Robert and complete their “mission” which is why she left home with him months after the first kidnapping.

Robert kidnapped Jan for a second time, they went to Utah and changed names. He enrolled her in an all-girls catholic school and asked the staff not to reveal any of their information. The FBI found their whereabouts, took Jan to safety with her parents and Robert was charged with kidnapping again. Robert was not convicted this time for the kidnaping and was sent to a mental facility instead. He was released after six months. As time passed Jan realized that the “mission” was not real and although Robert continued to taunt the family, she was ready to move on. Jan and her mother ultimately wrote a book about this story to spread awareness.

After watching this documentary, I could not help but to feel like everyone failed Jan. The documentary shows the truth behind her parents, who failed to report her missing in time and only did so after two whole weeks of the little girl being missing. They kept letting Robert into this little girl’s life after he kidnaped her. They knew the motives behind this monster and did nothing to stop it, if anything they encouraged him by engaging in sexual acts with him. Robert continued raping and brainwashing Jan for years until she developed Stockholm syndrome. The police also failed Jan because they did not find the evidence to charge him for raping a minor, I believe they could have done a better investigation. At one point during the documentary Jan said that Robert raped her in a way in which he would not break her hymen so if anyone did a rape kit on Jan, they would not find evidence enough to charge him. After the second kidnaping Robert was not convicted and instead, he was sent to a mental facility which shows that clearly the system is flawed and, in some cases, unjust because they did not consider him a threat to society even after he raped, brainwashed and kidnapped this child in two different occasions. This documentary does not show a lot about law processes, although it shows that evidence is a very important in legal proceedings, a case could be decided mostly based on evidence which is something I take from this documentary and will probably have in mind in the future as I start my career in the legal field. I recommend this documentary to anyone interested in true crime although it is a very hard case.

 

 

Law In Culture

I chose “The FBI Files” which is an American television series which is about past FBI cases where reenactments of interviews are showed. The particular episode I watched was about a case in 1992 where a 12-year-old girl, Polly Klass, was abducted by a stranger in her house during a party with her friends. The episode was released on October 20th, 1998. FBI Files is a true crime documentary series showing the operations and behind of scenes of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

On October 1st, 1993, Polly Klass was enjoying a party in her home with 2 of her friends. During the night, a mysterious man walked into the room in which they were playing brandishing a knife. He tied all of the girls up and assured them that he was just there to take money. However, he managed to take the girl that was hosting the party. Technology was not very advanced at the time, especially in the crime-solving world. There was not much information to go off of when the FBI finally arrived. They had a brief description of the man provided by the other 2 girls but no solid evidence leading to any breaks in the case. Weeks passed with no luck, the only hope came from the community passing out missing person fliers. Randomly, the dad of the missing girl had got a call from an unknown number claiming that they were the girl. This lead was quickly shot down when the agents found out it was just one of the missing girl’s friends playing a prank. Later, he had received another call from a man stating that he was a kidnapper. He claimed that he would release the girl if he received money. The FBI set up a SWAT team after tracking down the call. They arrested a man named James Heard. It was later found that he was not a kidnapper at all, and he was just posing as one to maybe somehow obtain money using a threat. As time went by, one suspect slowly started to emerge. The FBI had knew this was the man who kidnapped Polly Klass, but there was just not enough evidence to know it was him. They sent him to jail for unrelated reasons related to the case. Technology became more advance, and the FBI finally had enough evidence to charge Richard Allen Davis with kidnapping. The court that heard this case found Mr. Davis guilty on 10 counts including kidnapping, robbery, burglary, murder, and attempting to commit a life act on a child. He was sentenced to the death penalty and is currently still on death row to this day.

Although this show is more based on the investigations of cases, you can see where the law applies to every little part. Every little thing Mr Davis did was a violation of the law. When he broke into the house, he committed burglary. It was known that he pulled onto a private roadway when he was driving around with the girl. The police at the time stopped him for trespassing. James Heard, the man who made a fake call to the father was arrested for Attempted Extortion and posing as a kidnapper. Before Mr Davis was arrested for kidnapping even when the FBI knew he had done it, he still wasn’t charged because there clearly wasn’t enough evidence to perhaps win a case. It shows how much goes on in the legal system and what really goes on in the minds of those that are bringing the case to court. This show really depicts the Criminal Law of the United States with all the examples that were shown.


In conclusion, I thought this show was really great and recommend it for anyone who is interested in law and how cases are solved. This show accurately displays what happens when a criminal act is committed, and how our police track down the suspects to ultimately bring justice to the victims. This has given me another view of our Justice system in the US. Seeing the FBI withhold on charging Mr Davis because of the lack of evidence really humbled me because it showed that sometimes people can really get away with committing these crimes. This show makes me want to pursue this field even more with all the information and investigation and work that goes into it.