Barrister by day, Bacardi by night

On the umpth day of Christmas

My true love gave to me ...

• 12 (actually 13) International Business Contracts
• 11 Mentors to send christmas cards 
• 10b-5 Rule (on insider trading)
• 9 Thousand Sixhundred Fifty-five Dollars of tuition to pay next semester
• 8 boxes of IKEA furniture
• 7 study buddies
• 6 supplimental books to read
• 5 EXTRA POUNDS
• 4-hour work days (yes, I'm still working)
• 3 hours of sleep
• 2 loads of laundry
• 1 multiple-choice exam

Ah ... 'tis the season.

Talk about a conversation starter

A 31-year-old South Wales bus driver has outdone himself again.  When you next board the a double-decker Bus in Merry Ol' England, Christmas spirit will be brightly flashing before your very eyes -- in the form of a red christmas tree/wig.  I bet the next time his daughter comes home with purple highlights, he'll ask her to not to come home until she's whee bit more creative.  Read more on the BBC.

Who's Next?

No, we're not talking about you Alito. We're looking at North Carolina inmate Kenneth Lee Boyd. Soon after Virigina Governor Mark Warner spared the life of Robin Lovitt, all eyes are slated at the next in line, who murdered his estranged wife and her father. So now that all the world is focused on the next Mr. 1000, what do you have to say to all the children in the world?

"I'd hate to be remembered as that," says the 57-year-old Boyd, "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."

Who are you kidding? You're name will go down in Trivia Pursuit as the 1000th person executed. You're name will live on in quiz bowls, random factoids, Wikipedia, and other nonsense language. Boyd's attorney said he hoped the attention of the 1,000th execution would lead Easley to grant clemency. Sorry ... that luck out with Lovitt.

The public demands the next person in line.

Constitution above all else

The crime of which Williams was convicted was senseless and brutal, calling for swift and energetic action by the police to apprehend the perpetrator and gather evidence with which he could be convicted. No mission of law enforcement officials is more important. Yet "[d]isinterested zeal for the public good does not assure either wisdom or right in the methods it pursues." Although we do not lightly affirm the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus in this case, so clear a violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments as here occurred cannot be condoned. The pressures on state executive and judicial officers charged with the administration of the criminal law are great, especially when the crime is murder and the victim a small child. But it is precisely the predictability of those pressures that makes imperative a resolute loyalty to the guarantees that the Constitution extends to us all.

Justice Stewart, Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387 (1977).

High court full of pixie dust

Today's extension of the Edwards prohibition is the latest stage of prophylaxis built upon prophylaxis, producing a veritable fairyland castle of imagined constitutional restriction upon law enforcement. This newest tower, according to the Court, is needed to avoid "inconsisten[cy] with [the] purpose" of Edwards' prophylactic rule, ante, at 154, which was needed to protect Miranda's prophylactic right to have counsel present, which was needed to protect the right against compelled self-incrimination found (at last!) in the Constitution.

Justice Antony Scalia - Minnick v. Mississippi, 498 U.S. 146 (1990)

Be our 1,000th Winner!!!

Robin Lovitt?!  Come on down.  You could be our 1,000th winner ... death row winner that is.  No, there's no pardon at the end of the hall, just a nice dose of happy juice.  Nonetheless, you could be the first to hit the 4-digit count since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978.  What a way to become a landmark in U.S. penal history.

Read more at CNN.