Tuesday 20 February 2007

Would your lordships give me a moment?

I'm off to the Court of Appeal in a couple of weeks to appeal against a sentence and today I received the transcript of the original hearing. I always cringe slightly to see my own words in print, but on this occasion it was even worse than usual. The Judge asked me a technical question to which I didn't know the answer and the transcript goes something like this:

HHJ Nails: Miss Beagle, can you assist me as to what my powers are?

Miss Beagle: Thinking on my feet, I cannot, but if your honour would give me a moment, I'll look it up.

HHJ Nails: Miss Beagle, I simply want to know under which section of the statute I should make the order. Does it make a difference whether I make it under section x or section y?

Miss Beagle: [Fighting the urge to say, "well you're the Judge, you tell me what the law is, you tosser!"] I'm afraid I hadn't previously addressed my mind to that point, may I have a...

HHJ Nails: Well let's see if Mr Opponent knows the answer.

Mr Opponent: Yes, I can assist, can I refer your honour to page x of Archbold... [reads aloud in very smug voice, sadly undetectable in the transcript]

HHJ Nails: Thank you very much. Do you want to say anything else Miss Beagle? No? Right then...

Of course, the order being discussed is the very order that's now the subject of an appeal. As readers can imagine, I'm really looking forward to my audience with their lordships!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You go girl! x

Barbara's Journey Toward Justice said...

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The only thing that saved him from the Death Penalty was a lone vote from a juror. Dennis Fritz was the other Innocent man mentioned in John Grisham's Book which mainly is about Ronnie Williamson, Dennis Fritz's co-defendant. Both were exonerated after spending 12 years in prison.

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Read about how he wrote hundreds of letters and appellate briefs in his own defense and immersed himself in an intense study of law. He was a school teacher and a ordinary man whose wife was brutally murdered in 1975 by a deranged 17 year old neighbor.

On May 8th 1987, Five years after Debbie Sue Carter's rape and murder he was home with his young daughter and put under arrest, handcuffed and on his way to jail on charges of rape and murder. After 10 years in prison he discovered The Innocence Project, a non-profit legal organization. With the aid of Barry Scheck and DNA evidence Dennis Fritz was exonerated on April 15,1999.

Since then, it has been a long hard road filled with twist and turns and now on his Journey Toward Justice.He witnessed miracles and heard God whisper "Trust Me". He never blamed the Lord and solely relied on his faith in God to make it through. He waited for God's time and never gave up.

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Legal Beagle said...

Thanks for visiting, Barbara. I think you might be my first international reader. Good luck with your campaign.

Anonymous said...

This blog is slow....lazy slow...like following a sloth up a tree