Went to Court today.
Federal Disctrict Court, no less.
It seems that when Frank was still practicing law (before being appointed to the Bench and becoming a Judge - "The Honorable Frankie"), he was the defense lawyer in a death penalty murder case.
The details are unimportant, but it ended up there were actually 2 trials. The first was a hung jury so they retried the guy and he ended up getting the death penalty.
Here's the point. He has been on Death Row in San Quentin for 26 years now going through the seemingly interminable appeals process.
Yes, you heard me right...26 years.
Frank got subpoenaed to testify at a hearing on yet the latest appeal.
So I took the opportunity to drive up to Fresno and back with him - just so he'd really get his fill of me before I move on.
Ordinary people take about 2 hours to get from Bakersfield to Fresno. Did I mention Frank is anything but ordinary? Did I mention that he does stuff fast? About an hour and fifteen minutes after we left, we were walking into the Federal Court. And, we stopped for gas.
I don't scare easily. But I'm not entirely sure I was actually breathing from about Kingsberg on in.
Did I mention that when you're a Retired Judge cops generally don't give you apeeding tickets - especially for only breaking the speed limit by 30 or 40 miles per hour?
Every time I walk into a court house, I am bombarded by my own emotions. I had a love/hate relationship with the practice of law when I was lawyering. I won't bore you with all that. Eventually the hate part won.
I sat alone in the gallery section "behind the bar" on a hard wood bench designed to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on spectators' butts while the attorneys, clerks, and other court support staff luxuriated in black leather swivel tilt back comfort "in front of the bar." And the Judge, OMG, I was drooling over his high back throne of a chair as he sat there, god-like, blacked robbed, raised up on a pedestal significantly higher than anyone else in the room. I laughed to myself. The stage for the theater of the court room is always interesting.
But the actual drama is 99.99% of the time boring as all get out. Better than Tylenol PM if you need to get some sleep. If Law and Order, Raising the Bar, Perry Mason, and all the other lawyer court room TV hits reflected the reality of life in court and the practice of law, there would be no lawyers. We'd all be Grey's Anatomy Doctors for sure. That doctoring profession with all the blood and romance and everything has to be more stimulating.
So 26 years later this convicted murderer is still waiting to find out if he's going to live or die. Today he's waiting not for a jury of his peers - who sentenced him to death a long time ago - but for one solitary Federal District Court Judge, sitting on his spendiferous throne, to decide his fate.
Heck of a system, isn't it?
I'm not saying it is good or bad, right or wrong. You decide that for yourself.
Either way it's interesting though, isn't it.
The good part is that I got to spend a long day in the company of Frank. Just the 2 of us. Confined in the car. Chatting about everything under the sun.
Got home to find Frank and Connie's niece, Melissa ("Missy") and her 2 kids, Jordan and Parker, at the house. They just stopped by to make sure Pita was doing OK. I've known Missy since she was a tiny child, but haven't seen her for many, many years. So it was a lot of fun.
Here are a couple of pics.
Jordan - Missy - Parker
(And Pita)
(The hats? Connie and Frank to a 40th year Anniversary Trip to New England a couple of weeks ago and Connie bought each of their 6 nieces and nephews ("The Six Pack") a lobster hat. They're pretty funny, as you can see. However, I can't honestly imagine these kids wearing them other than for this picture. Can you?) Another great day with my old friends.
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