Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts
Saturday, January 2, 2010
12 Dumbest Driving Laws
For your reading enjoyment, I pass along this link to a somewhat humorous 10/17/08 article by Holly Rizzo entitled "Well, Ticket My Funny Bone," outlining silly driving laws from around the nation: http://comcast.vehix.com/articles/fun--entertainment/well-ticket-my-funnybone/?cid=800.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Humorous Story About "My Cousin Vinny"-Like Jailing of Attorney
7th Circuit Affirms Conviction Despite Lawyer’s ‘Vinny’-Like Jailing
A federal appeals court has affirmed the attempted murder conviction of a man whose lawyer was jailed during trial for “obstinate behavior” in an opinion that compared the case to the movie My Cousin Vinny.
The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted similarities and differences between the jailing of the Illinois lawyer and the fictional defense lawyer, Vincent LaGuardia Gambini, the Wisconsin Law Journal reports.
Unlike “Vinny,” the Illinois lawyer claimed his overnight jail stay during his client’s trial left him sleep-deprived and without the presence of mind to continue the defense of his client William Riley Sutherland III, later convicted of attempted murder.
Vinny, on the other hand, emerged rested from his night in jail and won the case for his client, Judge William Bauer wrote in the opinion affirming Sutherland’s conviction. Bauer said the real-life lawyer should have moved for a continuance upon returning to court.
“We cannot accept that an attorney functioning on little rest, whether it be three hours of sleep or no sleep at all, would lack the presence of mind even to request a simple continuance,” he said.
A footnote noted the similarities to My Cousin Vinny. “Unlike defense counsel here, Vinny, a New York lawyer struggling to adapt to the rural-Alabama trial setting, found that the accommodations in jail offered the best night’s sleep he could find away from the Big Apple,” Bauer wrote. “Upon his return to the courtroom, a revitalized Vinny dismantled the credibility of the state’s circumstantial case and cleared the names of the ‘two yutes’ he represented. (And again we see that life follows art).”
The above article was posted on September 16, 2009 on the ABA Journal website and was written by Debra Cassens Weiss.
A federal appeals court has affirmed the attempted murder conviction of a man whose lawyer was jailed during trial for “obstinate behavior” in an opinion that compared the case to the movie My Cousin Vinny.
The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted similarities and differences between the jailing of the Illinois lawyer and the fictional defense lawyer, Vincent LaGuardia Gambini, the Wisconsin Law Journal reports.
Unlike “Vinny,” the Illinois lawyer claimed his overnight jail stay during his client’s trial left him sleep-deprived and without the presence of mind to continue the defense of his client William Riley Sutherland III, later convicted of attempted murder.
Vinny, on the other hand, emerged rested from his night in jail and won the case for his client, Judge William Bauer wrote in the opinion affirming Sutherland’s conviction. Bauer said the real-life lawyer should have moved for a continuance upon returning to court.
“We cannot accept that an attorney functioning on little rest, whether it be three hours of sleep or no sleep at all, would lack the presence of mind even to request a simple continuance,” he said.
A footnote noted the similarities to My Cousin Vinny. “Unlike defense counsel here, Vinny, a New York lawyer struggling to adapt to the rural-Alabama trial setting, found that the accommodations in jail offered the best night’s sleep he could find away from the Big Apple,” Bauer wrote. “Upon his return to the courtroom, a revitalized Vinny dismantled the credibility of the state’s circumstantial case and cleared the names of the ‘two yutes’ he represented. (And again we see that life follows art).”
The above article was posted on September 16, 2009 on the ABA Journal website and was written by Debra Cassens Weiss.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Humorous Court Contempt Story
Found this story on ABA website:
Loud Yawn Lands Court Spectator in Jail; 6-Month Sentence Later Reduced
Posted Aug 10, 2009, 09:42 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Updated: A spectator in an Illinois courtroom who let out a loud yawn as his cousin was being sentenced for a felony drug charge soon found himself in jail.
Clifton Williams was sentenced to six months in jail for criminal contempt, the Chicago Tribune reports. His cousin was luckier—he received two years’ probation for his offense.
Spokesman Chuck Pelkie of the Will County State's Attorney's office told the Chicago Tribune that the yawn was not a quiet one, according to the prosecutor who observed it. "It was not a simple yawn,” Pelkie said. “It was a loud and boisterous attempt to disrupt the proceedings."
The sentencing judge was Daniel Rozak of Joliet, who has brought more than a third of contempt charges in Will County south of Chicago, even though he is one of 30 judges there, according to the story. Rozak has brought four out of five criminal contempt charges by Will County judges this year.
He is known for running well-managed trials and a strict courtroom, according to the story. Said Joliet defense lawyer David Carlson: "I think he's terrific—he understands how the world works."
Williams doesn’t agree. “I really can't believe I'm in jail," he wrote his family in a letter. "I done set in this [expletive] a week so far for nothing."
Rozak later reversed course and freed Williams after he served three weeks in jail, but not before delivering a short lecture, according to the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune. Rozak told Williams he wasn't jailed for just yawning. Instead he was punished for making a sound "that was offensive to the court."
Updated on Aug. 14 to include news of Williams' release.
The guy should be glad he didn't break wind.
Loud Yawn Lands Court Spectator in Jail; 6-Month Sentence Later Reduced
Posted Aug 10, 2009, 09:42 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Updated: A spectator in an Illinois courtroom who let out a loud yawn as his cousin was being sentenced for a felony drug charge soon found himself in jail.
Clifton Williams was sentenced to six months in jail for criminal contempt, the Chicago Tribune reports. His cousin was luckier—he received two years’ probation for his offense.
Spokesman Chuck Pelkie of the Will County State's Attorney's office told the Chicago Tribune that the yawn was not a quiet one, according to the prosecutor who observed it. "It was not a simple yawn,” Pelkie said. “It was a loud and boisterous attempt to disrupt the proceedings."
The sentencing judge was Daniel Rozak of Joliet, who has brought more than a third of contempt charges in Will County south of Chicago, even though he is one of 30 judges there, according to the story. Rozak has brought four out of five criminal contempt charges by Will County judges this year.
He is known for running well-managed trials and a strict courtroom, according to the story. Said Joliet defense lawyer David Carlson: "I think he's terrific—he understands how the world works."
Williams doesn’t agree. “I really can't believe I'm in jail," he wrote his family in a letter. "I done set in this [expletive] a week so far for nothing."
Rozak later reversed course and freed Williams after he served three weeks in jail, but not before delivering a short lecture, according to the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune. Rozak told Williams he wasn't jailed for just yawning. Instead he was punished for making a sound "that was offensive to the court."
Updated on Aug. 14 to include news of Williams' release.
The guy should be glad he didn't break wind.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
