Saturday, September 15, 2007

an evening at home with 1 and 4.5/5ths lawyers

michael and i rented "fracture" tonight. i never get sick of watching anthony hopkins act like a crazy dude.
so in the movie (disclaimer - if you haven't seen it and don't want to know anything, stop reading), anthony hopkins shoots his wife and puts her in a coma, gets acquitted, pulls the plug, and then they go after him for murder. this screams double jeopardy, which pretty much says you can't be tried for the same crime twice. well, of course it's a little more complicated. so, after reliving our criminal law 1L classes, i finally make mike hand me his laptop so i can google whether this is a legitimate legal tactic.
here's the funny part - i found at least 3 writeups on whehter the legal principles used in this exact movie were legally sound. not just quick mentions or yes or no answers, but complex hypotheticals and research. which means, lawyers from around the country watched the movie (making cracks all the way through about how unrealistic everything is), discussed this movie with someone (likely someone less than interested in the conversation), and then jumped on the internet to engage in a legal discussion regarding the movie.
this is how lawyers spend their free time. researching and discussing the legal theory of something that, before law school, would have been considered nothing more than entertainment. other professionals just don't do that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is so true. Scott and I had a similar discussion after watching this movie, and you're right...he was probably less than interested in reliving my 1L crim law class with me.