The work hasn't started filtering in yet. I've been absolutely knocked dead by the 14 hour time difference, so it's likely I'll be out of commission until next week. I'm not going to fill this blog with my random musings about life in "The Big Easy", but no doubt my experiences with the American legal system and the people on death row will draw from it.
My role will involve working with the investigators by interviewing witnesses and, of course, filing concisely to make the work easier for the lawyers. I'll also being assisting the lawyers with trial preparations etc. The last and most important role we play is a purely humanitarian one. The Center frequently sends us out to visit the prisoners on death row to just talk to them and keep them company. It's no surprise that on death row they aren't treated with the respect and dignity that everyone deserves, and it's hoped that our visits help restore a sense of humanity to the criminal justice system.
It's not going to be easy and it certainly won't be fun, but breaking the law doesn't make them any less of a human and it just as easily could have been me on the other side of that glass.
Quote of the day:
I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every drifting cloud that went
With sails of silver by.-Oscar Wilde
