Making a Lawyer Part II: The Human Criminal Justice System

/ Ryan Murphy / Leave a comment

Walt_Kelly

This is Part II of a two-part series about two attorneys from the Netflix series Making a Murderer, Mr. Walt Kelly ‘68 and Mr. Dean Strang, visiting Boston College Law School on  Wednesday, February 24, 2016. For Part I, please click here.

“It’s O.K. to follow a hunch,” Mr. Dean Strang told the audience of more than 300 students and faculty. “But if you’re shaping every bit of new information around that hunch, and discarding information that doesn’t square away with your hunch or hypothesis, you can wind up with the wrong guy.”

That is the essence of what Mr. Strang and Mr. Jerry Buting argued to the jury during Mr. Steven Avery’s murder trial. Part of their theory of the case, as explained in the Netflix series Making a Murderer, was that the local police acted on a hunch that Mr. Avery killed Teresa Halbach, and may have done everything in their power, including plant evidence, to ensure his conviction.

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Making a Lawyer Part I: Steven Avery’s Attorneys Visit BC Law

/ Ryan Murphy / Leave a comment

Dean Walt

This is Part I of a two-part series about two attorneys from the Netflix series Making a Murderer, Mr. Walt Kelly ‘68 and Mr. Dean Strang, visiting Boston College Law School on  Wednesday, February 24, 2016.  Check back tomorrow for Part II.

“How many of you have seen Making a Murderer?” Mr. Walt Kelly, genuinely curious, asked the crowd of more than 300 students and faculty. When nearly every hand shot up, the room erupted with laughter. Mr. Kelly seemed to have underestimated the show’s  popularity, especially among law students.

The Netflix series Making a Murderer was released in December to rave reviews, and quickly became binge-watching fodder for students on Winter Break across the country. The show, which was filmed over a ten-year period in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, highlights the story of Mr. Steven Avery, who was exonerated after serving eighteen years in prison for sexual assault and attempted murder, only to be charged with murder just two years after his release. Mr. Avery’s main criminal defense raised questions about conflicts of interest during the murder investigation and implied foul play among the ranks of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department.

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Meet the Ambassador: Rob Rossi

/ Rob Rossi / Leave a comment

Name: Rob Rossiunnamed

Year: 3L (Class of 2016)

Undergraduate institution: Boston College, B.S. in Management with concentrations in Finance & Marketing, Class of 2013, graduated magna cum laude

Activities at BC Law (besides being an Ambassador):

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The Best Class I’ve Taken in Law School

/ Elizabeth Blass / 2 Comments

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Coming into law school, I had no intention of ever stepping into a court room. I thought I wanted to do education policy work for a non-profit or government agency, hanging out behind a desk, engaging with complex issues at the highest levels, and generally avoiding an adversarial setting at all costs. But then I actually came to law school and what I thought I wanted shifted dramatically — which, spoiler alert, happens a lot!

My 2L year, my dear friend and current Law Student Association Vice President Andrea Clavijo lovingly coerced me into participating in the intra-school Moot Court competition. More on that later (and you can read about it on the BC Law web site here), but the tl;dr version is that Moot Court is basically fake appellate advocacy. Instead of making an argument to a jury, Law & Order style, you and a partner argue in front of a (fake) Supreme Court, focusing on the legal issues and advocating for what the law should be.

The experience was absolutely terrifying, and I. Absolutely. Loved It. Which is what brings me to the actual topic of the post: the best class I’ve taken in law school.

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Meet the Affinity Group Leaders: Anna Hunanyan (MELSA)

/ Marx P. Calderon / Leave a comment

Name: Anna Hunanyan

Year: 2L

Affinity Group: Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA); pictureCo-President

Undergraduate Institution:

UCLA, BA Business Economics, BA Comparative Literature

Experiences between college and law school:

I took a year off before starting law school. I spent half of that year working as a financial analyst and the other half as a legal assistant.

Favorite event that your organization plans:

Every semester MELSA invites a speaker to discuss a timely and relevant issue concerning the Middle East. We have had cutting edge thinkers engage the BC Law community on topics such as free speech and hate speech, the Armenian Genocide, and the development of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. We have been lucky to host speakers with diverse backgrounds and experiences coming from different parts of the world. The perspective they bring and share is thought-provoking.

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Yes, We Go to School Sponsored Social Events: Ski Trip

/ Ryan Murphy / Leave a comment

Each February, members of the BC law community leave their busy academic lives behind and venture into the mountains for a weekend away. Destination: Killington, Vermont.

They pile into condos – air mattresses and all – and spend the days on the slopes or about the town and the nights at Killington’s finest watering holes. We hoped to capture the spirit of the weekend with our second Instagram contest of the year.

We received a wide array of submissions, starting with some frame-worthy mountain shots…

Beyond Boston: Semester in Practice and #BCinDC

/ Elizabeth Blass / Leave a comment

Going to BC Law doesn’t have to mean spending three years in Boston. For those who want to use law school as an opportunity to explore other places, BC sponsors a ton of Semester in Practice programs in cities as close as New York and as far away as Amsterdam.

Watch the video below to learn about Diane Prend, ’16, who spent a Semester in Practice in Washington, D.C. as part of the #BCinDC program. You can also check out an article about her time in D.C. here.

 

And if you’re interested in learning more about the Semester in Practice programs, you can check those out here.