Sunday, December 16, 2007

On Participating in History

Generally, a court reporter (scribe, amanuensis, etc) is called upon to witness history and not be a part of it.

Sometimes, however, just by participating in making the record, we become part of history. This happened to me last week. I was the official reporter for the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission's FIRST hearing! This state agency is the first of its kind - publicly funded, and NOT part of a not-for-profit group - in the entire country.

Its charge is to review cases when new evidence is brought forward and to deliberate on whether the evidence is sufficient to send a case back for judicial review. So last week, when the record was made, HISTORY was made.

How exciting. It was an honor and a privilege to work with these dedicated individuals who serve on the Commission to review cases and who spot-check to see that justice was indeed done.

1 comment:

  1. Dah-link, that's wonderful.

    I was very pleased (and disgusted) recently to work on a case challenging Delaware's death penalty by lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.

    adm

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