Tom, you cannot beat anyone to death until AFTER your date.

le nubian speaks for me.

PB:

Most problems can be handwaved by remembering that this is the criminal justice and/or penal system, and the idea that people always check records is kind of ludicrous. I mean, let's assume he had his medical records doctored. We're already required to accept that his brother is going to be executed in Illinois, and that Sucre's (nice name, eh?) girlfriend visits him from NY on a weekly basis even if she can't afford bus fare.

What really bothers me is that Miller is so inscrutable. I don't like being forced to assume that he always knows what's going to happen to him-- even if circumstances later prove that he was surprised by something-- because he can't actually act fucking surprised.

And, Nutty, the show actually does mention that the brother only mixes with the population on two occasions. Scofield has to do some maneuvering to be around him more frequently.

If you should happen to read a news story of someone beating a coworker to death, shouting "INDOOR VOICE! INDOOR VOICE!", that would be me.

Speaking of prison TV, I'll just mention that a ballpoint pen can make a decent shank. FYI.

Miller pretty.

The above sums up my reason for giving the show a shot. Unless he undergoes extreme plastic surgery, I probably won't be too disappointed. That said, he did a good job with his role on JoA, last season.

We need to find Jesse a new show to watch.

Jesse, have you seen [link] yet? It's very funny.

Based on what my friend in the public defender's office says, I'd be amazed if anyone checks records. Well, ok, not that really cynical, but from the stories she tells, I'm sometimes amazed it is functional. Of course, I'm just getting the juicy, fucked up stories, because those are good telling, while the mundane are just that.

To Nutty, re PB:

"How about giving yourself a margin for error? Generally speaking, federal death sentences take years to carry out, even when people drop their appeals (as Timothy McVeigh did). Don't procrastinate till the last minute!"

They did have a line of dialogue about how people in the system are expediting big brother's execution. And is this a federal prison? Totally spaced on that. Because generally speaking murder, even of the v.p.'s brother, is a state crime.

"Generally speaking, death row inmates are not allowed to mix with ordinary inmates. They're in separate housing, on different routines, and would never be allowed to spend time with their armed-robbing brethren. Because, hello! Death row inmates have a lot less to lose, and might do something untoward like commit suicide and obviate the right of the state to kill him.."

They addressed this too, and he's only able to see his brother in chapel and my machinating a spot on the job circuit. Still some hand-waving but at least they didn't just have big bro running around the prison yard.

"AmyLiz is right on the diabetes front, and if it's Type 1, then he should have medical records going back to his childhood or teens. Because, how do you get insulin without going to a doctor/clinic? You don't. And how do diabetics do without insulin? They get gangrene in their feet and go blind from poor circulation. Considering they did all that research to verify that a man on an insulin overdose will see his hands shake, they could have done a tiny bit more research, you know?"

You're right about the need for medical records, but the absence of medical records isn't going to keep a doctor from administering insulin at the beginning, since that's not going to kill him. Unfortunately, records get lost all the time. And she did the right thing by arranging to test him as soon as he showed signs of not having diabetes, which is a much faster way of determining diabetes than trying to track down old medical records that appear to have gotten lost in the shuffle. Also, in my experience, prison medical facilities are not nearly as efficient about medical records as civilian facilities are.

ETA: Inevitable bon bon x-post, and sorry for the long whitefont, folks.

this is the criminal justice and/or penal system, and the idea that people always check records is kind of ludicrous.

I do remember reading an article in the Times some years back, about a mentally ill man from New York who was mistaken for a Los Angeles felon, imprisoned in California based on the resemblance, and kept there for TWO YEARS before anybody thought to check oh things like fingerprints.

I mean, the LA felon did not have a history of mental illness; they were not really the same age; they didn't look that much alike (except for Black Man Syndrome); dude was from New York; and FINGERPRINTS. Hello!

I hope his mom in New Jersey filed a really big lawsuit on his behalf.

Jesse, have you seen [link] yet? It's very funny.

Nice.