The prosecutor would ask her a question, and she would look pleadingly at the translator and say "Ay, dios mio," or she would look at the prosecutor and say, "Ay, senora."

This breaks my heart.

So what did people have for lunch today?

Vegetable soup and tuna salad sandwich. I lucked out when I picked up my diet food yesterday--the distributor was short a 1200-calorie bag, but had an extra 2000-calorie bag, and asked if I would like to swap for the weekend for no extra charge. Hell, yeah! So, I wasn't hungry this afternoon, like I normally am.

Anyway, the robbery victim testified as well. This was the only time the defendant spoke at the trial. While she was testifying, he sort of muttered something, and the defense attorney said, "Shut up!" In the jury room, a couple of the people who spoke Spanish said he'd called her a liar.

There was yet another robbery at the same complex. This guy had a busy morning. A woman testified that he walked into the apartment while she was breastfeeding her child and stared at her. When she screamed, her husband woke up and the guy took off.

We heard from a nurse who did a sexual assault kit on the second rape victim. A crime scene unit was called out to this second batch of crime scenes. They found fingerprints and blood at two of the three scenes, I think. We heard quite a bit from a fingerprint expert, but the short version is that they found his fingerprints and palm prints at those scenes. Both witnesses identified him in the courtroom.

I forgot to mention that the second woman who was raped was a Katrina refugee. She was originally from Honduras, had lived in New Orleans, and evacuated here. She has no family with her. She lives alone.

So what did people have for lunch today?

Nummy calamari linguine, with garlic bread.

That whole story is just heartbreaking, Dana.

I forgot to mention that the second woman who was raped was a Katrina refugee. She was originally from Honduras, had lived in New Orleans, and evacuated here. She has no family with her. She lives alone.

Ack.

Now, so far it looks like the physical evidence matches up. Like if there was that one in a trillion chance the DNA was someone else's, there were fingerprints at both scenes. I don't envy the job of the defense.

Dana--do you know if the defendant was using court-appointed representation? I do wonder in what %age of cases that happens.

Oh, man, when is naptime?

I had most of a side of fries.

good god that would be so hard to sit through

The last witness the prosecution called was the original rape victim, and they asked her how it had affected her. You can imagine her answer.

The defense put his mother on the stand, basically to testify that he had no prior criminal record.

That was the end of the day yesterday.

This morning, we were read a big long document, mostly about punishment options. If we wanted to recommend parole (now called community supervision), there were several conditions. We could not take into account the fact that the defendant hadn't testified on his own behalf. We could not take into account the fact that the defendant would be eligible for parole after half of his sentence, or that he might also get time off for good behavior.

Prosecutor #2 opened and asked us to sentence the guy to life.

The defense admitted that probation wasn't really appropriate in this case. He reminded us that the defendant had no prior record.

Prosecutor #1 called him a predator, a coward who preyed on the weak. She reminded us that he'd raped two women. When they searched him after arresting him, they found black shoelaces on him. Not in his shoes -- in his possession. He was apparently looking for a better way to tie people up. She asked us for life again.

Dana--do you know if the defendant was using court-appointed representation? I do wonder in what %age of cases that happens.

Yeah, definitely. The lawyer was fluent in Spanish, though he's white and very Texan.

Lunch here was leftover Chinese and very good.

How awful Dana. I know when I was doing a lot of work with Katrina survivors, a lot of them said they didn't feel safe in their new cities. They didn't have the sense of community their New Orleans neighborhoods gave them.