Skipped crim today to go watch a High Court case at the new Supreme Court with Sharmila, Michelle, Junbin and Patrick. Ironically, we sat in for a crim case on culpable homicide! Ahh but this shows that, contrary to being slackers, we're actually interested to see how what we've learned in class is applied in the real world! :P Haha, Patrick even started taking out his notes on that chapter when the case began and started reading through them. Lol.
Really wish i could say that the trial was dramatic, and the exchange of arguments fierce and engaging, but we essentially ended up watched 2hours' worth of submitting of evidence - which is SUPER tedious! Every detail in the facts had to be confimed by witnesses and labelled for reference by the judge, and by the time we had to leave, we hadn't even heard a single argument from either side! Which is kinda sad, cos the defence counsel was Subhas Anandan, and I was REALLY quite eager to see him present his case in court. He looks super intimidating in person, all fierce and firm and ready to bash you up. (orally, i mean :P) Perhaps that's why the PP was stumbling his way through, like asking vague questions (to which the witness went: err...do you want me to recite ALL of my conclusions? From page 4-6?), omitting to submit a copy of one of the documents to the judge, not having with him an extra copy when the judge requested for a copy of the missing document etc. Thankfully, the whole 'MISSING DOCUMENT' hooha was settled relatively quickly as the DEFENCE counsel offered the judge the copy he needed.
The Supreme Court is really quite splendid and grand though! There's this air about it, that the moment you step into the building, it makes you aspire to become a litigator in future. And to think that's coming from me, the i-want-to-just-be-a-corporate-lawyer-and-earn-loads-of-money-without-having-to-go-to-court person. The whole vibe of the place, the courtrooms, the general architecture of the building, it really makes you feel that it's worth getting through memos your whole life just for the chance to step into that building as a lawyer fighting a case for your client.
-XL :)
