I think that Rosie and her kind are a good idea

By Helping a Girl Testify at a Rape Trial, a Dog Ignites a Legal Debate

Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped and impregnated her. Rosie sat by the teenager’s feet. At particularly bad moments, she leaned in.

When the trial ended in June with the father’s conviction, the teenager “was most grateful to Rosie above all,” said David A. Crenshaw, a psychologist who works with the teenager.

“She just kept hugging Rosie,” he continued.

Now an appeal planned by the defense lawyers is placing Rosie at the heart of a legal debate that will test whether there will be more Rosies in courtrooms in New York and, possibly, other states.

The defence is arguing in their appeal that dogs like Rosie respond to stress regardless of whether it is reliving painful memories or lying under oath. They say that juries are likely to respond to the presence of the dogs as supporting the idea that the witness is telling the truth.

I don't think the presence and nudgings of a dog would affect my decision as juror, when the evidence is the key to a judgment. (Of course, having served on a jury, I see how people let their emotions sway them. Thank goodness ours was a civil and not criminal case, where you only need agreement between 9 of 12 jurors, because I was the sticking point when they tried to run amok about things that had no bearing on the case, like whether their grandmothers had been treated badly by car dealers. (it was a dealership being sued.) I kid you not.)

Yay for being home and having a few hours to myself

I had to get up very early in order to go downtown as a witness in small claims court. I was a little nervous, but everything went fine, I only had to say eight words, and the side I was testifying for won.

I stopped by the store and their entire computer system had gone down, apparently for several hours. The credit cards worked at the pump but everything else was offline. A technician wound up having to replace the computer system. One of my co-workers made a great sign for the door. It said 'Store Out of Order'. :) There's been an upgrade to new software in the past few days that has kept things interesting. I'm glad my shifts haven't corresponded with the worst of it.

I came home and took a nap, since I'd been up so early and had gone to bed at 2:30 am. I made an appointment with a doctor for Wednesday afternoon. Then I went over to a friend's for awhile. We watched a very interesting 'Wife Swap' on TV (where do they find these people?) One family were Wiccan and didn't know a gargoyle from a dragon and were way too wrapped up in fairies, elves, covens, and magic that they really didn't spend time with one another. I'm pagan and I understand Wicca pretty well, but they were over the top and not particularly grounded in reality. And they'd named their daughter Lwaxana after Deanna's mother on 'Star Trek: the Next Generation'. Yeah. Really. I'd like to see the episode where they swapped a woman with a gay man. The husband in that case was not happy and sued the network. Then we watched an episode of 'Starlost', a Canadian science fiction series from the 70s, on YouTube.

Now I'm home again. I'm off tonight, which is a rarity, as it's truck night. The plan is to relax, maybe do some dishes and notes, and generally have a quiet night at home.

Two great things today, one not-so-great

I have my meds! My card works now, although one of the reps tried to tell me the problem was on the hospital's side, when the necessary paperwork was sent to Ceridian in October. This also means I can go to a doctor about the pelvic/lower back pain that I'm experiencing. I'm going to call tomorrow to see if I can get in for Wednesday; that's my first opportunity with my schedule.

I found out today that I'm getting a market raise effective this pay period of $1.12 an hour. Plus, we're getting a better-than-normal raise in March of 4.25%, so that's another 84 cents. Whoo-hoo! If I were working full-time, I'd be pulling over $42,000 a year. Alas, this is not the case. But this will certainly help, especially with medical costs going up this year.

Finally, I found out this afternoon that I have to go to court tomorrow morning as a witness in a case. I'm not looking forward to it.

That's it. Hope you're having a great week. I have to go on to bed as I'm up way too late considering I have to be up at 6 am. Goodnight.

Star-crossed lovers

Forced Annulment Keeps Couple Apart

Fatima and Mansour al-Timani were married with her father's blessing, even though his clan did not have as much prestige as hers. But her relatives convinced her father to give them power of attorney, and after he died they filed to annul the marriage. The police came and informed them of a divorce in abstentia granted by a judge. According to Saudi law, they cannot live together. In fact, when they did reunite they were found by the police. Fatima was given the choice to return to her mother or go to jail. She chose jail. She was imprisoned along with her two children. Eventually her daughter was allowed to return to her father. The boy, who was an infant, remained with her. She is now out of jail. Her husband has been taking the case through the system. An appeals court upheld the original annulment, but studies of Islamic law showed that since her legal guardian gave permission and attended the wedding, the other relatives should not have any right to request an annulment. A request has been made for the case to go before the highest court in the land. Also, Fatima holds out hope that the king of Saudi Arabia could pardon her and recognise the marriage. If not, she is prepared to commit suicide rather than be separated from Mansour.

I hope they are able to be together again. I know it's a different culture, but it seems to me that if her father gave permission--which is required for a woman to marry--then the legalities were observed and her relatives shouldn't be able to change things, especially after they have had children together.

At least the relatives didn't kill her like that awful story of the Indian family where the father killed his pregnant daughter, son-in-law, and grandson because she'd married without his permission to someone of a lower caste.

Yay!

The case was dismissed, which is good, as I paid them three months ago. Apparently in this case, it would have been fine so long as I paid right up to court. It just depends on the judge and prosecutor you get, though. There's only one cheque I didn't pay off before going to court, because I couldn't afford to at the time, but I have more than one of these on my record.

At least now I can look at getting the dismissed cases off my record. Unfortunately I can't do anything about the actual convictions, from what I can tell.

Oh well. I'm a criminal, but just a petty one at least. I saw a lot of people in jail and out today who were facing felonies and some pretty serious misdemeanours, too. I definitely want to stay on the good side of the law from now on.