Why is it that Atticus Finch gets to be the paragon of legal virtue? I mean, I'm glad he was there to defend an innocent man, but what prosecutors can you point to in movies or books that inspire the same sentiment?

Conversely, would it be worthwhile for a column about those painful losses that helped you grow as a lawyer? A Hamilton Burger, moment?

Well David, believe it or not, I've been inspired by MOST of the prosecutors on Law and Order.

Of course, for some new prosecutors, we're talking ANCIENT HISTORY HERE, but for old dudes like me and Ben Leonard, we were just starting out when Law and Order hit the airwaves in 1990. Ben may not even watch Law and Order, but I just found out he and I graduated high school in the same year, so I feel safe using him as another example of a "veteran prosecutor".

How could a prosecutor not like a show with a tag line like this:

"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."

Ben Stone's a bit of a depressive and way too wryly cynical for my tastes, but some of the other prosecutors on the show over the years have been very realistic. Of course, Sam Waterston is a favorite, and who can argue with the supporting prosecutors they've had over the years, like Angie Harmon, Jill Hennessy, Carey Lowell, and Elisabeth Rohm.

If you can't recall the faces of some of these tv prosecutors, you can link here to see their pics:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098844/taglines

As far as the two electeds and one interim DA's they've had on the show, I like Fred Thompson myself. He's more of a realist, there's none of those "second guessing-hindsight is 20-20-devil's advocate" type debriefings during and post trial depressing conversations that the other elected Steven Hill would have to end every show on a blue moment.

The thing that I always like about the show was that the good guys actually lose there every now and then. Actually, they lose alot. Perhaps too much, at times, if you ask me. But at least they are trying cases that need to be tried. And they often have random juries, just like me. But the post-loss trial reviews with the old DA Adam Schiff just made me reach for the remote.

That and I liked the theme music.

I don't watch it regularly, and most of what I see of the show is reruns, but it is the only cop/lawyer/judge/crime type show I ever watch.

So then should we start a "Jack McCoy" moment for the TDCAA Prosecutor?

Perhaps when Dick Wolf wins a Pulitzer Prize, Jack McCoy might come to embody the good in all lawyers, not merely prosecutors. This assumes he is regarded as a seriously-written character and not a caricature. I have no opinion, either way.

[This message was edited by David Newell on 06-24-06 at .]

Dan Fielding from "Night Court"

That is AWESOME!

Why not name it after one of our own? I had never seen Ben Leonard's style prior to his lecture on one witness cases last week, and I was wowed! What a dynamic, Texas style.

I think it's a great idea to pick an actual prosecutor. The problem then becomes who. Greg, you are a truly generous and supportive person. I think your praise of Ben Leonard is very justified. But why not a Mia Magnes moment? Or a Kelly Seigler moment? Or a Toby Shook moment? Or a Greg Gilleland moment for that matter? Any one of these titles conjurs the type of prosecutor that people would aspire to be, But then what about all those fabulous, real-life prosecutors who no one ever reads about in the paper? Mike Elliott, perhaps? Fred Felcman? Mark Hanna? Tyra McCollum? These are only the people that I know in Fort Bend. Not to take anything away from them, but I'm sure there are stars in each office all across the state. How can you differentiate between them? I think the advantage of having the "moment" focused upon a fictional character solves that problem nicely. After all, it's the Atticus Finch moment, not the George Parnham-Dick DeGuerin-Mike Ramsey moment.

I guess the point I was originally making in this post was that why don't we have a movie/book/tv character that is a prosecutor whose nobility and integrity transcends his or her discrete practice area? And your point is well-taken, Law and Order, a formidable and highly successful TV franchise, is centered around prosecutors winning, and I sometimes forget that when I generalize about how prosecutors are portrayed in the popular culture. Perhaps I should stop listening to rap music.

I'm sure there are some fictional prosecutors who embody all we stand for. I just don't know of any other than the Law and Order folks.

And ya, true that about all those names you mentioned.

neither do i, damn it! you would think with an english degree and a television for a father that i'd be able to remember more prosecutor characters.

Whomever you pick don't pick one of the following: District Attorney Hale; Deputy D.A. Chamberlin; Deputy D.A. Sampson; Deputy D.A. Alvin; Asst. District Attorney Alvin; or Deputy D.A. Vincent.

Gold star to the first person who knows who they are.

Those boys couldn't prove Mr. Mason's clients guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, could they?

That's how I found them.

Way to go, Gretchen -- you typed faster than I did, you'll probably get a TDCAA hat too.

I had a Greg Gilleland moment once, I think it was right after I slammed the car door on my finger. No, that wasn't it after all, that was my Harvey Schitzwelter moment. Harvey, the first barber to ever touch my locks, could be very colorful when he smashed a finger. My Greg moment reinforced my earlier Gene Krupa moment, when I thought being a drummer was the coolest thing, until one day I realized the drummer had more stuff to carry to a gig, and perhaps being a guitar player was easier, plus, during shows, you get to stand in front of the drummer.

Then I had a Barney Miller moment and became a cop.

Call me when you get an AP moment, AP.

We got important band bidness to discuss. You were probably right the first time about the GG moment, that being where you slammed your finger in the car door.

Here's another one. Last year, when I was changing the ceiling fan blades on the porch in the Houston house, I discovered, through personal electrical experimentation, that there was a short in the wiring, thus making the entire metal surface of the fan "HOT" with the gift of Ben Franklin. As the volt jolt blew me off the metal stepladder I was on and landed me on my keister, I made an "excited utterance".

My child, observing his handyman father, ran in the house to tell my wife that I had seen a "Fox" in the backyard and that I was screaming "Fox" at it.

Very good story, Greg, but why did you have to change the fan blades? Couldn't you just dust them off? I confess that I've never seen the need to change the blades out, although I have thought about drawing some cool designs on the dust and tell company that I had the blades custom made. I thought you were going to say that you were changing the blades, and they just spun a little too quickly to allow time to loosen the screws on each one. About the time you got the screwdriver up to the blade, the next one would circle overhead....

Which brings to mind the question AP, how many defense attorneys does it take to change ceiling fan blades?

Those blades were changed, every couple of years for the 10 years we owned that house. High humidity and wind blown rain have an effect on the "wood-like" compressed sawdust material used to make most fan blades. After awhile, they just start to sag...

It wasn't until we got ready to sell it that I found out they sell plastic fan blades, which, although they are perky and don't sag, just don't look right.

You should see those plastic fan blades when the waiters at El Arroyo in Austin fire up the propane heaters 'neath em.

From Greg's house of quotes: "Perky and don't sag" -- I think I just had a Scott Brumely moment.

Greg, that story made my morning. Kids!

That is a truly great story, Greg, and almost makes up for the morning from hell I had with my "rambunctious" little two year old son, who's been saying some interesting things of his own. We were all cruising around in the car a couple weekends back, with my husband and I trying to actually have a conversation, which of course required trying to ignore the kiddo babbling away in the backseat. So we're not sure what led up to this announcement, but suddenly we heard him proudly shout, "I f**k a bear!!!" Which, potty-mouth issues aside, would seem to be a rather risky idea, and something I am quite sure we never suggested.

Elizabeth