XONR8.
Description - XONR8 was our first official project of the year. It was based on the California Innocence Project, an organization that works towards exonerating wrongfully convicted victims. We got to have a one on one experience with actual cases and in groups of 3-4 students we worked together to see what would be the better choice. We went through every document and packets many many times, every piece of evidence mattered as much as the rest. During this process we even had the pleasure of talking to an actual lawyer who came in an helped each group with their case or anything they might be stuck on. It was a very long project but in the end it really payed off. Our end product was a presentation in front of actual lawyers and from our presentation and evaluation of the evidence they would then decide if the client deserved to be accepted or if they were thought to be guilty. It was extraordinarily amazing how much trust was put into us and I think we all handled it with extreme maturity.
Forensics: Ballistics.
We had the choice to pick between forensic topics, I chose ballistics. Ballistics intrigued me because of the blood spatter, it blew my mind how so much could be discovered due to some blood spotting. My group and I made the presentation(below) and split it into equal parts for everyone to be able to work. I was mostly focused on how exactly there is found to be a match from firearm to the crime scene, I learned a lot all throughout the whole research stage as well as when my group and I finally finished and got the chance to really read over it and share out everything we had learned.
Case Memos.
We were pre-assigned case memos which made us all very anxious upon receiving them. The case memos had parts that were hand written and were incredibly hard to read or the copies were just no good. It was very difficult to see what my client was trying to say and it made it difficult to really grasp what they were saying. In the end we ended up transcribing most of the documents given to us to make it easy to read and navigate. In the end I think this was a big step in really getting us all to agree that our client was guilty, it was very hard because in the end we're all human and no matter what I think we all had the same thoughts in the back of our head which were all based around the question, "What if we're wrong?". Even though we had a bit of set backs I think it was very easy for my group and I to work together and stay on the same page with everything. Towards the end I kept looking back through our case memo and the rest of the documents and kept realizing new things that we'd missed, around that time it was almost our turn to go talk to a lawyer, we then went to the lawyer with the recently discovered evidence and I think that it really helped to prove our suspicions and just tie up our case. I was very proud in the fact that I went back and found that because without that small piece, our story would've been different and it would have been very embarrassing if the CIP took the case and found a complete different story. My group worked very well together and I think that also contributed to the fact that we got everything done and were ready to go and present to other lawyers with confidence.
Exhibition to California Innocence Project.
I give my group a 4 out of 4 on our presentation to the lawyers. I honestly think we did very well, we made sure to have all our facts and cover any gaps in the client's story as well as the factual story. Our presentation was clean and professional, we memorized many things in order for our presentation to look as crisp as possible. We all contributed and had equal speaking time which really let us grasp the audience instead of boring them with a monotone presentation. What I am personally most proud of is that all questions were answered fast and appropriately, we knew every question and I think that really goes to show that we did our work and that we really put our best effort into it.
I would personally give myself a 3 out of 4 because I missed one of the days that we had to work and felt very bad because I knew my group had been working hard while I wasn't there and really appreciated it. Overall I did everything that I needed to do as well as make sure everything was the same on the presentation itself and that it all made sense. We all worked equally except for that one day that I was absent and I think that if it weren't for that day that I'd give myself a 4. I worked very hard and very long on this presentation and stayed up very late on a couple of nights to make sure we were doing justice.
A high point throughout this project was when my group and I finally agreed on the end result and were able to come up with our choice, which sadly was that our client was guilty. At that moment it really just made me feel good about our presentation and the way that we evaluated everything that was given to us. This was only until after our actual presentation, so it was perfect timing.
A low point was when we couldn't yet decided and had to make a double slide in order to see what we could do for both paths, which were to continue with the case or claim the client guilty. It was extremely frustrating how we kept finding more and more evidence that made us change our story, presentation and opinion on our case. Everything had something to do with the case as a whole and we had to make sure that we knew it inside and out in order for questioning which also was a very difficult task to accomplish in time and perfectly, but in the end it really did pay off.
I would personally give myself a 3 out of 4 because I missed one of the days that we had to work and felt very bad because I knew my group had been working hard while I wasn't there and really appreciated it. Overall I did everything that I needed to do as well as make sure everything was the same on the presentation itself and that it all made sense. We all worked equally except for that one day that I was absent and I think that if it weren't for that day that I'd give myself a 4. I worked very hard and very long on this presentation and stayed up very late on a couple of nights to make sure we were doing justice.
A high point throughout this project was when my group and I finally agreed on the end result and were able to come up with our choice, which sadly was that our client was guilty. At that moment it really just made me feel good about our presentation and the way that we evaluated everything that was given to us. This was only until after our actual presentation, so it was perfect timing.
A low point was when we couldn't yet decided and had to make a double slide in order to see what we could do for both paths, which were to continue with the case or claim the client guilty. It was extremely frustrating how we kept finding more and more evidence that made us change our story, presentation and opinion on our case. Everything had something to do with the case as a whole and we had to make sure that we knew it inside and out in order for questioning which also was a very difficult task to accomplish in time and perfectly, but in the end it really did pay off.