I'm on a child abuse elective and have been spending a few days a week observing trials in court.  I spend a majority of the time trying to contain my "squeeee!"s when they say "objection" or "order."  (That really happens!)

I also never realized how challenging it must be to be a state-appointed defense attorney when your client is clearly guilty.

And guilty of, like, sexually assaulting babies.  Oh yes, really. 

The DA yesterday looked visibly pained whenever the prosecutor didn't land a point or stumbled on her words and actually winked at her as she declined to cross-examine yet another prosecution witness. 

It's definitely better than an attorney being happy to defend a child molester, but a strange dynamic I hadn't thought about deeply before. 

I suppose it must feel a little bit like writing an order for morphine when you really don't think your patient is in pain.