Dates of Internship: August 26, 2013 September 20, 2013 Journal 1 When I began my internship at the Public Defender

r Service for DC, I was very excited and eager to see what my duties would entail. While I had done ample research on the Criminal Law Investigative Internship, I still did not know what to expect through the duration of my internship. The research I had conducted along with my previous courses in criminal justice and knowledge of the criminal justice system gave me an idea of what the scope of my work would be, including interviewing witnesses and investigating crime scenes. Many of my questions were answered during the first week of my internship. The first week of my internship was a training week. Each day was divided into different topics with assigned speakers. We went over our training manual and received our user ideas for the PDS database. The three most intellectually stimulating and useful lectures were on navigating DC, interviewing witnesses, and defense theories. The navigating DC lecture instructed us the quickest ways to get around DC as well instructing us how the grid worked, where crime hot spots were located, and identified the districts police stations. The interviewing witnesses lecture stressed the important of making the witness feel comfortable speaking with me, as well as how to approach certain situations, the difference between procedures with government vs. defense witnesses, and how to find witnesses. The defense theories lecture discussed the most commonly used theories of defense and what each theory required to be proven. This was beneficial because it gave us an insight into what we were looking for when investigating crime scenes and what line of questioning to use when interviewing a witness.

The second week of my internship included the remaining administrative duties such as receiving my photo ID and security badge and being assigned a partner, staff investigator, and attorney. While the first week was dedicated to learning about the internship procedures as a whole, the second week concerned receiving my specific cases and task list for each case. During this week, my partner and I shadowed our attorneys current investigative intern so we could easily pick-up where she left off. This was beneficial because I met with the attorney to discuss her preference for memos and other writing samples, the defense theories for each case, and then got to see first hand what how I would go about each task assigned by watching the current intern do them. I would consider the third week of my internship to be my first official week on the job. At this point, I had received all adequate training and the current intern had concluded her internship, making my partner and I the lead investigative interns for our assigned attorney. My partner and I dove right into our case-load that Monday. This week our biggest task was to canvass the area of a crime that our client allegedly committed. This involved going out in the field and investigating the crime scene, as well as interviewing all persons and houses in the vicinity. My partner and I went door-to-door interviewing people to see if they were familiar with the case or any of the people involved, all the while documenting the persons contact information and identifying them on a canvass log of the area. The fourth week of my internship, my partner and I spent a majority of the week writing up subpoenas to serve police officers. The officers we were serving subpoenas were listed as reporting officers on several police reports that were written while responding to radio calls on a witness in our case. There were about 15 different police reports and about 10 different officers I

needed to subpoena. After filling out the subpoenas, my partner and I tracked down the shift time of each officer and set out trying to interview and serve him or her. At this point in the internship, I can see the professional value of my experience and how I am helping PDS as a whole. At the Public Defender Service, the proper representation and assistance of each individual client helps promote the success of PDS as a whole. In my particular cases, I am working to ensure our clients are receiving the best defense possible, which for me means making sure I can grasp every aspect of the alleged crime and suspects and can report the full picture back to the attorney. The training week ensured I knew the specific people to turn to within PDS to accomplish my goals, as well as how to complete standard tasks such as canvassing and serving subpoenas. I was able to accomplish all of my tasks in a timely fashion and in most cases, went above and beyond just the specified task and tried to establish a rapport with every person I spoke with, whether they were a client, witness, police officer, or fellow intern. My first few weeks at PDS have definitely shaped me into a better investigator due to the variety of tasks I have been assigned and the resources that have been made available. Because most of my work needs to remain confidential, I dedicated each point paper to a describing a different task I had to complete, while leaving out specific details. In terms of personal value, this internship is turning out to be everything I had anticipated and more. I am currently developing a great relationship with my partner and with my assigned staff investigator and attorney. My partner and I work well together and we have great communication with the attorney and staff investigator, something I feel has allowed us to earn their trust. I know what is expected of me in the internship and I am really enjoying the amount of work I have been given. I feel that I am given important and substantive tasks that are

essential to the success of our cases, which encourages me to rise to the occasion and perform my best. Thus far, my courses in the Communication major have prepared me for the daily interactions with the variety of people I meet with. My COMM475 Persuasion class has proven to be very beneficial because of the compliance gaining techniques I learned. Specifically when it came to meeting with and interviewing police officers, I needed to utilize some of the tactics I learned to convince the officers to meet with me. MPD officers are generally very busy and have a history of avoiding PDS interns. My class taught me about the liking tactic, which entails flattering the listener and being very charismatic to get the individual to develop a positive regard for me. This makes the individual more likely to meet with me if I can achieve likability. I am eager to see how else my Communication courses will prove beneficial in the next coming weeks of my internship.