Justice Consuelo Marie Callahan, Circuit Judge, United States Courts of Appeal [60:36-65:39]

civil experience I had as a lawyer was in the city attorney's office and that was fairly brief so once I went on the bench too I said one of my weaknesses is I'm very strong in criminal law I'm very strong in trial work generally but I haven't practiced I haven't been a civil litigator I haven't been a civil practitioner and I need to do as much civil as I can both to open doors for me in the future but both to be but also to be the best judge that I could be so then I really actually sought out civil assignments and every year I asked to be in civil law and motion or to do complex civil litigation I would take those cases off the wheel and really at the end I was doing law and motion I did complex civil cases and I was doing cap homicide cases basically back to back so because some people like to do more calendar cases they like to do shorter cases they don't like to have the those things hanging over their head I you know those were those were my happiest moments you were you were you were on the superior court from 1992 to 1996 appointed by governor Wilson yes when you were on the superior court did you miss a being an advocate being a prosecutor sometimes I found myself when the lawyers were doing things that were less than that when I really didn't think they were doing the best job possible I kind of felt like jumping down and doing a little cross-examination myself but I resisted that urge and but I have to say that it I think I because I had done so much trial work I like to feel that I was sensitive to the stress that they're under in terms of doing trials is very stressful and you're really trying to orchestrate so many things at one time but interestingly I still found when I was a prosecutor this is interesting I I always knew what my verdicts were somehow before I got them the the bailiffs would tell and when I was they would that but when I was a judge I never knew what they were before and they would the the foreman would hand the verdict over and I found myself so incredibly nervous taking these verdicts a lot of times in these serious charges and not knowing what they would be I found that interesting because I wasn't going to win or lose behind that but it just I guess I much more related to the parties and the importance of what was going on and maybe the palpable pain and stress in the courtroom that it was I was surprised how nerve-wracking it was for me taking verdicts sometimes and waiting to see I guess if I thought that the jury did the right thing or since I had sat through the whole trial but no I guess I I had so much I have so much respect for the system that I really like to let the lawyers try the cases and I really resent a judges when I was trying cases that like to pop in too much because it was the old adage or on or at least if you're going to try my case don't lose it for me because a lot of times judges tend to think they know more than the lawyers and I think so frequently they don't that the lawyers have reasons for not doing certain things and when judges pop in and ask questions there's a lot of times a bombshell on the other end of it so I tried to be very respectful of what they had to do and even though I don't think well I know I was never known for being a particularly easy sentencer I think when people committed first-rate crimes they knew they were probably going to get a pretty first-rate sentence from me I think that defense lawyers really liked me in trial because I really was about letting people have their trials and letting the jurors make those decisions and giving people some room and making sure that they had enough time to make sure that the jurors that they selected were really the jurors that they wanted I think sometimes in haste courts don't take enough time on voidier don't let the attorneys know enough about who these jurors are that they don't they are exercising their judgment too blindly and they don't they don't know what they're getting and one of the things that I learned and I think it's turned out to be statistically it's statistically borne out hundreds happen a lot more when when voidier is reduced and as a judge I decided that my job was I want these two parties to have a fair trial but I want to do this one time I'm asking these jurors to sit here I am taking taxpayer money and I want whatever the verdict is I want this to be one time and I found if I really spent the time on voidier let the people know who they were that I had less