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Friday, October 31, 2008

A Halloween tidbit from Minnesota Lawyer

I’ve always loved Halloween. I love to decorate my house with Halloween items, put pumpkins out on my doorstep, hang “Happy Halloween” signs on my doors and go to at least one super scary movie. As my co-workers will attest, I even like to put out Halloween stuff on at my desk at work -- usually more than a month ahead of time. My interest in this spooky “holiday” got me wondering how many times our appellate courts have considered cases that are linked in some way to Halloween.

A search of all Minnesota appellate cases decided since May 1996 revealed that there are only two cases from the high court that even contain the word “Halloween.” There are no published decisions from the Court of Appeals with the term, but there are 13 unpublished cases.

A cursory review of the cases indicated that most of them are criminal matters, some stemming from acts related to Halloween partying. The most interesting -- or in this case, “scary” -- decision involved a Halloween mask found under a dead body eight years ago. It turns out that the mask contained the DNA of the man who was ultimately convicted of murder.

Hopefully nothing quite so horrific will result from all the partying that is sure to go on tonight.

On that note, have a happy -- and safe -- Halloween!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nothing about the new lawyers being sworn in?