Imagine that someone asked you to write a book. An entire book. How easy would that be?
Now imagine that the person told you that nothing you said in the book would matter. Plus, as a bonus, you'd be discussing events that occurred 30 years ago, and that currently concern very few people. How excited would you be to take on such a task?
I ask this after spending quite a bit of time -- trust me, quite a bit -- reading this opinion from earlier today. Which spans 185 pages. Which affirms the convictions and sentences for a 1990 murder in which several people were sentenced to death but in which the probability of these defendants actually being executed is essentially nil.
Do you want to do a good job on the opinion? I'm sure you do. There are lives at least allegedly at stake, and these are serious crimes. Nonetheless, I suspect that as you're writing the opinion and hit pages 100 or 120, you start to just want it done and over with. If only because, as a practical matter, none of this will make much of a difference in the end. The defendants will die in prison, a natural death, either way.
But read the entire thing if you'd like. It's a unanimous opinion, and a horrible crime to be sure.
From 1990. In which the defendant's fate is already set.
