tony serra didn't have to deal with bloggers in his career. i think what's going on in new york city where the head of the i.m.f. was arrested for doing some untorrid things in a big hotel. i found it ironic last night that eliot spitzer was interviewing people talking about these sorts of activities, and that cycle is going on and on. if you want to play a drinking game, you know, who wants to take bets of when we're going to have the first appearance of gloria allred? it's inevitable. i'm getting off the point a little bit here. but at some point i think it was around the time of the o.j. case where you had this confluence of a big public figure, it was a juicy trial, and cable news was just becoming a force. it changed the environment in which we operate, at least criminal system operates. because it's not just cases anymore, it's entertainment. it's a whole media frenzy on big cases. and i don't think that's a very good thing, but that is the environment in which we operate. and lawyers have to deal with that now. >> a very good point. we

but then i had a conversation with jeff about tony serra. and another element came out, his great heart, his deep generosity, and his respect for those he defended. so i've tried to incorporate both of these things in this piece. and i depicted him as i would see him making his plea to the jury on behalf of his client. i hope tony likes it. [laughing] [applause] >> we knew this would be tremendously embarrassing to tony, because tony, you know, doesn't like to be recognized in any way. but the reason we did this, tony -- and i want to thank the trial lawyers association or the northern california criminal trial lawyers association as well as stuart hanlon. we're going to also have an image of you -- a sculpture of you, in our trial room to help inspire the next generation of attorneys. but this one is yours. [applause] so thank you very much to all of our panelists. we're going to take a five-minute break and then come back with our next p >> the second panel. this panel is going to be incredible. it really is. we have a superstar panel and,

and right next to her we have tony serra, and tony serra is the most prolific trial lawyer of our times. he's tried more cases than any other living lawyer. if you ever had a chance to see him in court, it's just a sight to behold. it really is. we're so grateful that he could be here today. he's trying a triple homicide case right now in oakland. he has a jury out waiting. you may get called away but we're hope you're able to stay for the panel. finally, we have sheldon siegel. and sheldon siegel is a corporate lawyer who has written a series -- i think seven books now, a fictional criminal defense attorney named mike daley who actually lives here in san francisco. and he's written a series of books and these becomes have been shown and transcribed and read throughout the world. so we're going to start now with a clip, a video clip and then we're going to go to the panel. >> i think it is our national novel. if there was a national novel of week, this would be it for the united states. i think it's the favorite book of almost everybody you meet. >> the first time in my life that the bo

and lo and behold tony serra walks into my court representing the defendant. i couldn't imagine why he was there for a simple misdemeanor assault case, but he was. and i thought, boy, this is just my luck. here i've got this famous tony serra, he's renown, he's in the press all the time, he has had a movie made about him, and i bet he's an arrogant jerk, and i get him. first trial he's going to make me look really bad. and this poor d.a., we're just going to look terrible. well, lo and behold tony serra comes in. he's a wonderful gentleman. he's gracious. he knows i've never tried a case to a jury. he knows that the d.a. has tried two cases to a jury. he guided us through this trial. he put on a fabulous show, as is his want, which was instructional and very, very interesting. he never took advantage of my inexperience or the d.a.'s experience. and by the end of the day when that trial was over -- of course, he won. but nobody on that jury would have ever suspected that i had never tried a case to a jury or that the d.a. had not had any experience, virtually,

today, the justice conference honors a past ctla honoree, one of our own, tony serra. ctla has featured the likes of not only tony serra at a feature presenter at our programs but those that include jim bross that has who defends cases most of the time but was the special prosecutor in the cat wineberger case. john was responsible for ollie north. chris argatis, who i don't think has prosecuted anyone but defends everyone. and other greats like patrick and nancy. our programs have historically been more a mix of social and educational gatherings. our history dates back to 1962. we had a judge's luncheon in 1962 and our list of ctla presidents goes back that far. i wish i had the time to list them all but i don't. we'll get that list on our ctla page soon. san francisco is lucky to have ctla to kick around. our shall i say, to have our ctla members to kick around. but seriously, i'm humbled by the ctla members who every day, every day defend their clients using the constitutions of the united states and california in support of great principles. every day our members sh

>> i was not told i would follow tony serra. i need to go back and prepare a little more. [laughing] i learned something, too. i guess i better stand up. [laughing] i'm really honored to be here. i'm the toy department. i write novels about the types of cases that lawyers like tony handle. in the daytime i work for a big law firm of the type that tony probably would not hold in the highest of esteem, but i'm delighted to be here. you know, i think if you talked to most authors, they will tell you that there is something hot-wired into our system that says we need to try to tell a story. there is nothing at all in my background. i am an absolutely accidental writer. there is nothing in my background which suggests i should be writing novels. i grew up in chicago. i write books about san francisco. i studied accounting at the university of illinois. i have been a corporate and securities attorney for 28 years. i've now written seven best-selling novels about murder trials, death penalty cases, and courtroom drama. i have never handled a criminal case in my life. [laughing] s

serra, i was thinking, you know, actually the law is this huge thing. and there are parts of it that work really well. and when i started out, i was a young lawyer at a large wall street law firm. and believe it or not, we did really good work. and since we typically litigate against or are involved with other large corporate law firms, the other people did railly good work. and since we were typically in federal court, the judges were pretty good. so what i'm trying to say is, is it actually works in some levels. you know? it doesn't work when you get down to the criminal level, when you get down to people who are poor, frankly. you know? there's a strait fiction in the law that mirrors the whole society. anyway. i wanted to say that. i've worked on a bunch of television shows. i've thought about this question a lot. and i have no idea how this cycle works. but one of the shows that i really enjoyed was "l.a. law." the reason i liked "l.a. law" was that it was about the kind of business of law. you know? a lot of it was about the real, you know, busine

author, artist, paulette frankl followed tony serra in and out of the courtroom for more than a decade to capture in words and images this man who embodies justice and drama at their best. in "lust for justice" you view the law of one of the greatest practitioners and you'll never look at it the same way again. >> the oldest man on death row is eyeing me from his wheelchair. despite his frail appearance, his baratone is still forceful. walking to the row, mr. daley. he says to me. we need your help. we're running out of time, over 850 inmates is awaiting for lethal injection in california. every one of them is running out of time. thank you for coming in on short notice, he continues. did you have any trouble getting inside? nothing out of the ordinary, i tell him. i think sometimes, it's harder for lawyers to get into san quentin than it is for clients to get out. it took hours to pass the two metal detectors before i was stuck in a six-by-six-foot wall covered with plexiglas. the death row visitor's area is a stone's throw from a little green chamber which the state of california has

we have a real-life atticus finch, tony serra, who is here and has motivated so many of us to do what we do. our second panel looks at abuse of power, abuse of power and how it happens and why it happens and most importantly what we can do and need to do to prevent it. whether it's a prosecutor or a judge or a defender render ineffective assistance to counsel or a police officer violating constitutional rights. this is not something we can tolerate, yet it happens each and every day. and our panel is going to delve deep into the issues that we're seeing not only here in the bay area but throughout the country and throughout the world. our third panel after lunch will talk about the future of the death penalty and hopefully its demise. you might be surprised that we are having a conversation here in san francisco about the death penalty. as you know, our district attorney has indicated that he may seek the death penalty in appropriate cases in san francisco, and that has not been the case for the past decade. but he's coming today to talk about his views. we also have a former warden a

we have a real-life atticus finch, tony serra, who is here and has motivated so many of us to do what we do. our second panel looks at abuse of power, abuse of power and how it happens and why it happens and most importantly what we can do and need to do to prevent it. whether it's a prosecutor or a judge or a defender render ineffective assistance to ineffective assistance to counsel or a police officer

supervisors out of a job had joked on facebook that he was " checking out vice- presidential candidate serra palin as the protector during the 2008 campaign. >> it is 5 05, we will check in with warrants to find out how the weekend forecast is. >> this will be some kind of weekend, something we haven't seen all year so far. a lot of sunshine come in our way, high pressure moving yet. we have '50s and '60s, patchy dense fog right towards the immediate coast line but you won't have to worry much about that. patchy fog towards the coast, otherwise, mostly clear skies with very mild temperatures so far. today, a good 17 degrees above average in livermore. 72 in san francisco and it will get even warmer as we head to the first part of the weekend. we will start to cool down a little bit on sunday and by next week it looks like we have a good chance of rain coming back. >> let's go outside on this beautiful friday morning and so far traffic looks good. a live look at san jose northbound and southbound 101. let's go to the maps, these are all live traffic sensors show you the current conditions up

serra bowl makes money and wants to negotiate more rent but the landlord, a 99 year-old man, lives inouse in the parking lot and is not want a bowling alley anymore. his daughter told me by phone that it is just time for a change although there are no plans for what will go here next the story is a long one without a happy ending. >> it is a gorgeous weekend, yesterday was lovely and it sounds like we will see more lovely weather today. >> will clouds and fog will burn off through the day. thunderstorms left behind a lot of rainfall for the bay area which takes us to 60-80 percent of normal for the rainfall totals for this time of year. nothing showing up on radar this morning as we see the low clouds and fog it will gradually burn off to show some more sunshine out across the interior this afternoon. elsewhere across the country, severe weather expected in the midsection of the country along this frontal boundary. low clouds and fog are the pattern this morning after a lovely day yesterday with breezy and cool conditions. things will warm up today especially across the interior. most

area, all yacht races near the golden gate are on hold at this point after the deadly crash near the serra lons two weeks ago. the accident killed two people and three others are still missing and presumed dead. one of those killed is alexis bush, the first bat girl for the giants. tomorrow, the team plans to hold a public memorial for her. >>> tonight, an artist dedication trying to bring to life the face of a victim who died 20 years ago could help catch her filler. detectives now know what the victim may have looked like and are hoping someone might just recognize her. nbc bay area's kimberly terry talked to the forensic artist who did the sketch. >> reporter: that forensic artist was able to take photos of the remains in this case and develop a sketch from the ima images. investigators are hoping it will help them identify the jane doe, and the person who killed her. this is a small town northwest of martinez. port costa. there is an unsolved murder mystery here nearly two decades old. a man walking his dog june 2nd, 1993, found a woman's body. the sheriff's office has never been able

empezar con nuestro jamÓn que tenÍa picado ya y me preguntan si se puede hacer con un tipo de jamÓn serra con la afortunada delÍa de hoy que es cristal por quiÉn su abuela pidiÓ un cambio y allÍstÁ el cambio. >>> quÉ tal la transformaciÓn samy. >>> claro que sÍ aquÍ estamos con cristal una belleza latina. una niÑa preciosa pero que no le gustaba arreglarse y su abuela teresa que es una mujer espeacular me dijo que querÍa ver a su nieta linda. ando vean a esta niÑa como ha cambdo, le dejemos una melena espectacular, es una latina asÍ divina fogosa comoÚ estÁs?. >>> nerviosa. >>> sigues nerviosa. >>> pero mija que te voy a dar para los nervios. deja que te veas e cÁmara y el francÉs lo estÁs practicando. no se mueva del programa, todo puede pasar hasta transo formaciÓn que creÍa que era el posie, ¿no? sÍ en casa. si les muy bien tÚ yo luzco mejor con krigs talcristal. >>> que se de la vuelta ra verla. >>> quÉ emociÓn. >>> sÍ que ya no tiene ruls. >>> la quiero ver. >>> y volveremos en el rincÓn de mamÁ estÁn seguro de los que hijos hacen en la red de internet, bueno un expertos no ayuda a p

ser su propio reality show asÍ como lo escucho a udicen que estÁ preparando un nvo discogrÁfico que serraÓn. >>>amos hablar de una ciudad que gusta mucho y que vamos a visitarla tarla de vez en cuando, chicago dÓnde la vive tradiciÓn es no olvidan sus raÍces y ademÁs loue considero que es muy importante buscan como inculcarsela a los hijos. >>> eso me gusta, siempre estÁn involucradas en labores para inspirar a losiÑos, para hablarnos de esto, vamos con Érica a esta ciudad de los vientos donde hace un frÍo. >>> buen dÍa. >>> buenos dÍas. >>> quÉ tal muy buenos dÍas. >>> me encuentro frente al organizaci organizaciÓn aquÍ en el vecindario latino de pil seno chicago, una vez al mes tienen una clase muy especial de mÚsica, baile, pero sobre todo, es de cultura para mantener viva la hermosa tradiciÓn del son ja roche mexicano. >>>. >>> este rico ritmo es parte de la cultura musical del estado de veracruz en mÉxico y que ha trans dado un largo camino hasta llegar aquÍ a chicago, y es que la organizaciÓn cada tres semanas niÑos se reÚnen para aprender el son ja roche. >>> ven im aquÍ para im ap