Future campus news editor Jacob Batte transcribed John Grisham’s speech from the Robert C. Khayat Law Center dedication that took place on Friday, April 15, 2011.
I am honored to be here today to say a few words about the Law School and about Robert Khayat.
Thirty years ago, Renae and I were married on a Friday afternoon, here in Oxford at the First Baptist Church. After a brief honeymoon, we were back the following Thursday for my law school graduation.
The speaker that day was a retired judge, I can’t recall his name and I don’t recall much of what he said, but the theme of his remarks was that we were not really needed, the profession was overcrowded – too many lawyers, too many law schools.
It seemed like an odd time and place to be dwelling on such an issue. But we had heard it all before. It didn’t really bother us, as we had heard it for three years. We got our diplomas, and we got out of here. The class of ’81 was so bright and so talented. We were exempted from taking the bar exam.
When I left 30 years ago, I did not plan to come back. I could never see myself coming back to law school. The class of ’81, as bright as we were, suffered a casualty rate in excess of 50 percent.
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Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington
We at MIP did not know Tim Hetherington, the award-winning documentary filmmaker who was killed last week during the fighting in Libya. But Tim was a very close friend and colleague of Sebastian Junger. The two of them recently completed Restrepo, their documentary about soldiers in Afghanistan. It is a terrific film nominated for an Academy Award. We have never met Sebastian, either, for that matter, but he has been kind to MIP over the years.
A couple of years ago he made all of his materials from the writing/research of his excellent book, “A Death in Belmont”, available to MIP and the Mississippi Bar Litigation Section so that we could develop materials to present a day-long CLE loosely-based on his work. His efforts were no small feat: he was back and forth to Afghanistan at the time, and the materials were in deep storage.
As Sebastian writes, “Tim is gone but he left many, many good things behind, and many dear friends. I was lucky to be among them.”
Here is a brief tribute to Tim from friend and journalist colleague Joshua Kors at The Nation:
The website for Restrepo film can be found here:
Mississippi Innocence will screen tonight at the Crossroads Film Festival at the Malco Grandview in Madison, Mississippi. The screening is at 6:50pmand tickets are available at the box office.
Special Guest, Levon Brooks, filmaker, Joe York, and Producers, Tucker Carrington and Andy Harper will all be at the screening for a Q & A following the film.
Below is The Clarion-Ledger review of the film:
Documentary tonight shows wrongful convictions do happen
by: Jerry Mitchell
Skeptical that wrongful convictions ever take place? Then watch Mississippi Innocence.
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