The Last Plea Bargain by Randy Singer

Author:Randy Singer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Suspense, FICTION / Suspense
ISBN: 9781414369235
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2012-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

47

Jimmy Brandywine was a loser in every sense of the word. He was soft and pasty with a chipped tooth and curly brown hair. Even at thirty-one years old, he couldn’t grow a proper beard—just a few strands of chin hair. He had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and had lashed out at his previous two lawyers when his medication hadn’t been right. Prior to his arrest, he had lived with his mother and collected unemployment intermittently for fourteen months. The police busted him as part of a pornography sting and found hundreds of pictures of child porn on his computer.

Jimmy had been in jail for six months when, one month before trial, his new lawyer claimed Jimmy wasn’t competent to assist in his own defense. Rowena Guilford, one of the hardest-working public defenders I knew, argued that Jimmy had been repeatedly abused by other prisoners. That abuse had aggravated his preexisting psychiatric issues, pushing him over the edge. According to her motion, Jimmy now thought the entire world had conspired against him—including his own lawyer. “The defendant can no longer separate his own psychotic ideations from reality and therefore is not competent to stand trial,” she wrote.

Shortly afterward, Dr. Aaron Gillespie evaluated Jimmy and declared that the defendant was fit to stand trial after all. The court agreed. And so, on Tuesday morning, the case began.

Judge Whitaker was a massive African American judge who was known to be deliberate and evenhanded. Following Rowena Guilford’s advice, Jimmy had waived his right to a jury trial; judges generally went easier on pornography cases. But before Whitaker took the bench and called the court to order, Rowena approached me at counsel table. “I want to talk about a plea,” she said.

At any other time, this would have been expected. We had a can’t-lose case—the police had conducted a lawful search of Brandywine’s computer and found the pornographic pictures of underage girls. But in the past two weeks, not one defendant had attempted to cut a deal.

I tried to play it coy. “What’s the use? We’ve got him dead to rights.”

Rowena frowned. “Cut the crap, Jamie. We all know things are out of control around here. My client’s willing to step up, plead guilty, and put his life on the line when he walks outside those prison walls. He’s asking you to recommend that the judge sentence him to three years and suspend all but the six months he’s already served.”

I scoffed. “You want him to plead guilty and walk without serving another day?”

Rowena lowered her voice. “He’s willing to play ball. I haven’t had one client willing to play ball in almost three weeks. This could break the logjam, Jamie.” She hesitated and frowned, as if trying to talk herself into something. “Look, if you want him to serve a few more months, and you can make sure he’s in isolation with a twenty-four-hour watch, I can probably work that, too.”

I looked around the courtroom. There were a few folks in the gallery, but nobody could hear us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.