So It Begins

Twenty Years and a Car Seat on the Table

What am I doing here? I'm looking up at a judge, beet red in his face. He is so enraged, I can’t understand his words. I know why he is mad. My client did not show up for his trial this morning.

I'm in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, for my first trial as the new director of the Public Defender’s office. They hired me a couple of months ago and sent me to the Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia, for intensive training.

They didn’t cover this situation…a raging judge, an absent client.


Table of Contents

1 Rage and Resolve
2 Justice Weighed by the Pound
3 The Leap of Faith
4 Handshake on the Tug
5 A Foot in Heaven; A Foot in Hell
6 Take Me Out to the Ballgame
7 Mama Tried; Mama Cried
8 Be Not Afraid
9 A Feverish Defense
10 Kentucky Boy
11 Excavating Truth
12 Thanksgiving without Thanks or Giving
13 I Wish I Could Remember
14 Everything Changes for a Reason
15 Never Work on a Saturday Morning
16 Give it to Mikey
17 A Call From the Mountains
18 Bo and the Congressman
19 A Different Rider
20 In the Shadow of a Newborn’s Joy
21 The Tree
22 The River Squall
23 The Easter Mouse
24 A Hot Date
25 My Day on Death Row
26 Rutabaga or Studebaker