Senior Project, PCP case / Death Penalty case

Today, I met a client who was charged with kidnapping, and felonious assault. He got high on PCP, again as mentioned in the last post BAD DRUG, ran out of an apartment building. He then went into a nearby drug store, only to leave quickly. He proceeded to then go to the window of a car waiting to turn left (?) at an intersection (near University Circle). He said people were chasing him, and going to kill him and asked the woman in the car to call 9-1-1. Scared witless the woman started to drive away, and the defendant proceeded to open her passenger side car door, grab the wheel, and pull the hair of the woman (not allowing her to exit the vehicle). The woman states she repeatedly drove over the curb to get the guy out of the car, and then hit the street post. The air bags deployed, leaving the woman with a broken wrist and the defendant minor head damage. When taken to the hospital he was found positive for PCP and cocaine. This case is a great example / follow up to the previous post of mine that PCP makes people do crazy things. The client hallucinated, thought people where trying to kill him, and in his attempts to “get away” managed to harm another person. What most people assume is these felons are horrible people who intend to harm others. In this case, the guy was simply very stupid and ended up taking a drug that influenced him to make even poorer decisions. People ask if I’m afraid in the holding cell meeting with these guys, and in most cases no. A lot of the time, the felons are people who have difficult lives who decide to make poor decisions that lead to trouble, most of the time due to drugs, alcohol or mental problems. The felons that disturb me are the crafty, cunning ones who know exactly what they are doing and plan it out. Sitting in this cell, I just felt really bad for this guy. His life is completely changed by one horrible, stupid decision to take a really nasty drug. Lesson learned = never do PCP.

My “homework” for this weekend is to read over a case and past history of a man charged of killing his girlfriend’s 2 year old son (head trauma due to “struggle” in the bath). It is not his kid. This woman knew him for only 6 weeks, and then allowed him to stay with her. Lesson, never invite people into your home to live with you who you do not know for an extended amount of time. My lawyer’s office is doing this “brainstorming” session about ways in which during the mitigation they can say why this man should not be killed by the state (death penalty). Mitigation is what occurs after the person has been found guilty. Basically, it decides weather or not this person should be put to death because certain “mitigating factors” like mental illness prevents the state from being able to kill convicted murders. Actually, only certain types of murders to begin with (killing a cop, child under age of 12, mass murder, prior murder conviction etc.) can even be eligible for the death penalty. So, I’m to read over the case / past history of the alleged killer (though its pretty apparent he did it, so that’s not the big issue), and find reasons why if charged with guilty the state should not sentence him to death. Learning more about the death penalty process was interesting, plus also witnessing how the office works together to brainstorm a theory for mitigation was insightful. Most people see lawyers as competing with one another or trying to be completely independent. It was nice to see them working together to see how to plan this guy’s mitigation theory.