The Jailhouse Lawyer

This book contains two novellas set in small-town Alabama and Arkansas, both centered on attorneys who confront corrupt legal systems that prey on vulnerable people.

In the first novella, "The Jailhouse Lawyer," a June morning in Erva, Alabama, begins with a grim discovery: Bailiff Harold Elmore finds public defender Rob Ford hanging in his office, an apparent suicide. Harold mutters, "Here we go again," suggesting Ford is not the first public defender to meet such an end.

In Birmingham, Martha Foster, a 31-year-old single mother and law firm associate, learns that her employer is slashing health benefits in a move targeting the costs of her five-year-old son Andy's congenital heart defect. When the senior partner admits he would never have hired Martha had he known she was pregnant, she searches for a new position and discovers a vacancy for the Douglas County public defender. She applies, is hired, and moves to Erva with Andy.

The town appears charming at first. Judge Wyatt Pickens, the circuit judge, is handsome and courteous, inviting Martha to dinner. District Attorney Doug Carson is collegial. But unsettling signs emerge quickly: The jail staff denies Martha access to inmates unless Pickens personally authorizes each visit, her office computer is password-locked, and no one will share information about prior public defenders. At the criminal docket, Carson waives jail time on every misdemeanor, effectively barring appointment of a public defender and leaving Martha with no clients.

Martha visits Jay Bradshaw, a former law school classmate once voted "Most Likely to Succeed," now jailed for failure to appear on a traffic ticket. She learns that Douglas County charges inmates a "board bill" for room and board, creating escalating debts that keep them incarcerated. Jay owes over $1,200. Martha files a motion, and Pickens releases Jay on a $25-per-week payment schedule. Jay moves into Martha's house temporarily.

The judge's darker nature surfaces steadily. His teenage daughter Phoebe calls him "a psycho asshole," echoing Jay's own assessment. At the docket, Martha meets Abby Zimmerman, a young woman charged with shoplifting who desperately wants legal help. When Pickens demands to know what Abby and Martha discussed and Abby refuses to answer, he jails her for contempt. Martha visits Abby, who is terrified and refers cryptically to "the chair." Days later, Molly Zimmerman, Abby's sister, arrives at Martha's office wailing that Abby has died in custody. Molly saw deep restraint marks on Abby's wrists and ankles and tells Martha that Abby died in what locals call "the Pickens chair," a restraint device used for discipline at the county jail.

Martha and Jay draft a motion arguing that the board bill system constitutes an illegal debtors' prison, citing the US Supreme Court's ruling in Tate v. Short (1971), which held that jailing people solely for inability to pay fines violates equal protection. When Martha presents the motion, Pickens holds her in contempt and orders her to jail.

Martha's experience behind bars is harrowing. Denied a phone call, she cannot arrange Andy's heart medication. When she learns Pickens has "made arrangements" for Andy, she panics and assaults a deputy in a desperate attempt to escape. She is strapped into the restraint chair for over 12 hours without bathroom access or water, suffering incontinence, cramps, and vomiting. The next morning she is forced to sign a liability waiver before release. She discovers Pickens placed Andy with a loyalist without involving Child Protective Services and that Andy has not received his medication.

Pickens forces Martha to withdraw the motion in exchange for Andy's return and maintains control by having his daughters babysit Andy. Jay discovers a listening device planted in a doll on Martha's mantel, confirming surveillance. Martha begins building a case while maintaining a deferential facade in court. She secures testimony from Molly Zimmerman and Opal Ford, widow of the deceased public defender. Someone poisons Martha's dog, Homer, but Jay saves the animal using veterinary knowledge from his father. Martha files an ethics complaint with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission and simultaneously re-files her motions. Pickens, claiming a friend in Montgomery warned him, laughs off the complaint and has Martha fired. She gives an exclusive interview to a reporter at the Montgomery Advertiser and flees the county, while Jay drives Andy and Homer south toward Mobile.

Five months later, the Judicial Inquiry Commission files charges against Pickens, and the case goes before the nine-member Court of the Judiciary in Montgomery. Both Opal and Molly fail to appear, and Jay relapses into drinking. With the case collapsing, Harold Elmore volunteers to testify. He describes the board bill system as a "cash machine" targeting poor defendants, confirms the restraint chair abuses, and reveals that Pickens had Harold himself strapped into the chair overnight, causing a diabetic ulcer that led to the amputation of his foot. The Court unanimously removes Pickens from the bench. Martha files a federal civil rights lawsuit, and in December she returns to Erva to photograph the restraint chair as workers haul it away.

The second novella, "Power of Attorney," follows Leah Randall, an insurance defense attorney in Chicago who quits her job after winning a verdict that shortchanges a plaintiff with quadriplegia by exploiting his mental health history. Her mother summons her home to Bassville, Arkansas, where her father, Walt Randall, a respected plaintiff's lawyer, has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at 64. His practice is in ruins.

Leah takes over Walt's cases and acquires a new client: Amber Lynn Travis, a 23-year-old woman who escaped barefoot from a fire that killed her guardians, Dale and Glenna Maggard. Leah finds the Maggards' wills in Walt's files, confirming Amber as sole beneficiary. When a homeless man accuses Amber of trying to hire him to kill the Maggards, and her fingerprints appear on gas cans from the scene, County Prosecutor Shelby Searcy charges Amber with capital murder.

Amber gradually reveals a horrifying history. On her 18th birthday, Dale forced her to sign a handwritten "contract" making her his "slave" in exchange for eventually inheriting the farm. For years he whipped, strangled, and electrocuted her, confined her in a dog kennel, and sexually assaulted her. Dr. Tripp Pennington, the local physician, documents extensive physical evidence of torture. Leah discovers the slavery contract hidden in a secret compartment of Walt's desk.

At trial, Leah cross-examines prosecution witnesses to establish Amber's abuse and attempts to introduce the slavery contract, but the judge rules it inadmissible until properly authenticated. Amber takes the stand and testifies about the years of torture and confinement. Searcy goads her into rage by asking if she enjoyed the abuse; Amber shouts, "I'm mad because nobody helped me!" When pressed on whether she killed the Maggards, she blurts, "Somebody needed to," and attempts to flee the witness stand. But Leah makes a decisive discovery at the Maggard farm: a fireproof safe hidden in the stone chimney containing cash and over a dozen DVDs. When a DVD showing Dale electrocuting Amber with a device resembling the notorious Tucker Telephone plays in court, jurors weep and look away. The jury deliberates for 20 minutes and returns a not guilty verdict.

In the aftermath, Arkansas State Police investigate a sex-trafficking conspiracy linked to Dale Maggard. One DVD contains audio of Searcy's voice participating in Amber's torture, leading to his indictment. While cleaning out Walt's car, Leah finds a revolver in the glove compartment. Walt, in a moment of partial lucidity, speaks of his duty to protect Amber, implying he killed the Maggards to free her. Leah locks the gun away and tells no one, reflecting that she is her father's daughter.