24 hours with the devil!!!

A New Dawn 4

It was a bright sunny day; I was casually dressed with my grey coloured T-shirt, blue jeans and a white sneakers. My siblings helped me move some property of mine (already well packaged in boxes) into the truck. I originally reside in the native town of Lere with my family which comprises my dad, mum, my brother and sister. It has been two years now since I completed my internship program and a year since I graduated from Harvard Law School. As has always been the case, my main reason for deciding to study law in the first instance was so I can help people in my community and beyond; so I can be the voice of the voiceless and so I can contribute my own quota in helping young and old people in the society get the justice that they deserve. After my incident in the city of Phils, I always remembered my encounter with Henry and how poorly the inmates of the Phils Correctional Centre were treated and I had made it a priority that I was going to return to that town and see how I can help the inmates who were wrongly accused of certain crimes and were on death row to get the justice they deserved. The town of Phils is popular for housing a large population of ‘black’ residents as well as a lot of ‘white’ residents and it was not always the ideal place for a young lawyer to practice law considering the fact that the town was popularly but falsely believed to house notorious ‘black’ criminals who after being tried in the law court, were sentenced to death, often by hanging, firing squad or by an electric chair.

I had decided to move out of the city of Lere to go serve where the need was greater and where I can use what I have to benefit humanity. As I loaded my boxes into the truck, I could see the sadness on the faces of my siblings who assisted me in packing my boxes into the truck. Apparently, it hit my mum the most as she refused to talk to me or even look me in the face for deciding to go to the city of Phils out of all places in the country. My dad on the other hand, helped me check the oil of the truck and tested the engine of the truck once more to ensure that it was in perfect working condition. “I just added extra oil but you need to check and change it when you get there”, my dad said. “Thanks dad” I replied. “Have you spoken to your mum yet?” he asked. My mum who was obviously frustrated at the fact that I was leaving to Phils county and was clearly not in support of my decision, thereby not talking to me as a result was taking out her frustration on the leaves at the corner of the house as she swept the corner part of the yard aggressively with a grim look on her face. “What did those leaves do to you?” I said while I gently approached her and sat on the porch in front of her. “Are you not gonna say bye to your son?” I added. She sighed and turned back to look at me with sad look on her face. “I know you have got your law degree now and you think you have grown but you are still my child and I am the one who has to deal with your funeral arrangements if you get killed down there”. “Come on mum” I said with a wry smile on my face. “Oh! Do you think this is funny? If you cannot see the danger in what you are doing, you need to ask Harvard for your money back. You used to be smarter than that” she said. She walked away from me with tears circling round her eye lids already as she went to the back yard of the house sobbing gently. I followed her, sat beside her on a pavement with tears already forming round my eyelids as well as I looked at her sobbing gently already. “First time I visited death row, I was not expecting to see what I saw inside those walls. I saw people, old and young living like peasants. Their living condition was so poor that I could not help but cry at the sight I beheld. The worst part of it all was that they all had one thing in common; their skin colour. They were all blacks and they were constantly treated like pigs inside that prison. Most of them had no access to lawyers and they were all facing a possible death sentence. They were stripped of all hope and were dehumanized constantly by their fellow humans because of their race. Mum, the second time I visited that same prison, I was not expecting to meet somebody the same age as me. We grew up on the same musical and he grew up in a neighbourhood just like ours. It could have been me mum” I said. “I love you mum and I don’t want to move far away from you but always taught me to fight for the people who need the help the most” I added. “I am very proud of you son and I know your heart is in the right place but it is not that simple. What you are doing is going to make a lot of people upset, you better be careful, my boy because I cannot bear losing you to this cruel system of things, okay?” “I will be careful mum and I will always continue to make you proud mum” I said. “You promise?” she replied. “I promise mum” I said as I edged closer and reached out for a hug and later gave her a peck on her cheeks. This time, she finally wore a smile on her face.

It was a long drive to Phils county and my assistant Jennifer was working on renting an office where we would be carrying out our legal services. I met Jennifer during my days in Harvard Law school and she we were best friends ever since. Considering the fact that I was the best student in my class, she had a special liking for me and respected me a lot. Jennifer had the same passion as I had and she was hell bent on providing legal services for the poor and needy who really needs the help and could not afford the services of a lawyer. As an expert in constitutional human right and my best friend, Jennifer was the only one I could fully trust and count on to help me achieve what I set out to achieve. She also had a six year old son though. Well, I arrived at Phils county, I parked my truck at the parking lot of an office rental and walked in to meet Jennifer who was standing at the hallway adjoining several offices with her six year old son, Chris and the landlord of the rental. Jennifer who was supposed to have secured an office in this building as we sought an office to carry out our operations. Apparently, she was having a spat with the landlord of the office rental on the hallway adjoining the offices and he previously had an initial agreement with her in place for the office but changed his mind at the death on discovering what the office we were renting would be used for. I walked in on them as they were discussing. “We had an agreement to rent this space for two years and you said it was a done deal” Jennifer said frustratingly. “That was before I knew what you guys would be doing here" the landlord replied. “We are giving poor people their constitutional right; do you mind explaining to me what you think is so wrong with that sir?” Jennifer cut in. I finally got to where they were standing and asked Jennifer “Jenny, what’s wrong?” She looked at me and said “Welcome David” before introducing me to the landlord of the office rental as the ‘Executive Director of our organization’. I extended my hands to the landlord and the landlord of the rental and I shook hands. “My boss just got here and was expecting to move in to the office that you promised us immediately and you are making me look bad in front of my boss” she said. The landlord added “She told me you were a lawyer Mr David but nobody told me that you were a lawyer for murderers on death row” “We are providing legal services to people who need help Sir” I added. Still adamant and blatantly refusing to rent us the space, the landlord said “You will have to provide your legal services somewhere else, Mr David because I cannot help evil people like that around here” “Not every one is in there for committing a crime Sir, some were framed, some are innocent and some are just victimized as a result of the chaotic system that this country currently finds themselves in” I said. “Well, Mr David, I am not changing my mind for any reason whatsoever. I have made my decision and I am sorry but I cannot help you, go somewhere else, will you?” “But Sir…” I tried cutting in. “Have a nice day, Mr David and Miss Jennifer, I wish you good luck” he said as he turned his back on us, walked into his office and slammed the door behind us. Jennifer who was already boiling with rage attempted to knock heavily on his door once again and I held her hands, restraining her from doing “something stupid” as a result of her anger. “What a piece of s**t! How can one be so insensitive? What is wrong with providing legal services for people on death row? What is wrong with helping people? Gosh! People are so so so insensitive” Jennifer blurted out. “It is absolutely fine, Jenny. We are definitely going to find somewhere else and we will get out of this mess” I said. “I am so so sorry. This is not how I wanted to welcome you here. I will find us an office but I just need to change my tactics next time. I sometimes wonder why it is increasingly difficult to get an office here. Once they find out you are providing legal services for people on death row, they change their mind and decline immediately. It is so annoying and frustrating at the same time” she said. “It is fine, we can work from anywhere” I replied. “Well then, we will just tell Chris to clean up his toys from the living room. Right, Chris?” she said with a huge grin on her face. “I will think about it” Chris said and we all busted out in laughter as we walked out of the office rental.

It was about 7 pm and I was at Jennifer’s house having dinner with her in the dining room which was well lit with a small chandelier hanging from the centre of the dining room, with a slow faded sound of music playing in the background She recounted her experiences and why she had a very keen interest in representing prisoners on death row. I have always known she had a thing for humanity, for equal representation and for enforcement of the constitutional rights of all and sundry but I listened as she explained why she developed a much more keener interest in providing legal services for people on death row. She explained that while she was still in school, she was making research and writing a paper on capital punishments when she met her first death row inmate, a man named Gerrard Riddler. Apparently, Gerrard and his friend, both blacks, robbed a pawn shop and they both got a death sentence. I asked her if that is the reason why she got into all this and she said that his attorney was in favour of the death sentence as he keenly believes that mad dogs ought to die without any question. She stated further that a lot of folks on death row either had very cheap representation or none at all which has led to lots of innocent individuals being sentences to death while others who committed minor offences are also being sentenced to death without fully justifying their crimes. She was excited to work even though she knew that at that time, I could not pay her anything since I was just opening my law firm for the first time. “I am so excited about what you want to achieve David and I want you to always know that I will always be here with you to support you at all times and hopefully, we will be able to help a lot of innocent folks out there get the justice they deserve” said Jennifer. “Thank you, Jennifer, I couldn’t be less happy” I said.