- okay.
- I'm ready.
- jacquiese, stand up.
Jacquiese whelchel is not guilty of false imprisonment,
attempted false imprisonment,
terroristic threats, or battery.
Sit down.
The judge is gonna tell you
that if the state fails to prove their case,
it is your duty;
you must acquit.
That's the beauty of this system.
It's set up to give people the presumption of innocence,
to give them an opportunity to not just be heard
but hold the state accountable.
You want to take my liberty, you got to do it right,
and if you don't, acquit.
The fifth amendment to the united states constitution
guarantees it.
As I've made my objections throughout this trial,
it's to make sure that this kid gets a fair trial.
It's not a big case, is what they say.
They are saying that they have-- they have the gall to say
that this is not a big case.
There are huge consequences.
This boy will become a convicted felon.
That's the reality of it.
That's what this case represents.
Thank you.
♪
- I'm scared man - I know it
- keep your head up. Don't look down.
- it's almost over
- I've been advised that you've reached a verdict in the case.
- yes, ma'am.
- madam clerk, if you'll please publish the verdict.
- yes, ma'am.
In the superior court of hall county,
state of georgia versus jacquiese m'shawn whelchel,
we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty
this second day of november 2011,
count one, jury foreperson.
- my goal is to fill this wall up,
and then once I fill this wall up,
I don't know what I'm gonna do.
Hopefully, like, my whole office
will just be covered in acquittals.
I decided, since the wins go on the wall,
the losses have to go somewhere,
and I'ma tattoo--
uh, I don't have any tattoos,
so I'm gonna get the last name of every case I've lost
tattooed on my back.
Right now it's only five, and hopefully it won't get--
hopefully I won't fill my back up.
That's the goal.
But since the wins go on the wall,
I decided the losses have to go somewhere,
and they'll go on my back,
'cause they're gonna be with me forever.
- when you work as a public defender,
you say to somebody,
"oh, I'm a public defender,"
and then they're like, "well, what does that mean?"
"i defend people who are charged with committing crimes,"
and then they'll say,
"how can you defend those people?"
I tell them the truth, and the truth is,
it's about the sanctity of human liberty
and the cost of it if you want to take it.
- hi.
- I'm well. How are you?
Trying cases is an adrenaline rush,
and when you win, there's a high.
But that is not the average day of a public defender.
this is great!
A client got approved
for the pretrial diversion program.
I am so excited for him.
Ah, if only we can get him out.
If we can't get him out, it's pointless
if his mom can't buy him out.
Hi, may I speak with miss howard?
Miss howard, how are
This is brandy alexander
over at the public defender's office in clayton county.
I got a letter from the d.a.'s office today
indicating that they have referred him
to the pretrial diversion program.
Are you familiar with that at all?
It will allow him to have his charges dismissed.
Now, in order to get him in the pretrial diversion program,
he's gonna have to get out of jail.
You think you'll be able to do that?
I know it's a lot, miss howard.
I know.
The average person cannot come up with $3,000
in a month or in less than a month.
Is there any amount that you can afford?
Okay.
Your mom has 500. How much do you have?
You don't have anything.
Is his--
all right. I'll talk to you soon.
Bye-bye.
♪
He's gonna have to choose between a trial and a plea.
- being a public defender,
you realize very quickly
the reality is,
90% of the people or 95% of the people
who get charged with something
plead guilty to something, right?
Because the system is designed to force them to plead guilty,
and it punishes their failure to comply.
This is the way it really works.
You go to jail.
You're charged with an offense
based upon what a police officer thinks you did.
They set a bond,
and if you're poor and you can't make the bond,
you don't get out.
so you sit
and you sit
and you sit.
You may have lost your house.
Your kids may be needing sustenance.
You may have been taken out of high school--
all the things that could happen
if you were summarily plucked from your life.
You have so much tremendous pressure to plead guilty.
It's all about lessening the penalty.
That's what we do.
- this is the kingdom.
Um...
These are crime scenes,
aerial depictions of burglaries and robberies
that I've collected.
This guy was charged with, like,
38 counts of burglary,
and it took--it took forever to close the case,
and I just kept the blowups from it.
There's really nothing to see in the house.
It's next door to the office.
That's my favorite thing about it.
It's next door to the office.
All I do is this.
I don't do anything else.
I don't have a wife and kids.
I do this. I do this for a living.
You know, in a given case,
if I don't do all I need to do,
somebody's gonna become a convicted felon,
and they go to prison.
They can't vote. They can't get a job.
Like, I think about that every case.
the job is just emergencies.
Everybody's in an emergency state.
Everybody's in jail
or charged with child molestation
or getting beat up
or something crazy is going on.
It's just--it's just chaos.
- judge, this is case number 2011cr252-c,
the state of georgia versus branden lee mullin.
On the incident date,
the defendant was with cody campbell,
and they discussed ordering a pizza.
They did discuss robbing the pizza man.
Cody campbell made the call,
and the car was approached by mr. mullin,
who put the knife to mr. wrengle's throat
and told him to freeze and to give him the money.
The investigation progressed from there.
- when I get a case,
I'm more like an investigator than a lawyer.
I really consider myself a lot more like matlock
than f. lee bailey.
- uh, just--just a statement.
Yeah, slightly incriminating.
You know, "i was there. I saw this guy jump out.
I didn't know what was going on."
- no. no.
I believe he just happened to be
at the wrong place at the wrong time
hanging with a bunch of dummies.
But it ain't lookin' good.
But, oh, man, it'll break my heart
if this kid gets convicted.
Ten-year mandatory minimum, day for day.
- yeah, 19.
- and our kid is a cute little white guy.
He's gonna have a rough time at the big boy prison,
'cause that's where they're gonna send armed robbers.
He's gonna have a rough time.
He probably won't live to see the ten years.
If he does, when he gets out,
I would hate to see him.
For 96 bucks.
All this shit over $96.
♪
- all rise.
- mr. mardell, you were charged with driving
after being declared an habitual violator.
Upton, you were charged with aggravated assault,
with terroristic threats, and battery.
Mr. rawlings, you were charged
with violation of the georgia controlled substances act.
This plea form has a written statement that indicates
that you wish to plead guilty.
How do you wish to plead to these charges?
Not guilty or guilty? - guilty.
- how do you wish to plead to these charges?
Not guilty or guilty? - guilty.
- so is there anything further from the state?
- no, your honor.
- anything further from the defense?
- no, your honor. And that's all I had.
May I be excused? - yes, ma'am.
- these are the new clients that you need to see.
Here's the file that I was just asking about.
- oh.
thanks. okay.
- miss wright, how are you doing?
Um, I talked to the prosecutor.
She'd be willing to go up on the bond, $10,000,
and then give him a curfew.
But I want to make sure that it's not gonna, like,
increase your amount that you have to pay every two weeks
by more than $100.
Okay.
You're welcome. I'll talk to you soon.
She's behind on all of her bills,
and they're about to take her car.
This kid is in high school.
He's so smart,
so incredibly smart.
That's him.
He's 17.
He was arrested for armed robbery.
This is--i can't even believe that they arrested him for it.
I really don't believe it.
And it's a ten-year minimum mandatory sentence.
And win, lose, or draw,
tears will fall,
because this kid is--
I don't think he's guilty.
I don't. I think he's innocent.
- when they arrested me,
I was scared.
I didn't know what was going on.
- why don't come on in and help me get decorated?
There's some meatloaf and cabbages in the refrigerator.
Throw that trash out.
- it was december 9, 2010.
Me and my family was sitting in the living room watching tv,
cooking, you know, just a normal family night.
All of a sudden, we hear a big knock on the door.
So my mom go to the door and open up.
They say it's the college park police.
- I unlocked the door, twist the knob,
and didn't even get a chance to open the door all the way.
As soon as it cracked--
I guess they heard me twist the knob--
they just pushed the door in,
pushed me back,
they spinned me around, pushed me on the floor,
rushed in, pushed my daughter on the floor.
They all had guns and flashlights to all our heads
on the floor.
They rushed in the living room,
yanked my son off the sofa,
throw him on the floor,
put the handcuffs on him,
and just took him outside.
I cried.
It's a unexplainable feeling, situation,
for someone to come in to your home,
whether it's been the police or whomever,
and take your child away.
Demontes was a very good baby.
This is when he became kind of challenging.
He would take his toys apart and put 'em back together,
and I bought him one of those razor motorcycles.
You would never believe it.
He took that thing apart and re-rigged it up
to run faster.
- when they arrested me, I was 16.
Then they--they held me at a juvenile detention center
until I turned 17,
and then they took me to the county,
which is adult jail.
I was scared, but I knew I couldn't--
I couldn't really let it get to me,
'cause I knew I had to be strong,
'cause at the time,
I was gonna be there to be there,
so I couldn't really stress myself.
It'd make the situation worse.
I already knew I couldn't afford a lawyer,
so I was expecting a public defender.
I was just praying on a good one,
and god answered my prayer.
- armed robbery is a maximum life penalty.
A judge could sentence you to life for it.
You understand what that means? - yeah.
- it's hard to understand a life sentence when you're 17.
But those are things that you have to think about.
I know a man.
He was sentenced to life in prison
for a crime he did not commit.
You have to think about that.
I know that you're young,
and it's easy to want to run the streets with your friends
and do what you see on tv
and get tattoos and so on and so forth.
That's real cool, and it's great,
and it's wonderful while you're 16, 17 years old.
But when you're 25, who's gonna hire you
with tats on your neck and all down your hand?
That make sense? - yeah.
♪
- so welcome back to birmingham.
all right.
I--i don't know if everyone knows,
but--but, um, just this month
we had three more lawyers leave their offices,
three more s.p.d.t.c. lawyers leave their offices.
It's not a surprise, right?
I mean, you guys are doing the most difficult work
in the most difficult places.
But as I've talked to some of you
who haven't left but maybe have been considering it,
I know one issue is certainly money.
But another issue is
that it's just too hard.
"i feel defeated."
I think that that's what this community is about.
- I closed over 500 felonies last year,
and I have 165 pending cases right now that are all felonies,
and i--i cannot be an effective attorney
at those numbers.
- without this group, I would've quit a long time ago,
because, as you said, it's a hard job,
and when you've got nobody that's helping you,
and when you've got everybody telling you,
you know, "you work too much. You should"--
that are actually ordering me out the door
and ordering me not to work the hours that I work.
- the summer after I graduated,
a young lady by the name of alice stamps was like,
"june, you've got to come work
for the hinds county public defender's office."
I was like, "no.
"y'all got to pay me.
"i got six figures in educational debt.
What are you say"--
"june, all of that's gonna work out, baby.
Don't even trip on it."
- there was a case.
It was a sex case,
and the client was accused of, like,
raping his 12-year-old daughter.
So I go to talk to him,
and I'm expecting him to tell me
why he didn't do it and, you know,
help me to establish a defense for him,
and he starts to tell me
how he raped his daughter,
and he's proud of it.
And I literally had to, like,
stop myself from vomiting.
Something clicked in me that said,
"some people are just bad people.
Some people just do evil things."
That, to me, is not what a public defender should--
like, I don't feel like I should think those things
about my clients.
And I feel like I'm doing them an injustice
because I think those things about a lot of them.
And I feel like people like travis
who I respect very, very highly--
I look up to travis--
and I feel like I'm letting travis down
in being this person that I've become.
Real talk. You can't--
you can't really look for the same thing
to motivate you per client.
Like, some people are just--
everybody has--every case has a redeeming quality to it--
not every person necessarily.
Don't necessarily focus on the folks sometimes, you know?
Like, it would make you feel good to, like,
do right for people when they right.
But, shit, I want to do right for people when they wrong too.
- what I've seen from doing it for 15, 16 years is,
the ones who last at this,
they do what travis is talking about.
Sometimes it's just good to fight the system
and just be a warrior and just go to war,
and they find that balance
that helps them get through the times
when one of those isn't working for 'em.
- when you go back to your offices,
you will forget what you feel like right now,
and it's understandable,
'cause you're going back to hell.
Some of you are going to hell, right?
And you're gonna feel like you just can't make it,
and work is too hard.
You all know people who chose
to go to firms to make a lot of money.
They're gonna drive cars nicer than you,
live in houses nicer than you.
But they're not gonna make a difference.
Let me say this to you, though.
This will be a battle that will be won,
and your children will look back on this,
this struggle to save people from this injust, cruel,
inhumane criminal justice system,
and you all will be the foot soldiers.
You will be the ones who brought that about,
because that civil rights movement,
it was young people jumping on buses
from the south and from all over the country.
And that's what this is, and that's what you guys are.
♪
- we live, eat, breathe among
alleged criminals, ex-offenders every day.
I'm not living in fear.
I don't feel threatened by my clients.
It's an honor for me to represent my clients.
I have 150 clients,
and they are all counting on me
to be there for them.
okay.
We'll start with the-- with the not indicted.
It's a boatload of these.
These guys I've had to do preliminary hearings for.
These are some of my indicted cases here.
And these cases,
these are from my guys
who are in, um,
like, drug court.
But these are the three
that I deal with on a daily basis.
Of course, now, super hands-on cases
are these and those.
In my experience--
take, for example, statutory rape cases--
my clients just don't seem to know
that consent is not an essential element.
You have an 18-year-old with a 14-year-old.
You know, she looks very much like a woman,
um, and it may not cross the young man's mind that,
you know, she may be playin' with dolls at home.
Um, in those instances, I'm like,
"okay, he was just ignorant of, you know, the law perhaps."
But for those instances where I've had a client who was drunk,
and he got his stepdaughter pregnant,
I was just like,
"that is complete insanity.
That is complete and utter insanity."
But I have to do my job,
and the state, they need to do their job.
♪
- branden is a typical 20-year-old.
He can be endearing.
He can be infuriating.
He can be hardheaded,
very charismatic,
and very sweet.
We met this young guy who,
at that point in time,
was homeless, had no job,
no family.
I hired him to do some work for me
basically 'cause I have a bad back,
and as we got to know him
over the course of working with him,
we decided to offer him a place to live.
- we developed a family unit.
It's not by any stretch of the imagination
ward and june cleaver,
but for us, it works.
- I mean, my dads are pretty cool.
I mean, they both love me.
I mean, I really don't know what I would've done
without their help with all this stuff.
I never really thought I would have anyone like that.
My mom left me when I was 12.
I haven't seen her since.
I mean, since I was 12 years old,
I was pretty much in foster homes and stuff like that,
in group homes.
This is, like, the most stabile environment
I've been in,
living with them.
I like travis a lot.
Compared to any other lawyer, like, he's different.
You know, he actually seems like he cares.
- this is tough work.
This is grueling work.
You're dealing with people who society has forgot about,
society don't give a shit about.
But that's something that I can relate to.
I was born in georgia.
My mother was--
had escaped from custody here in georgia,
and she took on an alias name
in order to avoid detection,
and her alias name-- the last name was williams.
That was--one of her aliases was jackie williams.
And so she gave birth to a child under that alias name.
And that child was me.
She fled to florida,
and she just dropped me off with my grandmother
and took off.
And so I don't know who my father is.
♪
- I collapsed in court last week.
My knees kind of gave out,
and the prosecutor had to catch me.
I was so stressed.
I was having anxiety attacks
and getting really upset.
My hair was falling out.
So the doctor suggested that I take a week off.
I had a client charged with murder
who apparently was planning my murder.
I had a couple of other clients warn me
that he had been bragging in the jail
that he was gonna end my life if we lost at his trial,
that he had a "plan"
on how he was gonna do this
and that he had nothing to lose
because if he was convicted of murder,
you know, he was gonna get life without parole.
So from what I was told, let's do it big.
Take out a lawyer in open court.
Go down in history.
I worked my ass off for this client.
I went to the jail every time he called
and said he needed somebody to come and see him.
He wanted to talk to me, but I knew he didn't have
anything to tell me that was new or helpful.
That he just wanted to see somebody's face.
That was me. I was going out there.
I was the person staying up at night
because I didn't know what was gonna happen to him
or if I was even good enough.
That was me, and you're planning my murder?
It's a part of the job.
that's what I'm told.
I don't think it is.
I don't think it's part of the job.
- yes.
- I remember the speech
at, like--i guess it was maybe the last day
where you said, "some of you are going back to hell."
because it's true.
I'm serious. It's so true. it's so--
- what would it take to have someone like you around
in ten years?
- you don't want somebody like me around in ten years.
- I'm just very jaded now.
'cause now I'm like, I can't save everybody,
and then I see these clients coming back and back and back,
and I want to be able to tell the story
about the client that was saved
and how the police, like, tricked him.
But a lot of the cases are not that.
Most of 'em are not that.
- but, brandy, you can't--
I mean, if you define success as victory in every case,
right, where in fact the evidence is overwhelming,
it doesn't matter where you practice.
You're gonna feel defeated.
The fact that you recognize
that this is a job that causes you
to sort of lose your humanity and your sensitivity,
the fact that you recognize that
means you still have the ability
to sort of correct it and push forward.
Right, like, you come home, and you're like--
in the heat of the moment,
"i am insensitive,"
and you come home, and you feel badly about that.
- I do. I feel like--
- which sets you apart.
That sets you apart
from so many people who do this work.
All right, that is why we would want
someone like you around in ten years.
But look, right?
I mean, if you're trying to rescue people from hell,
you do have to go to hell to do it, right?
- yeah.
- and if you don't, you won't rescue anyone.
- you're wearing your hat.
- yep.
You know, I wrote all the appeals
that I wrote that I won, I wrote wearing this hat.
Not this hat, but a marlins hat.
- yeah.
- rachel is a girl I met a few months ago,
and we've been dating for most of that time period.
- how much longer are you gonna be?
- just a few more minutes.
Obviously, my work habits
are not helpful to a relationship.
So we're trying to come up with certain rules for us to follow,
a contract of sorts
that I'm gonna draw up
and we're both gonna sign.
- do you want me to really draw up a contract?
- yeah, we really are gonna draw one up.
Maybe tonight.
We need to actually put this in writing,
because I've got an issue with the contract.
- this is the thing.
We have a contract that on nights
when I don't have my son,
he's supposed to leave the office when I do.
And as you can see, I'm off of work,
and he's still going for it.
- no, no, I'm down with that.
I'm not saying I'm against that.
- but you're just-- you just told me
you needed to make an amendment.
- no, I mean--i do. I do.
And that's the real issue.
I need to make an amendment.
- I'm all ears.
- why don't I just come back later?
Let me go home and get some stuff done, and can i--
I'll just come back later. Is that good?
- okay.
- that works.
♪
- thank you, everyone, for coming.
I want to thank
certainly congressman lewis
who organized freedom summer.
I thought about a quote that says,
"our lives are not our own.
They belong to those who need us desperately."
Congressman lewis, you've lived that quote.
- I'm delighted to be here.
You know, I got arrested a few times.
I went to jail 40 time
during the '60s.
And it was lawyers,
unbelievably courageous men and women of the bar
that came to my rescue.
They defended us.
They filed briefs.
And if it hadn't been for the lawyers
during that period,
I don't know where we will be as a nation and as a people.
So I want to thank this wonderful organization
for getting in the way,
for defending those that have been left out and left behind.
Thank you.
- life in clayton county--
I dare not speak for all of the public defenders in georgia--
but life in clayton county, georgia,
is a different beast.
The average bond in clayton county
on a theft by shoplifting
is $40,000.
- wow.
- my clients cannot afford that bond.
So they sit for four to eight months
waiting to be indicted.
I've wanted to leave so many times.
I think I've lost count at this point.
And I know lots of other people
who have wanted to leave as well.
It's only s.p.d.t.c.,
and particularly jonathan rapping,
that keep me here.
So I hope that I've given you all
a small glimpse of my world in clayton county.
It is not fun at all.
But it's a necessary evil.
Thanks.
speaking in front of the congressman,
that was really surreal.
It won't hit me until, like, two months from now.
When I met him, he said, "thank you for your service."
I was like, "oh.
"really, congressman john lewis?
"you're thanking me?
I feel special."
I felt very special.
- it's important, I think, for the clients to see us,
and kind of keep their morale up and know that we have,
you know, their best interests at heart.
I know in particular with me how I interrelate
with my clients.
I see them as cousins or brothers,
some uncles,
just because it--
the face of the black community is,
so many of them are locked up,
and of course, I'm having to work against
their initial impression of public defenders
because their first public defender
somewhat screwed them.
Hi, miss lewis.
Good.
Maybe if you could sit over here.
How are you?
- I'm doing fine. - good. good. good.
Good to see you. - you too.
- two days in a row. It's freezing outside.
- it really is.
So you know why I'm here.
I'm here to... - yeah.
- kind of get a better understanding
of what took place when you were arrested.
But let's kind of
go through some of your biographical information.
What do you do? - I'm a certified mechanic.
- you're kidding me. - no kidding.
- okay. certified mechanic. Wow.
How long have you been a mechanic?
- about 15 years.
- okay.
So once you're released and you go back to your norm,
you'll go back to working on cars and such?
- I'ma try, 'cause since I've been in here,
I've lost my house.
They've broken in and stole all my tools.
- oh. - so I'ma have to, like--
- start from scratch. - start from scratch.
I'm have to--i'ma leave here
and go into a shelter and start from scratch.
- okay.
- but after my landlord found out I was incarcerated,
he filed eviction notices against me.
- my mom said she went to go get it the other day,
but he had the lock on the door,
'cause I had court
that he put an eviction notice on my door,
and I had court,
and I told three guards here
that I was supposed to be in court.
Okay, nobody took me to court.
So the court, they ruled in the landlord's favor.
- wow.
It's default judgment. Mm-hmm.
- yeah, so that caused me to be really evicted from my house,
but she said she called the court to let 'em know
that I was incarcerated.
- mm-hmm.
- but she said that
they haven't really did the eviction yet,
so he just, like, holding my stuff.
- okay, wow.
Thank you for letting me know that.
So you were convicted of cocaine possession back in 2004.
- yeah, I admitted to it. Yes, I did.
I really pled to get out of jail,
'cause I had never been in jail before.
It was just my public defender, and me and her had problems.
And she told me when I took that plea--
she told me that I wouldn't be considered a convicted felon.
I've been screwed around the first time
by a public defender,
and when they told me I had another one,
I figured my life was completely over.
- your sentence was two years suspended,
two years on probation, and you're right.
Since you were a first-time offender,
you should've been eligible for a nonadjudication.
I'm not sure what happened, and I apologize that--
- I don't either.
- that that took place.
But it's not the end of the world.
It's not the end of the world.
We can definitely fix it.
- it's the end of my world,
'cause that messed up a lot of stuff for me.
- but we can--we can come-- we can rebound from it.
I'm sure we can.
I'm gonna, you know,
ask about the different eyewitnesses.
Where were they standing?
Were any of them under the influence?
I mean, 'cause it could've been anything
that clouded maybe their vision or their vantage point,
their perception of what took place.
All right?
So I will see you on monday.
Thank you so much. - thank you.
- you're welcome. You're welcome.
- branden's trial date is coming up.
So far, neither side has come up with any conclusive evidence.
The person who committed the robbery was disguised,
so the victim can't accurately i.d. anyone.
I was looking through branden's file a few days ago,
and that's when I remembered the fingerprints.
- the driver drives in.
He's looking for essentially
that apartment, I believe.
I believe he's looking for that apartment.
Somebody comes out and puts a knife towards him.
Now, what happened is, the robber, no gloves,
put his hand certain places on the car.
The state lifted prints from the hood,
but they never tested them.
I wanted to test the prints,
but unfortunately we don't have the resources
to make that happen.
So I have to trick the d.a. Into doing it.
So I filed a motion in court
saying that I wanted to ban all fingerprint evidence
from the trial.
This made the d.a. think that I was scared
of the fingerprint evidence, and they tested it.
We got the results back,
and they didn't match branden or cody.
This backs up what branden's been saying the whole time.
Neither of them committed the crime,
so we're going to trial.
- branden mullin.
- waiting for the state's announcement.
- um, I'm--i'm--
I guess we'll be ready subject to a plea.
We're, um--
- well, a plea was a possibility,
but that's not gonna happen.
We're ready for trial.
- all right.
We'll mark it as ready.
- and, sir, just out of curiosity,
where will that case be on the trial calendar?
- it looks like it's number two.
- and so we would be number two on the january 9th calendar?
- number two on the january 9th calendar,
probably number one--
Yes, sir.
- okay, we're gonna go over the evidence
that the prosecutors have.
Officer brennan says that on december 3rd,
he responded to an armed robbery.
A black in color automatic handgun was used.
They handed over around $300 worth of cash.
They said that they know the person
as being a frequent customer in the pizza shop.
"i, officer brennan, initiated an arrest warrant.
"upon officer searching the room of the offender,
"they found a yellow in color cardboard box
with 13 winchester .25 auto bullets."
According to you, they are--
they match a revolver, right?
- yeah, a .22.
- I mean, it can be.
They got .22 automatic, and they got .22 revolvers.
- okay.
So would bullets to a .22
match the same bullets to a 9
- oh, not at all.
.22 bullet like this small.
9-millimeter, they medium-sized.
- okay.
All they have is testimony.
They don't have any fingerprints,
any pictures, 'cause they didn't have a camera in there.
I wish I could say that we were gonna go in and win this case.
I just don't know,
and that's the god's honest truth.
I can tell you that I will give everything that I have
to getting you out of these charges.
I've maintained that throughout my representation of you.
But at the end of the day,
you just never, ever know what a jury is gonna do.
Ever.
So--and the stakes are really, really high,
because if we lose,
it's day for day at least ten years,
day for day,
no parole.
If you're found guilty,
they're gonna take you into custody that day.
So even if we put sentencing off until a later time,
they're not gonna let you leave.
Anything else?
- do you have another copy of the discovery packet?
- yeah.
- what'd you do with the one I sent you?
- I still got it, but it got wet.
I had got tea on it.
- I'll make you a copy.
- I don't know.
I don't know either.
You ain't got no questions?
You got to have some kind of questions.
- I have huge student loan debt.
After I pay my student loans and my rent,
I have probably $300 a month to pay extra bills
like gas and the car, all that kind of stuff,
groceries.
But I don't see how you can do this work
for any period of time
and not begin to love it.
If you don't, then it'll just drive you insane.
Either you--either this is your cause, or this ain't.
- student loans.
Bank of america telling me that I overdrew.
student loans.
Seriously, most of these are student loan bills.
And that is why I'd prefer not to look at them.
It's depressing.
this is all the money I have in the world right now.
My gas light is on.
And so I'm getting $3 in gas,
and hopefully that will take me home
and back to work in the morning
and then back home in the afternoon,
because I don't get paid until friday.
- money pressure is like any other pressure.
It takes something out of you to deal with it,
and this job takes a lot out of you
just to do the job.
That can be a significant burden on a person.
But it's just something you have to come to live with.
It's something you have to accept.
- in the last year,
three public defenders left the office.
It's rough financially.
So it takes--it takes a certain kind of person maybe
to continue to, you know,
work under the circumstances.
- I'll probably leave here about 2:00, so...
- yeah.
- let's go upstairs.
- all right.
- I am gonna make you some homemade alfredo sauce.
- when I met travis,
he told me he originally moved to georgia to find his dad
but hadn't found his dad yet,
and then he finally got the courage
to ask his birth mother,
you know, for a name and stuff.
And now he's about to go meet this guy.
we're on our way to meet up
with my biological--
potentially my biological father.
Had a conversation with him the other night,
and he seems to think that I'm his son.
Said he always wanted a son.
I never wanted a father.
In fact, I don't want one now.
I just want to close this chapter in my life.
♪
Well, we sat down, and I hit him with a few questions,
just, you know, "do you think I'm your son?
"how do you know my biological mother?
What was y'all relationship like?"
You know, and he kind of answered the question
as to why he never tried to make contact,
that he had no way to get in contact with her,
which was true.
Which was true.
But I don't know.
As a person that never takes no for an answer,
I was just--
that wouldn't have been enough for me.
I don't know.
I guess I was just hoping
that somebody wanted me.
- today is my 30th birthday.
Whoo-hoo! I'm so glad you made it!
- my dad came up from florida.
I've been in atlanta for about 2 1/2 years,
and he's never come.
So it's amazing.
Okay, that's good.
Danielle, I need one with me and my daddy.
Okay, go.
- turn it the long ways.
You got to get my figure, danielle.
Come on.
- all right, one, two, three.
- at any point you get nervous,
and you feel like you want to hold on to something,
grab your harness right here.
- right here.
- yeah, just don't grab my hands.
- okay. 'cause then we can't pull the parachute.
- 'cause--yeah, then I can't open the parachute.
- don't you worry. I won't grab your hands.
you gonna scream, daddy?
- yeah.
- now I'm nervous--
excited but nervous.
- oh, yeah.
My hope for my daughter is to be happy.
I look up to her
because she believe in helping people.
And when you got a person that believe in helping people,
you cannot fail.
I don't care how much you feel like you fail.
Failure is when you stop dreaming.
She never stopped dreaming.
- I found out yesterday that branden's friend cody,
the one he got arrested with,
has become a witness for the prosecution.
He is gonna say that he committed the crime with branden
in exchange for a lesser prison sentence.
This is probably the most damaging evidence
the state could have.
Even with the fingerprint evidence,
it's gonna be hard to walk branden out of that courtroom.
Me and the prosecutor have agreed
that the charge of armed robbery is gonna be dismissed.
Branden will plead a robbery by intimidation
with a cap of five years,
so he can't get any more than five years to serve in prison.
I think him pleading guilty is the right decision
only because the risk is great.
You can get life in prison for armed robbery
in the state of georgia.
We had a chance at prevailing,
but if the jury believes that it was--believes cody,
we--our chance of winning goes to zero.
- cody was like a brother, you know?
I've known him since I was ten years old.
Life's not fair.
I could either take the chance
of going to trial and losing
and having to serve the whole time,
or I could take this deal
which is less time and maybe still get, you know--
get out and do what I got to do.
There's--there's nothing--
there's no way around it.
There's no running from it.
It's just something you got to handle.
You got to--you just got to take care of it.
- when you're a public defender with clients, you know,
it's--it's-- it's a very close relationship.
It's you and this other person,
and you're having a legalized war,
you know, with the state,
and you're, you know, planning together,
and you're working together,
and you meet their family, you know.
So losing a case with a friend
and having that friend cuffed,
and you might've been able to do something about it,
and maybe you didn't do it.
Maybe you missed something.
And those are the things
that keep rolling around in your head,
really, forever.
That's what it's like.
It's awful.
- today is branden's plea day and sentencing.
Even though we aren't having a trial,
we're still going to be able to make an argument
that branden should get less time.
In this case, the amount of time is very important.
If he gets two years, which is what we're asking for,
he will likely go to a medium security prison
or hopefully a boot camp program.
If he gets five years,
he'll probably go to a maximum security prison
where people get sexually attacked and assaulted.
You know, it's anal rape prison. It's the real deal.
It's not a game. It's not a joke.
Branden, how are you doing today, man?
- good.
- we have to go over the plea petition
and all the rights that you give up.
It's branden lee, right?
- yes, sir.
20?
How far did you go in school?
- um, sophomore.
- you've seen the discovery and everything.
You understand what you're charged with, correct?
- yes, sir.
- all right.
The sentence you'll get
is solely a matter for the judge to decide,
especially in our situation.
Do you understand? - yes.
- and did you commit the acts as
- um, I mean, I was there.
- so when the judge asks you-- the judge is gonna ask you,
"did you commit the offenses as charged--
commit the offense as charged?"
And that'll be either yes or no.
it is something I got to say yeah to, huh?
- it's not something you have to say yeah to.
I can have us answer the plea to say that
"although I'm not admitting guilt,
"i do recognize that the evidence is sufficient
to authorize a conviction."
- yes.
Something like that.
- all right.
Now, you give up some important rights
when you plead guilty.
I'ma go over those rights.
If you don't understand any of 'em,
just stop me and I'll explain 'em.
You waive your fourth amendment rights
against illegal search and seizure.
By waiving those rights,
you can be searched by law enforcement
or your probation officer
at any given time for no reason at all.
You give up the right to plead not guilty.
You give up the right to have a trial.
You give up the right to make the state prove your guilt
beyond a reasonable doubt,
and you give up the right to appeal your conviction.
Your conviction may negatively impact
your ability to obtain or maintain a driver's license,
obtain or maintain employment, vote,
and there may be other consequences
which you cannot anticipate.
You understand those rights? - mm-hmm.
- and do you still want to plead guilty?
Yes? - yes.
- all right, today is the...
9th day of april 2012.
Sign right here.
♪
- dick mecum running for hall county commission chair.
Appreciate your vote.
- right down there.
- judge deal is doing jury orientation right now.
Okay. - um, cody is here.
Um, I was - mm-hmm.
- no.
- judge, this is case number 2011cr252-c,
the state of georgia versus branden lee mullin.
The defendant is entering a plea
to the offense of robbery by intimidation.
- all right, mr. williams,
any evidence you wish to present?
Any comments you have about the sentence?
- yes, sir.
What we would ask for this court
to sentence mr. mullin to
is a ten-year sentence
with two years to serve at the prison work camp.
Our contention at trial would be that he was not the robber,
and there were several people at the house--at least four.
The robber was disguised.
We contend that that person was one of the other guys
that was at the house.
Also branden has taken this time
since this incident
to improve himself greatly.
Branden is lucky enough to have encountered people lately
that care a great deal about him,
that are interested in his well-being
and have a vested interest in his success.
That's not something he's ever had before in life.
Branden has had a tough go-around.
Branden has had people
that are supposed to care the most about you not care.
Personally, I can empathize with that,
and it hurts my heart to understand that this kid,
this child, is potentially gonna be thrown to the wolves.
And so we would just ask the court for grace
in the sentence that the court renders.
- all right.
Mr. mullin,
you got to understand
sort of where this all sits.
I have heard about your history,
and I empathize with you about that.
It sounds like you've had a rough go of it here,
and perhaps points out some of the failings of the system
regarding our children
that are in foster care and that sort of thing.
But you also have to understand
that somewhere along the lines
when you start putting other folks at risk,
then the scales start to change,
and holding a knife to someone's throat,
that just can't be tolerated by our society.
Our society has to be protected
from folks who would do those things.
And I do believe that you have potential.
I mean, you appear to be a smart kid, smart guy.
You got folks that are supporting you,
and they have built trust in you and given you opportunities,
and you've proved yourself worthy of those opportunities.
So I hope you understand
this is not a condemnation of you personally,
but it's a condemnation of your actions.
It appears that the state has given you a tremendous break,
because the mandatory minimum sentence for armed robbery
is ten years in prison,
and the evidence would point towards supporting
an armed robbery charge.
But they've reduced it to robbery by intimidation
and essentially cut the sentence in half,
and so the sentence on count one
is gonna be ten years with five years to serve in custody,
the remainder to be served on probation.
But I'm gonna remand you to custody this year.
- thank you.
- love you.
♪
- he is eligible for parole. - yeah.
- that's not five years to serve.
- it's--it's five years to serve,
but he's parole eligible.
He is parole eligible.
- and the violent crime that he's gonna serve,
how much of it?
- probably 65% to 90%.
Probably.
- the whole time it never felt real to me.
I grew up with him.
He was my best friend. You know what I mean?
Branden may not care about anybody in the world,
but he loved me.
I still love him with all my heart.
And I wanna just...
I can't.
- that's enough. Come on.
- I got to do another guilty plea in a few minutes.
Ain't no different
than what I see every other day, so...
It all takes a toll on me.
It's not easy.
I'll never get used to people going to prison.
I'll never get used to that.
- this case is different from most others that I've tried,
because I don't have any witness statements.
So I don't know what these people are gonna testify to.
I have no idea, because we're in georgia,
and I don't have the pleasure of taking depositions,
because money is not at stake,
because somebody's liberty is at stake.
So I don't get a deposition.
And because of that,
it's really kind of difficult
to come up with a solid defense,
'cause it--they could spin it.
Based on what the police have said,
my defense is going to be that
the person that they identified was not mr. wright.
It was just a mistake in identity.
Young mr. wright had braces at the time of this incident.
There is no mention by the police
of the victims telling them that the person had braces.
They say that they know for a fact
that it was young mr. wright,
because they're familiar with young mr. wright
because he frequents the pizza parlor.
So they should know that he was wearing braces,
and they should know that he has tattoos
from here down and from here down to his hands.
Like, he has tattoos on his hands.
I'm hoping that those braces are our savior.
I'm hoping.
I have his orthodontist under subpoena,
and even though he does not want to come,
so help me god,
I will drag him into court kicking and screaming
in handcuffs
because he is our out
as far as I can tell.
Now, again, they may flip it on me
and say that the person had braces all of a sudden,
and then I'm kind of screwed.
I mean, I don't know what I would argue at that point.
Hopefully, they leave that out.
♪
- all right, you got your ball.
Bottled water is in the car.
Got your shin guards.
I left the public defender office.
The main reason was the pay.
I was struggling to take care of raha and myself.
All right.
Have a good game.
I can remember writing a check for groceries
knowing that I didn't have enough money
in my checking account.
More and more, I was just disgusted.
How dare this system
treat public defenders like this?
We matter this much,
that after I get paid once a month,
I have $20 left to my name?
I am still in jackson.
I'm still doing, in my mind, public defender work.
I still get court-appointed cases.
I'm still representing indigent clients.
So though I'm not in a full-time public defender capacity,
I will forever be a public defender,
and it's an honor.
- we always deal with people
in our profession
who like to bitch and moan about
how tough they had it getting through law school
and this and that, but they had it easy.
Things were handed to 'em.
Things were there for them.
Travis had none of that.
Travis came up hard.
Travis grew up without a father.
He grew up without a mother that he could rely upon.
Nothing was handed to this young man.
He struggled his entire life.
He's a fighter.
One of the highlights of travis' career so far
has been the trial of a man accused of
all sorts of felony obstruction at the jail.
In that case, what happened was,
the client ended up being convicted
of a misdemeanor affray charge.
That's a win. We all know that's a win.
But he didn't stop there.
Travis appealed the misdemeanor affray charge
and reversed it on appeal
and walked his client scot-free.
That's a public defender, folks.
So because you are such a good example,
because you are such an outstanding illustration
of what it means to be a public defender,
we decided that, travis williams,
you, this year, are
the assistant public defender of the year.
Come up here and get your award.
- thank you, mr. dunn. Thank you.
So much of our job goes unsung,
and to have any sort of recognition
is a true honor.
Just this week, a young client of mine went away to prison,
and so this award, in some ways, is bittersweet.
Every day, my goal is to be
a better man and a better public defender,
so thank you.
- the stakes are as high as they could possibly be.
I mean, we have cases that haunt us.
This case will haunt me.
If we--if we lose, it'll haunt me.
He is a kid,
and he's facing a lot of time.
If he's found guilty,
it will break him.
Mentally and emotionally, he'll be broken.
I can't fathom-- I cannot fathom
turning around to his mother
after a jury has said guilty,
and I've told her he's gonna get ten years at least, at minimum.
She says he's done, like, a complete 180.
He has a job.
He's working on his g.e.d.
Apparently he has this girlfriend, so...
I think that he's been scared straight,
assuming he gets a not guilty verdict
and is allowed to live his life.
And here's hoping that that's the end result.
And we don't see happily-ever-afters very much
in this profession,
but hopefully we get us a happily-ever-after.
♪
- all rise.
The superior court of clayton county is now in session,
the honorable matthew simmons presiding.
- good morning. Please be seated.
Let's bring the jury in.
All right, members of the jury, good morning.
At this time, we'll hear opening statements,
and, uh, miss owens, the state may proceed.
- ladies and gentlemen, you're here today
because on december 3, 2010,
this defendant decided to dress
in dark clothing,
enter into a pizza shop that he'd visited many times before
with a gun-- the testimony will show
that it's an automatic weapon--
and took the money out of the cash register.
We'll ask that you find this man, demontes wright,
guilty of all the crimes alleged in the indictment
which include aggravated assault,
armed robbery, and possession of a weapon
during the commission of a crime.
Thank you.
- on december 3, 2010,
young mr. wright was 16 years old.
16. He was not a man.
He was a boy.
And on that day,
super crown pizza was robbed.
We don't disagree with that at all.
It was not young mr. wright that robbed that store.
Now, let me be very clear.
We don't have to prove anything in this case.
We have no burden.
It's the prosecutor's burden.
They have to prove beyond
and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt
that that boy
committed the crimes that they've charged him with.
It's a high burden.
Hold them to that burden.
- the state may call its first witness.
- the state calls assim sadik.
Can you tell us what exactly happened?
- "i was cooking in the back,
"and then I heard some noise,
"so I came in front.
"one man came,
and he was holding a gun."
- what was he doing with the gun?
- "he was--he had pointed it to my brother.
He asked for money."
- are you certain the person that you saw that night
is the same person you see here today?
- 100%.
- "yes, yes, 100%."
He is always around our store,
so we always see him.
- thank you. No further questions.
- you said that young mr. wright
comes into your pizza parlor regularly.
yes.
- we just see his face.
We don't see admitting in detail what he has or not.
- okay. Have you ever seen his arms?
take off the jacket.
- I don't look at people in that detail.
- you don't look at--you don't see details with people.
- it's rude to look at people
if we look at them in detail like that.
- okay.
I'm sorry. I wasn't sure I heard you.
So I'm just gonna repeat it to make sure.
You said that it's rude to look directly at people--
- it is rude to look at people in detail like this.
- okay.
Having seen young mr. wright so many times,
even though you don't see detail,
can you say whether or not at any time he wore braces?
- "no, I don't remember."
- no further questions, your honor.
- the witness may step down.
Members of the jury, we'll take morning recess now.
Take a 15-minute break,
then we'll resume.
- I just don't think it's going very well,
'cause the--the problem is
that they were just so sure that it was him
even though they're like,
"we don't pay attention to detail,
"and we don't know what he looked like,
"if he had the tooth,
'cause we don't pay attention to that."
jesus, mary, and joseph.
I think it's a good thing
that they don't pay attention to detail,
but we better pray that your doctor's gonna say
that you had those tattoos.
and if he doesn't remember
whether or not you had 'em,
that's gonna hurt us,
because it'll be like, "oh, the doctor doesn't remember.
"then they can't hold the witnesses to any standard
if they don't remember."
Hey, where is your investigator?
She has her phone going straight to voice mail,
and I'm in the middle of trial.
Can you please get ahold of her
and tell her I need the dentist to send--to bring along
the picture that he took of demontes wright
after he took his braces off?
I've got to run back into court.
- did you ever learn what type of weapon was used in this case?
- yes, ma'am, a semiautomatic weapon.
- okay.
Can you tell us what exactly is located in that box?
- it's a .25 auto 50 grain fmj winchester box.
There's currently 13 bullets full metal jacket
inside the box.
- you found those bullets, you say,
under young mr. wright's bed, correct?
- that's correct.
- but you don't know how they got there.
You don't know who put 'em there.
- no, ma'am.
- all automatic weapons
don't take the same bullets, do they?
- no, ma'am.
- so you can't say if those bullets
go to the gun that was used
in the robbery at crown plaza pizza?
- I do not have an exact make and model
of the weapon that was used.
All I have is a brief description.
- correct.
- okay, you indicated that you didn't take
any fingerprints in the store.
- at the time, there was nothing touched
that the victims had told me.
And I assumed that there was gloves used
at that time.
- you assumed that there were gloves used.
So when you wrote in your report that gloves were used,
that wasn't something someone told you;
that was something you assumed.
- that there was gloves used, yes.
- okay.
Do you often assume things
and put them in your police report?
- no.
- so this was just a onetime thing.
Do you usually put things in your police report--
- no, ma'am.
- no further questions, your honor.
- state actually rests at this time.
- you may call your next witness.
- the defense would call dr. barry clower.
Are you familiar with demontes wright?
- uh, yes, ma'am, I am.
- he was a patient of mine for 3 1/2 years.
- I sure did.
- and can you tell me the exact date that you did that?
- his treatment started in may of 2007
and concluded in december of 2010.
- when you put braces on people,
do you take a before picture?
- yes, ma'am.
- do you take pictures of your patients
after you've removed their braces?
- absolutely.
- is this the picture that you took
prior to putting the braces on?
- yes, ma'am, it sure is.
- and does young mr. wright have a tattoo in that picture?
- uh, yes, ma'am, both sides of his neck.
- and is this the picture that you took after
you removed the braces on december 6, 2010?
- yes, ma'am, it is.
- and does he have tattoos in that picture?
- yes, ma'am. - okay.
I have no further questions, your honor.
- no questions from the state.
- all right, we'll hear closing arguments at this time.
The state has the right to open and conclude.
- thank you, your honor.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the defense would like you to believe
this is more complicated than it is.
This is an open-and-shut case.
Atif and assim knew who entered into their store.
They know him.
It's this man, demontes wright.
There was a lot of fuss about,
"oh, these guys don't remember this, that, and the other."
Well, let's talk about what they do remember.
They remember that this man entered into their store,
that throughout the whole entire incident,
this man had a automatic handgun in their face,
terrifying them.
They sat here today
and said, a whole year later and a new look,
"that man, demontes wright,
"is the one who entered my store on december 3rd,
"stole money from me,
"put a gun to my head,
"and waved a gun at my brother
and took my money."
Ladies and gentlemen,
I submit to you that we have in fact
proved our case beyond a reasonable doubt,
and I ask you to find this defendant,
demontes wright,
guilty of all the crimes in the indictment:
two counts of armed robbery,
two counts of aggravated assault,
and two counts of possession of a weapon
during the commission of a crime.
Thank you.
- I want you to think of the criminal justice system
as a really long road, okay?
And at the beginning of that road is a charge,
where they charge someone with a crime.
At the end of that road is a conviction.
Now, before the state can get to the end of that road,
before the prosecutors can get to that conviction,
they have a big brick wall in front of 'em.
That brick wall is called reasonable doubt.
Atif sadik said a number of things.
But it's what he didn't say
that I want you to focus on.
It's what he didn't remember
that I want you to focus on.
What I found really interesting
is that he said that young mr. wright
comes in his store three to four times a week
for the last two years.
I was an english major. My math is terrible.
But from what I gathered,
that's about 342 times
over the course of two years.
But he didn't remember whether or not
he had braces.
And he didn't remember whether or not he had tattoos.
I had braces.
They were terribly embarrassing
because every time you open your mouth,
the very first thing that people see
are those braces.
And when he's coming in three times a week,
three to four times a week, for two years,
you would know that he was wearing braces.
And since they say
he didn't always come in with long sleeves,
they knew that he had tattoos.
But the person that they described to the police
did not have braces,
and he did not have tattoos.
Reasonable doubt.
We would ask
that you find the only just verdict
of not guilty.
- members of the jury,
you may now go to the jury room,
but do not begin your deliberations
until you've received the indictment,
the evidence, and the verdict form.
Thank you.
- remain seated. Come to order.
- would you bring the jury in, please?
Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?
- yes, we did.
- will you read that verdict to us, please?
- in the superior court of clayton county,
state of georgia,
the state of georgia versus the defendant,
demontes regary wright,
case number 2011cr636-8,
verdict, count number one:
we, the jury, find the defendant
not guilty of the offense of aggravated assault.
Count number two:
we, the jury, find the defendant
not guilty of the offense of armed robbery.
Count number three:
we, the jury, find the defendant
not guilty...
[your hand in mineby explosions in the sky playing]
♪
- ♪ Woke up this morning early
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♪ Sell them records, sell them records, sell them ♪
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