A long-fought battle.
Wins in our work sometimes come slowly and quietly. A long-fought battle came to a close recently, and I was proud to mark it as a win.
Not long after I opened the firm, I took on a transgender client who had been convicted for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment decades ago. The homicide predated the client's transition. And though the subject was less in the mainstream at the time, we could see in retrospect how the deeply tragic circumstances were due in large part to the client's own untreated trauma—the product of both having spent a life in what felt like the wrong body and the abuse inflicted by others because of it.
The client had made the most of the time since the conviction and sentence, however. Through therapy, medical care, and hard work, the client transformed emotionally, physically, and mentally. While in prison, this client earned degrees, laid viable business plans, secured honorary seats in several organizations, won accolades and honors from corrections officials, and helped other incarcerated people improve their lives. So even before I got involved, the client's story was one of successful rehabilitation. The problem was that no one with the power to do anything was willing to honor what this client had accomplished.
The client had come to me after the usual post-conviction remedies had failed. But the courtroom doors are never fully barred if you can find the right key. The key for this client involved renegotiating the original case with the prosecution. I collected every scrap of information that I could find about the client's life, from before the homicide and since, and made a case to the prosecution that a life sentence was unjust. Recently, and with the help of the wonderful Chantel Cherry-Lassiter to get us over the goal line, we were able to secure the client's resentencing.
The client is now out of prison, building a new and better life.
In all fairness, most of the credit here goes to the client whose own commitment to reformation made the difference. But I was privileged to help.
