My assistant Jessica has been working hard to find cases that we can use as precedence for James'. She found a good one tonight -although she originally confused it with the movie Murder in the First with Gary Oldman and Kevin Bacon (a movie that falls into my category of 'important/glad I saw it/will never watch again.) which was quite different than the real life case.
It still bears relevance however. In the 1930's attorneys for Henri Young, an inmate of Alcatraz used his state of mind as a reason for him killing a fellow prisoner. They said he was "psychologically unconscious,” due to the abuse he suffered therefore he could not be held responsible for his actions.
Groundbreaking and shocking at the time, it has now been accepted as a legal defense in cases of battered women and children.
This is similar to what we are using to explain James' behavior and like then what we are doing hasn't been done before so I definitely understood what his attorney must have been feeling - scared but determined to speak the truth even if it's not what people want to hear.
They need to hear. Someone has to listen if anything is ever going to change....
Jessica said no matter what happens if we can get people to talk about the issues some good will come of all this.
But that's not good enough. We have to win. I have to win for James...
~ Rachel