Grandfathered

Olivia was as good as her word and so was Virginia.  We Visited the Women's Prison a week later and we actually met Cora Bey...

A shapely and attractive Brown skinned woman, who at 29 was far different from the 17 year old girl who was convicted of First degree murder and who had been here since the eve of her 18th birthday...

One thing I'd learned about convicts ..All Convicts...They're very patient...All they've got is time...

"It's very nice meeting you Ms. Bey...I've looked over your post conviction record and it is sterling...You managed to get a Bachelors Degree in education and a Masters in Sociology....You've taught reading to inmates and took part in several of the therapy sessions...." said Olivia..

"Thank you for agreeing to talk to me Ms.Olivia..."said a very thankful and humble Cora Bey...

"Let me introduce you to my team...This is my niece, Attorney Beverly West.." she said..

"Hello Cora, pleased to meet you.." said Beverly...

"This is my husband, Donnie Ray Alexander, ex homicide detective, and now my investigator..." she said..

"Hello Cora" I said....

"This is my niece's husband, Attorney Nelson East....He will also be assisting us.." said Olivia..

"Hi Cora.." said Nelson...

"And last but certainly not least...Ms. Josie Boyd...She is a Paralegal...She'll also be assisting us with this case..."said Olivia..

"Hi Cora.." said Josie..

"Such a nice looking group."said Cora..

"We are going to attack your situation on two different fronts...One , We are going to work on your parole...Mr. East here will be your represenative when you go before the board...I'm confident you are going to be eligible..My niece and I and Ms. Boyd are going to challenge your sentence...The legality of sentencing a young person your age to a life sentence with no parole...We are going to look at your case from top to bottom....So please ,if there is anything we don't already know...I want you to tell us before we leave..." said Olivia..

"I've told you everything Ms. Olivia." said Cora Bey.

II-

Of course like all of the clients suspects whatever....They all claimed to be telling us everything...but of course there would be more...Much more as I was to find out! This poor young girl had been the pawn of many men..

Olivia didn't give Cora a timetable, but told her she would keep  in touch and in the loop on what was being done...

Olivia had three pending cases from three paying customers that she had to handle in the meanwhile...

Beverly too had three cases of her own and before he knew it...her husband, Nelson

had three cases of his own....

Josie however called Cora weekly to give her updates on her case...what we were doing...And we were doing something...We hadn't just forgot about her once our work load increased..

Her case became our weekend project......

One weekend we'd all be in Beverly and Nelson's domicile..

 Which was much brighter and cozy looking now....

Studying laws and precedents.....

Working on strategies.....

The next weekend....We'd be up on Olivia and my floor...

Doing the same thing....

With our paying customers taken care of for awhile, we were now free to dedicate all of our energy towards this case....
III-

Olivia sat in our bedroom applying make up one morning....She was wearing an exotic aqua and pink bra and matching aqua and pink panties...I was mesmerized...A fact that wasn't lost on Olivia.

"I'm going to take our argument to the State Appellete court....I haven't had such good luck there as you know from cases we had before.." she said..trying to keep me focused on the case..

"I think you have a good argument this time..."I said..

"There was a State Senator, A Ralph Strickland who introduced legislation to abolish the sentence of life without the possibility of parole for youth offenders. The bill was no get-out-of-jail pass; under his legislation, a juvenile who committed a felony before the age of 18 would serve a minimum of 25 years before being eligible to go before a parole board (also not a get-out-of-jail pass). As progressive for the time as his bill was ,it was voted down by the largely Republican house..  Funny...because he was also a child psychologist."said Olivia..

''A Child Psychologist?" I asked.

"Yeah, Strickland was also a child psychologist. When it comes to judging the actions of teenagers versus those of adults, he argued, "the neuroscience is clear; brain maturation continues well through adolescence, and thus impulse control, planning and critical-thinking skills are still not yet fully developed.Condemning teenagers to die in jail, then, means curtailing the lives of potentially productive members of society. "Children have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than adults," Strickland said. Anyway, didn't Pennsylvania's prison system rename itself the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation?" she laughed...

"Is it?" I asked..

"No silly....but Beverly and Josie and I are structuring our argument around his original bill and lining up some heavy hitters in Child Psychology to back our argument.." said Olivia with a smile...

She wasn't fully dressed....I pulled her towards me and kissed her passionately...

"Ummmmm don't tell me you're horny this morning?" she said as I kissed her and ran my hands softly down her panties..

"Okay...I won't tell you.." I said....

"You're going to get my lipstick and make up all over you.....You don't really care do you?" she asked..

"No I don't.."I said in between wet sloppy kisses..

She unzippered my trousers and softly felt my erect and engorged member.

 "You don't have to tell me...You've been staring at me all morning..." she said..."Oh my goodnesss....look at youuuu..." she exclaimed...

"Look at you!" I said..

She laughed...We fell on the bed...still kissing....

"You're impossible.." she said....

"And you're very desirable..."I said in between slow and soft kisses...

"Tell me more...." she said softly....

We kissed passionately and fell across the bed...I eased her panties and her top off....

"Mister Alexander.....Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu you never cease to amaze me." she moaned..as I entered her soft and moist center...

"I'm surprised you didn't protest..."I said..

"We've got time..." she said softly...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh thank goodness for that....ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.." I moaned...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu yessssssssssss.....I so needed a release after these past few days....ouuuuuuuuuuuuu.." she moaned  as I continued to move inside and out of her slowly.....

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu give it to me strong Donnie Ray....Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." she moaned...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.."I moaned..

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.." she cooed silently...

The new bed still didn't squeak, but the headboard did rattle....but not loud enough to be heard outside of the bedroom...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Donnie Ray....I love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh myyy godddddddddddddddd.."Olivia Moaned..

"I love you tooo baby!" I moaned...

AN HOUR AND A HALF of sweet loving on our quiet bed went by.....Not as long as I would have liked..but good enough....I came and came hard.....So did Olivia...

 Olivia smiled...She kissed me softly for a few minutes...I lie in between her legs, while she softly played in my nappy hair...

....She got back up, she began getting dressed...She began putting her make up back on...

"Nothing like a good quickie huh?" she said in between kisses..

"Yessss.": I agreed!

''Now I've got to get dressed....Go make some coffee for the office" she said with a smile..

 IV-

 We argued our case in the State Appellete Court....

I watched as Olivia, Beverly, Nelson and Josie began their arguments....

"First rule of negotiation never get up from the table and the other side is still unclear about what you want." she told me...She told Beverly ,Nelson and Josie the same thing...

What they wanted was the law sentencing youthful offenders to life without possibility of parole decimated...

For the next few days...I watched Olivia and Beverly argue passionately to abolish the sentence of life without the possibility of parole for youth offenders. They explained that this was not a get-out-of-jail pass; , a juvenile who committed a felony before the age of 18 would serve a minimum of 15-25 years before being eligible to go before a parole board (also not a get-out-of-jail pass).

They brought in child psychiatrists and therapists who backed up Former State Senator's Argument that
When it comes to judging the actions of teenagers versus those of adults, as he argued, "the neuroscience is clear; brain maturation continues well through adolescence, and thus impulse control, planning and critical-thinking skills are still not yet fully developed.Condemning teenagers to die in jail, then, means curtailing the lives of potentially productive members of society. "Children have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than adults."

 I stood there with Josie and watched as the Judge made his decision.....

He ruled in their favor...Sentencing Juveniles and youthful offenders to life without parole was cruel,unfair and unusual punishment...He said ...He struck it down!

The Media was out in force...The 5 of us was surrounded and bombarded with questions....We had won big and had garnered National Attention...

We rejoiced....but our rejoicing was short lived...It was Nelson who brought us the bad news...

"Guys, this just means...No one else will be sentenced to Life , No Parole as a juvenile..He didn't grandfather those who already have been." said Nelson...

"Oh No...What do we do now?" asked Beverly...

''We start again...We go back to the drawing board and take this to superior or district court....We use Cora Bey as our face case...And we find other cases that meet our parameters.." said Olivia..

So back to the drawing board they went...Olivia, Beverly Josie and..

Nelson sifting through hundreds of cases.... and looking to assail the District Court here in Philadelphia with a second argument...This time to grandfather  the cases ..We had  our Appellete court victory in our favor...

I didn't have much to do investigative wise...So I helped them pour through several cases....

Our doorbell rang....I went to answer it...standing in front of me was a tall hulk of a man...and an intimidating figure...Except to the girls...

The Man they called "Hoagie", Now A District Judge...also known as the "Dean of Black Philadelphia Lawyers...

"Mr. Alexander" he said...

"Hoagie!!!" said Beverly ,who had seen him first....

"Married Woman!!!" he said and hugged her and spun her around...She giggled like a school girl...

 "Hello Hoagie" said Olivia...

"Hey Hoagie!" said Nelson...

"Congratulations Mr. East.....I take it you and Mrs. East live here now?" he said.

"Yes we do...Right upstairs..." said Beverly...

He looked at Josie and smiled..

"I'm waiting for you Ms....I'm waiting for you to take the LSAT's...That's when I'll begin to haze you.." he said..

Josie was stunned...

"Huh?" she said..

''Pay him no mind Jo...He's kidding..He did the same thing to all of us...Shame on you Hoagie, Scaring Josie like that." joked Beverly....

"He had me in tears many a day Josie, but he wouldn't let me quit...He was the toughest teacher I ever had...but he made me the attorney I am today...He's really a pussycat once you get to know him."said Olivia.

He had been one of her professors in law school and she had clerked for him right after law school..

Hoagie smiled for the first time....He shook his head and looked at two of his most famous students...

"Olivia, Beverly....You two have really opened a hornet's nest......You got the Life, No Parole Sentence for youthful offenders law struck down here in Pennsylvania....You did what Strickland tried and couldn't do and you used his argument to do it...Pure Genius.. That law should have been struck down years ago....Some politician got that passed to show he was tough on crime...I always thought it was unfair....I saw you two on the news a few nights ago and I was soo proud.." he said.

"But you're not here to congratulate us.. Are you Hoagie?" said Olivia..

Hoagie smiled...He looked at me..

"Your wife is something else Donnie Ray...She always gets right to the point..." he said..

"That she does." I said.

"I'm proud of you both...You two and Keith Wallace are my most prestigious protoge's...Our Present District Attorney knows you're planning to go to the District court to get some of the older cases grandfathered into that ruling and he doesn't like it... He wants you two stopped....He's assigned a real pit bull to do it...Margaret Barnes....Her father is his boy...They play golf together..He's looking at making a run for State's Attorney." said Hoagie.

ADA Margaret Barnes...Know her?   I'm sure you do...You guys faced off against her recently....You got charges dismissed against your client and she just missed losing a case to you....She's eager to go up against you two again.....They want this latest challenge of yours snuffed..." he said.

Beverly laughed...

''Actually...I think she's a fan of ours...She won't admit it...but she's got a girl crush on us..." laughed Beverly...

 Josie and Nelson cracked up.....

"Well at least we know who we are up against..." said Olivia..

"Take her very serious Liv....She's former District Attorney Royce Barnes's daughter...Graduated from Harvard Law School...Worked in the corporate law world for awhile in the Boston area, then returned to Philly and a job in the D.A.'s office... Hasn't lost a case since she's been here..That dust up with you two was the closest she's come to losing anything...Just a friendly heads up..." said Hoagie.

"Thank you Hoagie...I appreciate you!"said Olivia, who hugged him.....

''Since I'm here...Let me see what you have..." he said..

Josie, bring him our case files...

"Got'cha Liv" said Josie...

Beverly ,Nelson and I stood by as Hoagie sifted through everything.....It took him about an hour. He was silent ,then he turned to Olivia..

"This is good...but you need to bring something extra....If Cora Bey is your show case....You need to go into it as though you are arguing for a new trial for her ,because essentially you are..." he looked at me..."That means you've got some work to do..." he said.

He was right.....I did.

(TO BE CONTINUED)