How a Furniture Dealer and Chewing Gum Helped Start My Legal Career
And a powerful reminder that change is possible
From the Lockerbox
I used to love when people with money got arrested.
It wasn’t that I enjoyed seeing wealthy individuals face the same predicament I was in—I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
What I loved was that the local news would take a special interest in the cases of wealthy defendants, and their lawyers would often be interviewed on different aspects of the trial. The coverage of those cases was a window into the law that I otherwise didn’t have. At the Orleans Parish Prison, we were lucky to get our hands on a dictionary, let alone a law book. When I realized learning the law was my only hope, I turned to whatever sources were available.
Newspaper coverage of a high profile case was my best chance of being able to hear—and learn—about matters of legal procedure and evidence.
When I came across something useful, I would ask the guys on my tier to leave me the daily newspaper once they’d finished reading it, and I would cut out the stories I wanted to keep. Then I would chew up a piece of gum and use it as glue to stick the story to a piece of paper. Over time, I gathered a number of articles this way, creating my own law book.
One case I followed closely was the Aaron Mintz trial. Aaron Mintz, a well-known New Orleans furniture dealer, was acquitted in 1984 of murdering his wife, Palma Mintz, in a case the press called "the trial of the century." Mike Fawer, Mintz’s defense attorney, was the kind of advocate those of us without money could only dream of having.
A critical issue in the Mintz case was whether the prosecution had misused the grand jury to investigate the case improperly. Believing the same had happened in my case, I took the newspaper clipping to my court-appointed attorneys and asked them to file the same motion Mike had submitted.
You can hear me tell the story in this short clip.
I kept these newspaper articles throughout my incarceration. They became early markers of my life in the law.
Sneak Peek…
In a few days, I’ll be sending you another note about an amazing opportunity my publisher, Penguin Press, has given me to help get copies of my upcoming book to people in prison. Be on the lookout - I’m going to need your help!
Change is Possible…
My friend James Forman Jr. recently published a powerful piece in The New York Times Magazine explaining that youth incarceration rates in the U.S. have nosedived over the past twenty years. Here’s a short preview:
In the last two years for which we have data, 2021 and 2022, the number of incarcerated juveniles rose 10 percent, which worries Muhammad. But even factoring in that increase, the country locked up 75 percent fewer juveniles in 2022 than it did in 2000.
When he speaks to public officials or community groups, Muhammad tells me, he shows them the same graph I showed him. “And whenever I do, I always tell people, ‘If you had told me in the 1990s that our juvenile incarceration rate would be this low today, my first thought would have been that you were crazy. And once I got over that, I would have said, “Great, we did it. Our work is done.” ’ ”
And this is the graph from The Sentencing Project that Prof. Forman is referring to:
Wow. I wanted to encourage you with Prof. Forman’s piece—I hope you’ll read the whole thing.
No doubt there is plenty of work still to do, and Prof. Forman and the people he interviews don’t shy away from that. But what they do do is encourage us to take stock of the progress we’ve made on a problem that once felt beyond our power to influence. Our friends at JJPL, FFLIC, LCCR, YEP, and many families and everyday people have made a difference here in Louisiana. I believe their work serves as a beacon, reminding us that meaningful change is possible.
Take care,
Calvin