Thursday, June 25, 2009

Under the Statue of Moses -- More Stories From the Samurai Defenders

Do you remember Benjamin Clark? He was the young man (either 22 or 24, depending on which news outlet you read) who was accused of breaking into the Belhaven apartment where his ex-girlfriend (Caroline Cockrell) was, stabbing her current boyfriend (Henry Ludlow II), and absconding to Alabama with the girl. In the Westerns, he might be worth a movie ("The Hoopty With No Name") and played by a young Clint Eastwood. Sadly, it was a real story, with a real loss of two lives (Ludlow's death and Clark's life sentence) and the scarring of the third (Ms. Cockrell).

Clark was charged with capital murder, which carries a possible death sentence. His lawyers, Hinds County Public Defender Bill LaBarre and Ipse Blogit's own Matt Eichelberger, litigated the District Attorney's office to a standstill, resulting in a plea to murder and a life sentence.

Congratulations go out to Bill and Matt for the zealous representation of their client, and our hope for healing to the survivors of this tragedy.

PS to Bill: I'm not making fun of hoopty cars. Really, I'm not.

2 comments:

n said...

While he should be decomposing somewhere right now, at least he's not getting a 3-year sentence (20 minus 17 suspended) plus time served and therefore won't be able to hurt anyone else. Unless, of course, he manages to escape and murder a Tennessee police officer.

n said...

And while we're on the subject of people who should be decomposing . . .