Lifers actually die in prison, unless they are granted compassionate release.
I became friends with an elderly lawyer who had been sentenced to 20 years. He was 70, frail and had several medical complications.
For a person of that age and in that condition, a 20 year term is a death sentence.
He had been a highly regarded and respected attorney. Loved and well known throughout his community. He got into a financial predicament and made the mistake of borrowing client escrow funds to pay a debt. His transgression was discovered before he could put the money back.
The judge threw the book at him. Zero tolerance for an attorney who violates client trust and the sacred principles of the law.
He and I would spend our free time researching the Old Testament, and the Torah and exploring spirituality and religion. He was a brilliant man. I learned a lot from him.
He was quite ill. So much so that the warden decided it would better to serve his time at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina. One of the Fed’s medical specialty penitentiaries.
We said goodbye and he departed for Butner one day. I suspected we’d never hear from him again.
We did hear several months later that he had passed away in the Butner Penitentiary.
I acknowledge that life is hard and that we must own the outcomes and consequences of our actions.
It was quite sad nonetheless.
Writing this dredged up those great and also painful memories…
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