Spurgeon's Cigar

This afternoon I attended a hearing to obtain an injunction against somebody from removing a client's septic system. Talk about a messy situation! Just prior to the judge reaching my case on the docket, he said he needed to take a plea from a defendant. In came a middle-aged black man, donning bright yellow coveralls, courtesy of Smith County. When he first walked in the courtroom I didn't see him. A sheriff's deputy walked in front him (one was behind him as well) and my view of the defendant was blocked. Though I couldn't see him, I could hear the clang-jangle-clang of his ankle-shackles as he approached the dock. He was seated beside his attorney, whose hair was unkempt and who had a frayed sportcoat and seemed rather insouciant about being there, and across from the prosecutor who had before him a stack of files each representing an offender. The man was accused of driving while intoxicated. He had two prior convictions, meaning he now faced a minimum of 2 years and...