Thank you for calling. I know you are worried about your son. So am I.
There's really nothing more I can tell you that I have not told you already. The charges are serious, and the state is serious about pursuing them. No, the state is not going to drop the charges. As I have explained to you before, if believed, the evidence is sufficient to convict.
I did not say I do not believe in your son. I am prepared to fight for him. It is what I do.
I understand that he is a good man, and that his children need him. I understand that you need him. I understand that in his 30-plus years on Earth, he has done much good. But so much of what you relay is really material for a sentencing argument. To win the trial, we must show he did not commit the acts the state alleges.
Yes, I am sure the prosecutor has a mother. Her heart would be breaking, too, if the prosecutor were on the cusp of destruction. And I agree that no one is the sum of their worst moments.
No, I am unwilling to sit down with you to discuss the evidence against your son. He is accused of a crime about which you know nothing. There is nothing you can do to blunt, mitigate or refocus the evidence against him as you witnessed no fact material or relevant to the allegation.
Sure, I can call you as a character witness. But, how shall I put this?, you are a mother. The jury will expect you to love your son. But I will discuss with your son whether to call you. It really is his choice.
I am sorry I cannot offer you the hope you need to face this terror. When you call, I hardly know what to say. I am empty and barren of useful suggestions. It seems naive even to ask you to trust the process. Innocent men are convicted. I know that to be true.
I am sorry you cannot sleep and eat. Don't hold his arrest and difficulties against yourself. It is not your fault. You did not fail him. And it is no longer your job to rescue him. That is my job now. And I am asking you to trust me.
I am sorry that I do not have the skills to make smooth the rough places you now call home. When you call me in tears, and enraged, and in dark sorrow, I sense your pain. But please understand that following you into those sobbing places does not help me to prepare for the war ahead.
I am a lawyer, and that means I am hope and frustration bundled into one. I will do my best, but I cannot promise success. Only a fool does that.
I know it is Mother's Day and he should be home with you. I am sorry I could not accomplish that. I am sorry that your heart is broken. And I am now weary of saying I am sorry over things that I cannot control.
Try to have a Happy Mother's Day, even though telling you that sounds like mockery. Perhaps next year will be different.
Thank you for calling. I know you are worried about your son. So am I.
There's really nothing more I can tell you that I have not told you already. The charges are serious, and the state is serious about pursuing them. No, the state is not going to drop the charges. As I have explained to you before, if believed, the evidence is sufficient to convict....
