For The People – Moral Suasion

By: Dustin Bradley

We open with the defenders still reeling from Sandra’s (Britt Robertson) case and decision last episode to give up her clients information and risk her job. She’s not really ready for a new case so this week we really focus on Allison’s (Jasmin Savoy Brown) case. Her case involves a man who is put behind bars due to selling cigarettes that were imported from China, therefore making them illegal tobacco products. As soon as Allison meets her client, Rodney (Mike Wade), she immediately feels a kinship with him. For some reason they click instantly. Maybe it’s their equal love of “Project Runway” or maybe it’s the fact that Allison feels like she has met this man before due to relatability and charm. She promises to do what she can to get him out.

Leonard (Regé-Jean Page) is the prosecutor on the case and, lucky for Allison, since the last two cases he is feeling kinder than he usually is. He agrees to tell the judge at the hearing that he doesn’t believe that his crimes warrants a trial but the judge isn’t having it. He sets the bail at $100,000, which Rodney or his family don’t have. Due to this fact both Allison and Leonard try to work together on a Personal Recognizance Bond, meaning that they just need one to three people to sign off on the bond and are personally responsible for the cash if he doesn’t show at his court date.

Their first stop is his grandmother who wants to help and loves him but she can’t be responsible for that money or his mistakes so she declines. They try a childhood friend who initially agrees but backs out when he realizes that his sister’s place is up for collateral. It goes so far as to Allison asking her parents to give her part of her trust early in order to help her client. Her parents decline because they don’t understand why she would risk this or why she doesn’t appreciate what they have done for her and only calls them about money.

Allison is running out of options and with Rodney barely surviving in jail day in and day out, getting beaten and losing hope. She doesn’t know where to turn, but she also doesn’t give up thanks to an inspirational talk from Ted (Charles Micheal Davis). She goes back to the grandma and begs her not to give up on Rodney because he is going to turn his life around after this horrific experience and he can’t survive in there much longer. The grandmother reluctantly signs the bond. However, sadly it is for not as Rodney commits suicide in is jail cell. We end the episode with Allison and Sandra attending his funeral and paying their respects. Let’s see how this loss will shape Allison moving forward.

Our other big storyline this episode was Judge Byrne’s (Vonde Curtis Hall) experience on jury duty in state court, which he is excited for. He wants to experience the law from that side of the courtroom and can’t wait to take part. It starts off really rocky with him muttering under his breath in the courtroom about each legal teams methods of arguments and by holding his fellow jurors back by having his judge cap on instead of his person cap. And after a quick talk with Seth (Ben Rappaport) and Kate (Susannah Flood), he realizes that he needs to take not look at it from a judge’s perspective and he goes back to court to hear his fellow jurors out. They all decide that the defendant is not guilty and Judge Byrne is feeling good about that decision and has a new outlook on the system.

Our last little bit of story was Sandra’s quest for Ted to figure out if Jill (Hope Davis) was with Roger (Ben Shenkmen) on the night of the SWAT since that is when she started to become suspicious that something was going on between them. She finds out that they were together and is conflicted on what to do with this information. For now, Sandra thinks she should keep it under wraps.