Witness for the Defense

I had a really hard time getting into this book and then about half way it got better. I really had an issue with the beginning because it didn't seem plausible and then captain obvious showed up a few times and I almost stopped reading it. I bet some people did but I hate giving up on a book so will stick it through when others won't.

A defense attorney, Dobbs, was representing a client charged with a gang related shooting that killed a man and his younger sister. He is told there is a witness in lockup that claims he was there and saw the shooting and that his client wasn't the shooter. He interviews the 18 year old who is scared to death and realizes he is lying when he got key facts of the case wrong. He told him he couldn't put him on the witness stand because he'd purger himself. He feels bad for the kid though because he can tell he's being threatened by the gang and he is obviously just desperate to get away from them. Later when he is in court for a bail hearing for another client he sees the same kid sitting next to his client. When he is in chambers with the judge and other lawyer he asks for the judge to let that boy out on his own recognizance to help him out. That didn't go well because the kid had other outstanding warrants so he dropped it. After that he is learns he is being charged with suborning perjury because the kid claims he said he would put him on the stand to lie for his client.

I had a really hard time believing that would really happen. If that was all it took I think there would be no lawyers left to defend anyone. I could see it maybe if the lawyer actually had him listed as a witness for the trial but that didn't happen. It was just the word of a kid who was obviously scared to death.

A young lawyer, daughter of a retired judge, agrees to represent him and he drives over to meet her at her father's Christmas tree farm. While he's there an old army buddy of her fathers is arrested for attacking a young boy. He agrees to defend him against a dirty cop that planted evidence and he knows has done so before. Things get pretty intense as he tries to learn more about what happened and it seems like the evidence is pointing to the judge instead.