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Home Keenya Curry The Case Keenya's case not important to her attorney Keenya's case not important to her attorney
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
Keenya Curry trusted her attorney to look after her interests. It seems he was a lot more keen on looking after his own. He never had time: campaigning for public office, vacations, health, other cases, etc. etc. held him up - until he came to Keenya with a take-it-or-leave-it offer. She had to plead guilty to five counts of Child Endangering; if she did not then the Prosecutor threatened to continue to pile on additional charges until, as he said, they would "total a thousand".
And to ensure Keenya would accept the deal, her attorney told her he would not be able to mount a defense because he had been prevented from seeing the 'evidence' against her. He told her that if she insisted on proceeding to trial he was afraid she would spend the rest of her life in jail. Keenya had 15 minutes to make her decision.
Her attorney also revealed that the Prosecutor had offered a deal before, which he had turned down without consulting her or even telling her about it. In retaliation the Prosecutor had added another 30 counts to the initial 6 counts. Now, she faced a total of 36 counts of Child Endangering and Kidnapping. If her attorney was telling her the truth, she could be facing 1,000 charges if she continued to maintain her innocence and proceeded to trial.
Keenya knew she was innocent of any wrong-doing but what choice did she have? Her attorney told her there was nothing he could do for her and if she did not take the deal she would likely spend the rest of her life in jail.
Exactly what was this final 'deal' being offered by the Prosecution? Her attorney told her that, if she agreed she would likely get a 1-year probation because she had no prior convictions. What she got, was the maximum of 25 years in prison without chance of parole. This extraordinary sentence despite maintaining her innocence and never having been afforded any chance to see or dispute the so-called evidence against her.
What would you or I have done if Keenya's situation? I think it safe to say most of us would have trusted in your attorney and have agreed to the plea offer. That's what Keenya was forced to do and she has regretted it everyday since August 1998.
She regrets having trusted her attorney because she realizes that he sold her out. She realizes that the Prosecution intended all along to not honor any offer - all they wanted was to prevent her from proceeding to trial where their lack of evidence would have become, well, evident. So, they used the power of their office to threaten her with 1,000 counts and of spending the rest of her life in jail. Too, they baited her by offering a deal that they had no intention of honoring. And they did not honor the agreement and the defense attorney was either an unwitting or willing partner in the deception.