Judgment

Author: D.W. Baffa
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-19
Features: This book was nominated for the Best Novel Award at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards in 2002. Judge Calvin Jeffreys, a highly respected figure in the judiciary, was stabbed to death in the courthouse parking lot. The murder case caused a great sensation among the public. Based on a tip-off from an anonymous phone call, the police quickly cracked the case and apprehended the suspect responsible for killing Jeffreys. The suspect was a mentally ill patient who had escaped from a psychiatric hospital, and he confessed to his crimes without hesitation. Unexpectedly, the killer committed suicide on the very night he was sent to prison. Soon after, another judge, Quincy Griswold, was stabbed to death in the same parking lot. This time, the suspect was a mentally disabled young man without a home, who could not even remember his own name, and insisted that the weapon in his hand had been given to him by someone else. The two murder cases had many similarities, with almost identical methods and scenes, and both were tip-offs from the same anonymous phone call. The case was shrouded in mystery, and the police concluded that it was a copycat murder. Attorney Joseph Antoneilli had once engaged in a fierce confrontation with Jeffreys during a trial years ago and knew him well: cunning, ruthless, and manipulative. He did not believe that these were two unrelated acts of violence. Persuaded by his friends, the justice-seeking Antoneilli decided to defend the defendant. To track down the real culprit, he repeatedly delved into the psychiatric hospital to gather information. As the case progressed, the killer's identity became clearer, revealing that it was a "mentally ill" person orchestrating a revenge operation.