SOMETIMES, LIFE IS exactly like in the movies.
I look around Courtroom 3 in the Myer County Courthouse, the walls painted a bright eggshell above a dark cherry wainscotting that circles the room. The judge’s bench and witness box, also a dark cherry, rise above every other spot in the room, mute witness to the judge’s authority in this space. On the wall behind the judge’s chair is the Maryland state seal. Flanking either side are the American flag and the state flag of Maryland, its design based on the coat of arms of Cecil, Lord Baltimore, the founder of the colony as a refuge for Catholics in the seventeenth century.
I’m sitting at a table to the judge’s right, next to Angela Jenkins. I’m wearing a freshly-pressed black suit with a black shirt and Roman collar.
“Anna pressed it this
