The judgment

the long version

No one had a more brilliant legal mind than Judge Calvin Jeffries. And no one cared less about the law and more about power. That is, until Jeffries is found murdered in a courthouse parking lot. The crime shocks the community, but justice is swift. Jeffries's killer is caught, confesses, and then unexpectedly commits suicide in his jail cell. The case is closed.Soon a second judge is stabbed to death under identical circumstances. This time the suspect is a homeless derelict who doesn't even know his own name. Like the Jeffries murder, the killing appears to be an open-and-shut case, and a copycat crime as well.Yet there's one attorney who knew both sides of Judge Calvin Jeffries too well to believe the murders were simply random acts of violence. Attorney Joseph Antonelli agrees to defend the accused. What he discovers challenges everything he knows about crime and punishment . . . and himself. Beneath the tidy, well-cataloged pile of evidence, he uncovers a twisted trail of retribution and obsession that leads to the real killer--and a plan even more chillingly flawless than the mythical "perfect crime." For the culprit, it i