It was 1972 and Jeffrey Hicken was a newly minted lawyer who landed a state government job reviewing cases of convicted and incarcerated felons and, where possible, write up their appeals. At $150 a week, it wasn’t much money, but he was thrilled. As to his win-loss ratio? That’s easy—he almost never won. One day a hefty parcel labeled People v. J.T. Darling appeared on his desk. It contained a trial transcript, documents, and reports about the burglary conviction of Mr. Darling, or “JT”, who had just begun a six to 12-year sentence at the Menard Correctional Center. JT was from Goofy Ridge, Illinois, where the crime took place. JT’s case would lead Hicken to learn one of his most formative lessons as an attorney.

To read the rest of the story, see Hicken’s article, “Guilty as Charged?” in the March 2022 Illinois Bar Journal.