The Alford Plea: Speculative Biographical Fiction

By Edwina Louise Dorch

The Alford Plea
(Speculative Biographical Fiction)

Edwina Louise Dorch
Author & Psychologist

A jailed, but innocent man’s children are being murdered one by one.
But Who is murdering them?

• The Police?
• Business Competitors?
• Members of ‘The Dark Triad’?

Were his children murdered in retaliation for his wrongful arrest and conviction lawsuit?

Can his wife--an ‘empath’--or local clerics help right the many wrongs that have accumulated over time?

Help gather evidence to release an innocent man. Help search for the murderers of his children.

Come. Read this fast-paced novella - a 21st Century, ‘whodunit’.

The Search is on!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798369409343

Edwina Louise Dorch

Edwina L. Dorch is a Ph.D. psychologist who lives on a barrier island off the Florida Coast. She is also a contemporary, abstract, minimalist artist who paints female figures and seascapes. Additionally, as an art therapy coach, she believes creating art is a genuine coping mechanism that can facilitate resilience and the ability to recover from setbacks. In other words, selecting and applying paint is a way to manage stress and anxiety, relax, and release pent-up emotions. Her paintings appear in a number of Galleries of Local Artists along the Florida A1A highway.

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 by Edwina Louise Dorch.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/31/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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Table of Contents

Preface

List of Characters

The Timeframe

Introduction

Chapter 1: Murder One & Murder Two

Chapter 2: Revelations

Chapter 3: The Alford Plea

Chapter 4: Murder Three

Chapter 5: Ecclesiastical Matters

Chapter 6: KCPD

Chapter 7: The Clean Missouri Campaign

Chapter 8: Prosperity Gospel

Chapter 9: A Vestal Virgin

Chapter 10: Enterprising Community Partners

Chapter 11: The 1033 Program

Chapter 12: The Dark Triad

Chapter 13: Redemption

Afterword 1

Afterword 2

Afterword 3

Afterword 4

Book Club Discussion Topics

A Reader’s Call to Action

The Author

Some Artwork by the Author

Documents

Illustrative Photos

Bibliography

Reader Notes

To My Brother and his wife.

Ephesians 6: 12:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,

but against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this world,

against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Preface

The impetus for this novella was my attendance at my nephew’s funeral. He was murdered. A few years prior to his murder, his brother was murdered, and a few years prior to his brother’s murder, their sister was murdered. In between the first and last murders, a toddler belonging to a different niece was shot in the head and left for dead, but thankfully remains alive.

The news articles about each family member reported WHAT had happened (a murder), WHERE each murder had happened (Kansas City, Missouri), WHEN the murders happened (in the new millennium), and HOW they happened (using handguns). The articles did not, however, report WHO murdered my family members or WHY. Thus, my novel attempts to answer these two questions.

The genders and ages of the victims in the novel are roughly the same as they were in real life. To some extent, the plot is a typical ‘whodunit’ story. Yet, the plot specifics: 1) a father brings a lawsuit against an arresting officer in a burglary case; 2) his children are murdered after the lawsuit is filed; and 3) the black community rallies around the father are the same as in real life.

My goal for the novel was to suggest answers that have not yet, even now, been forthcoming, and to:

• Indicate who might have committed the murders and why.

• Implicate the 1033 Program in the murders.

• Implicate gun dealers and pawnshop owners in the murders.

• Implicate brain malfunctioning in the murders.

This novel is not a biographical or journalistic account of the facts. The time frame is condensed for the sake of fiction. The characters have symbolic significance. The names of real people have been changed and their fictional names were chosen for their symbolic value. This book attempts to supplement the insufficiencies of radio, television, and newspaper accounts.

The book allows readers to be privy to the imagined internal thoughts and speculations of the family members, friends, and neighbors of the murder victims, matters not typically focused on in news stories or in ‘whodunit’ novels. The book tries to get at emotional and dramatic truth. And because the murders remain unsolved, events in the story might be the actual truth.

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List of Characters

The Timeframe

(In the 2020s)

Introduction

The Alford Plea

Definition

The term Alford plea is taken from the case North Carolina v. Alford.

An Alford plea, also known as a best-interests plea, registers a formal admission of guilt toward charges in criminal court while the defendant simultaneously expresses his or her innocence toward those same charges.

Like the similar nolo contendere plea, an Alford plea skips the full process of a criminal trial because the defendant agrees to accept all the ramifications of a guilty verdict (i.e., punishment).

The main difference between a nolo contendere plea and an Alford plea is that in an Alford plea, the defendant formally pleads guilty while, in a nolo contendere plea, the defendant refuses to assert either guilt or innocence.

This distinction is relevant because unlike a nolo contendere plea, a formal admission of guilt under an Alford plea can be used against the defendant in future suits.

As with all plea bargains, an Alford plea is not a right. It is ultimately up to the prosecutor and judge to decide if they will offer it. A few states, like New Jersey and Indiana, expressly forbid Alfred pleas.

LII. (n.d.). Alford plea. LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved June 26, 2023, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/alford_plea

Chapter 1

Murder One & Murder Two

(On Groundhog Day)

On a clear night on Groundhog Day, the full moon lit up a Madonna-and-Child–like scene. A cinnamon-colored young woman in a navy maxicoat and a navy burka sat on a travertine limestone bench in a boulevard meridian-park. A toddler hung from a wool sling around the woman’s neck. The young woman’s head was downturned. Her eyes were locked in a loving gaze at the toddler, who looked up at its mother with doll’s eyes. Both mother and child had been shot in the head and both were dead.

Folks on the east and west sides of the street crossed to the median island and encircled the scene to get a better look. A few ventured to guess the name of the culprit, and those whispered his name discreetly, and out of the side of their mouths to the person standing next to them.

Suddenly, a slender, copper colored woman broke through the circle and stepped forward. Onlookers stared at her. The pale blue moonlight encircled her massive Afro. The woman seemed calm and composed. But then, she recognized the dead young woman. Her stride faltered, her mouth twisted, and she dropped to her knees and put her hand on the dead woman’s knee. Why? the matron shrieked.

A brash young recruit, hoping to demonstrate his knowledge of police procedures, reached out to grab the grief-stricken woman by the arm to pull her away. But calmly, the chief stepped out of the circle of bystanders and with an unwavering arm, lifted her from her knees. Khadijah, he said softly. Khadijah swayed, as if she was going to faint, but the chief wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her up. She buried her head in the chief’s wool overcoat, and in the moonlight the two swayed silently side-to-side.

A red-tailed hawk flew overhead making a kee-eeeee screech. Khadijah’s abruptly straightened her spine and she lifted her tear-stained face to the sky as if the screech was a signal from God. But, seeing only a hawk winging its way across the night sky, her hope dissipated, and her body deflated and sagged against the chief’s robust chest.

More and more bystanders amassed along the sidewalk, and more and more police officers prevented them from crossing to the median island where the bodies were. The officers dressed in riot-gear carried batons and other more aggressive crowd-control measures - pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, smoke canisters, and stun grenades. An officer on horseback with a bullhorn repeatedly barked a dispersal order.

Ahmad, Khadijah’s son—a broad-chested, snake-hipped, tawny-colored young man with dozens of shoulder-length dreadlocks swinging around his face, parked his door-less, roof-less, safari-style Jeep. He jumped out, ran to where his mother Khadijah and the chief stood, gasped and put his fist to his mouth in horror. He backed away at the sight of his dead sister.

He stood still and his head drooped for a moment, but then, he ran to his jeep and swerved it into the middle lane of southbound traffic. He’d had to influence crowds before, and he grabbed a fifteen-inch bullhorn from his passenger seat, stood on the side-step of his jeep and yelled to onlookers.

"Tell the police to protect and serve us."

The onlookers repeated Ahmad’s phrase.

"Protect and serve us!" they shouted.

A KCTV 5 reporter arrived with her cameraman. Khadijah always comes to murder scenes like this one to provide comfort to those traumatized by such heinous crimes. But, sadly, tonight it was her daughter and granddaughter who were murdered, the young reporter spoke into her microphone, as she and her camera man roamed through the not-yet-flowering wisteria trees on median island of the wide boulevard.

Spotting the TV news reporter, Ahmad jumped down from the driver’s sidestep of his Jeep and ran over to her. Put your mic down. Show some sympathy—some empathy—for my family. Feel something," he said.

Who killed your sister? the reporter demanded ignoring his appeal for her to summon emotion.

Ask Sergeant Sauron or Captain Mordore, Ahmad shouted, his eyes darting wildly back and forth. He ran back to the side-step of his Jeep, put the bullhorn to his mouth, and again prodded the gathering to chant: "Protect and serve us!"

Surprised by the taunting nature of the chant, the chief sat Khadijah down on the concrete bench next to her daughter and granddaughter. She covered her face and eyes with both her hands.

The chief walked to Ahmad’s car and offered his hand to him pleading.

Ahmad, come down. Don’t provoke the officers. Come down, son, the chief said. His fingers on his right hand beckoned for Ahmad to come to him. Reluctantly Ahmad stepped down from the running board of his jeep and although still troubled, he allowed the chief to put his arms around him.

Ahmad quieted, the chief raised his left hand in the air and signaled for his officers to stand down. The officers pulled their dogs away and put their batons in their holsters in response to his nonverbal command.

A city ambulance took Fatima and Aminah’s bodies away. Onlookers returned to their homes in the nearby Village Shire housing complex.

Let’s get your mother home, the chief said and he and Ahmad walked to where his mother sat all alone and solemnly on the limestone bench. Ahmad lifted his mother in his arms, carried her to his Jeep, settled her in the front seat, and drove her a half-mile to her townhouse in The Village Shire housing complex.

The housing complex ran along Brush Creek, which functioned as a watershed to catch stormwater and drain it into the Blue River, which, in turn, flowed into the Missouri River. Seventy-five years earlier, The Village Shire had been an all-white housing complex in the suburb. Now it was a low-income housing complex that accepted public housing vouchers from some of its renters.

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Ahmad opened his mother’s townhouse door and helped her to her bedroom. She showered and put on silk pajamas, the ones his father gave her for Christmas a few years back and the ones