Author: H. Mitchell Caldwell

Publisher: Nine Innings Press

ISBN: 978-1-7375123-2-5

Pepperdine/Caruso law professor H. Mitchell Caldwell has written a chilling legal thriller around the retrial of a convicted murderer facing the death penalty.

As the novel opens, Caldwell introduces us to Professor Jake Clearwater, who had joined the law faculty at Pacifico Law School four years ago. Before becoming a member of the staff, Clearwater was a trial prosecutor in San Arcadia, California. 

What prodded Clearwater to change employment was his displeasure with his arrogant boss, John Tice, the San Arcadia DA.

Although Clearwater enjoyed teaching, it eventually became routine. There wasn’t the same intensity as being a trial attorney, and Clearwater was becoming restless. 

His opportunity to return to courtroom drama occurred when a few representatives of the Death Penalty Project knocked on his door one afternoon. They represented a death-row prisoner in appealing his conviction and death sentence. They wanted to convince Clearwater to take on the case. 

Clearwater didn’t expect the appellate work would fill the adrenaline gaps he was lacking. Although, it would offer an intellectual and emotional challenge missing from academia. After reflecting on and acknowledging that he lacked experience, he still agreed to accept the case. 

To help him prepare for the appeal, Clearwater enlisted one of his brightest students, Suzelle Frost. Their combined preparatory work would involve examining 6,652 pages of testimony, 3,306 pages of clerk’s transcripts, as well as boxes of police reports, various witness accounts, various materials, and newspaper accounts of the trial. Quite a colossal task! 

The prisoner whom Clearwater was urged to represent was Duane Durgeon. He had been on death row in San Quentin for several years, as he was convicted of murdering Robert, and Doree Blanco. The facts were appalling. 

Durgeon, along with his two companions, Dan Atwell and Todd Rode, had forced their way into the Blanco home one evening. According to Clearwater, Durgeon’s attorney poorly represented him in his trial, and he exploited this as his justification for requesting a retrial. The judge concurred, and Clearwater was fortunate to have his client retried. The retrial would pit Clearwater against Attorney General Tice, whom he respected for his legal skills, but detested him as an individual.

Before Durgeon’s trial was afoot, a distraction occurred when Frost’s dad was arrested for striking a law enforcement officer. Apparently, there had been some misunderstanding, and her father’s attorney wanted him to plead guilty. Clearwater was able to successfully come to Frost’s father’s rescue.

During the trial, Clearwater was attracted to one member of the jury. It didn’t take long after the trial concluded that he was in a romantic liaison with the gorgeous jury participant.

The new trial pitted Attorney General Tice against Clearwater. Tice’s evidence was based on nine incriminating circumstances that would establish that Durgeon was responsible for murdering Robert and Doree Blanco. 

These included Durgeon’s previous visit to the Blanco apartment, damaging remarks to his live-in girlfriend, Christina Atwell, who was the mother of Dan Atwell, the gun that was discovered by Christina, bullets recovered from Doree that were consistent with bullets fired from the weapon, absence from the home, a fingerprint attributed to Durgeon, eyewitness identification, Durgeon’s history of violence and his own testimony. In his defense, Clearwater brilliantly refutes each of these components and underscores to jury members that they must find Durgeon guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Caldwell teaches criminal procedure and trial advocacy. He frequently represents death row inmates appealing their convictions before the California Supreme Court.

Cost of Arrogance: A Jake Clearwater Legal Thriller is a wholly engaging read, providing readers with the gratification that emanates from good writing. Caldwell’s sharp eye for detail makes the narrative even more interesting in capturing the mood and tone of a courtroom drama where a man’s life is at stake. He does an exceptional job of building tension, pitting two exceptionally competent attorneys against each other. The resolution of the tale is left to the novel’s final chapters.