Carl Drew's Blind Justice

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"One day I got a knock on my door. I looked out the window to see who it was. The cops. I opened the door to see what they wanted. One of the officers said they had a warrant out for me, for a parole violation. I had a feeling something was wrong. You see, they never cuffed me. They allowed me to walk down the stairs, uncuffed in front of them.

I have rabbit in me. If I was guilty of something, I would of ran. Like I said, I had this feeling something was wrong. So, when I got to the bottom step, I walked directly to the cop’s car. It was a good thing I did. Looking around, I saw they planted two officers between the surrounding houses. If I had run, I would have been shot.

I was taken in for booking and moved to the New Bedford House of Corrections to await a 15-day parole violation detainer. Then, one day they told me I was going to court. I asked if they were sure. One doesn’t go to court for a parole detainer. They told me they had an order for me to go and off I went. As the van pulled up to the courthouse, I noticed there were reporters everywhere. I wasn’t sure why until I was let out of the van. They were there for me! I was blown away. I didn’t know what to think. I was led into a back room of the courthouse where Sgt Dan Lowney of the Massachusetts State Police asked me if I knew anything about of the death of Karen Marsden. He told me that if I knew anything that could help, let him know and that would help me. I told him the truth; I knew nothing. With that he got up and left. I was led into the courtroom. Reporters were everywhere. That’s when I was told I was being indicted for the murder of Karen Marsden.

During the hearing, I pled not guilty. I was given a lawyer, John A. Birknes. That was that. Attorney Birknes met me back at the House of Corrections so could go over the case. That is when I asked him if he’d ever done a murder trial before. To this he said he did. He said he’d done a few of them. At first, I thought he was doing okay. He seemed like he knew what he was doing with all the pretrial related stuff. Please remember, at this time in my life I could barely read or write. I had to take Birknes at his words. Plus, back then, I had faith in our legal system. I knew I was not guilty of this crime and believed justice would prevail. Boy, was I wrong.

As the trial went on, it became clear Birknes was out of his league. He didn’t know what he was doing. With the exception of Maureen “Sunny” Sparda, Birknes never interviewed any of the witnesses. During the trial, Judge Keating had to stop Birknes to ask where he was going with his questioning, redirecting him as to what needed to be done. There was no communication between Birknis and his Private investigator either. The PI had over a year to get their report to Birknes; they never did. Birknes never thought to questioned it until the week of my trial. Birknes never did get a report from the PI, It was rumored he past away! So, during the same week my trial was to begin, we had to find a new PI to begin a new investigation. In years to come I would find out Birknes was present when one of my witnesses was brought into the back room of the courthouse to be intimidated into pleading the fifth by the DA himself. Birknes saw this and would do nothing to defend her.

It wasn’t until the book “Mortal Remains” came out that I learned Attorney John A. Birknes had never worked any trial before mine, let alone a murder trial. My trial was Birknes’s first case and his last case."

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-Carl Drew