Law & Order SVU has been my show for years, but let’s be honest — nothing about my actual work looks like that. There’s no dramatic music. No last‑minute confessions. No detectives sprinting down hallways. And absolutely no scene where a defense attorney gets an investigator without filing a motion, drafting a proposed order, and… Continue reading Nothing About My Work Looks Like That
Author: Sonya
Nobody’s Hands Are Clean: On Advocacy, Accountability, and a Trial I Wish Wasn’t Happening
There are some weeks when being a criminal defense lawyer feels straightforward. This is not one of them. I'm preparing for a trial that I wish wasn't happening—not because I don't believe in trying cases, but because this one sits in the uncomfortable space where multiple truths exist at the same time. My client made… Continue reading Nobody’s Hands Are Clean: On Advocacy, Accountability, and a Trial I Wish Wasn’t Happening
When We Choose to See: The Sacred Work of Justice
July has been month of seeing. Not the easy kind of seeing. The kind that requires us to slow down long enough to notice what is hidden beneath the surface. A country celebrating it ideals while many people are still waiting to experience them. A heart grieving the loss of someone whose presence had become… Continue reading When We Choose to See: The Sacred Work of Justice
In the Interest of Justice — On a Case That Never Should Have Been Filed and a Mother Who Deserved Better
The last few weeks have been a season of grief and illness — and if I'm honest, the illness isn't fully behind me yet. But you've walked some of this with me, and I have something from the courtroom worth sharing. Some cases stay with you not because they were dramatic, but because they reveal… Continue reading In the Interest of Justice — On a Case That Never Should Have Been Filed and a Mother Who Deserved Better
Carrying Both—When the Work Doesn’t Stop and Neither Does the Hurt
What I’m learning is this: sometimes life asks us to carry more than one kind of weight at the same time. Grief in one hand. Illness in the other. And somehow, the work still expects you to show up—to advocate, to prepare, to stand in court with a steady voice even when your body and… Continue reading Carrying Both—When the Work Doesn’t Stop and Neither Does the Hurt
Catching Up to What Happened
I don’t have many words today. I’m moving through shock and trying to make sense of a week that shifted without warning. What I can say is this: sometimes life asks us to carry grief and responsibility at the same time. To show up in court, to answer emails, to lead, to parent — all… Continue reading Catching Up to What Happened
Permissions, Not Guarantees: 250 Years of Arrogance and Unfinished Justice
America turns 250 this year. A quarter of a millennium. And while the country rehearses its favorite story — freedom, progress, exceptionalism — I keep thinking about the people who will mark this anniversary from jail cells and prison bunks. People whose lives reveal the parts of America that never evolved, never repented, never made… Continue reading Permissions, Not Guarantees: 250 Years of Arrogance and Unfinished Justice
The Violence is the Point — And the Budget Proves It
Cason Helms was beaten to death earlier this month (June 2026) at the Elmore Correctional Facility in Alabama — the ninth person killed in an Alabama prison in as many months. The headlines will say "inmate-on-inmate violence," as if the state were a bystander. As if this were an unforeseeable tragedy instead of the predictable… Continue reading The Violence is the Point — And the Budget Proves It
A Case and a Crisis Are Not the Same Thing: What Happened When a Courtroom Stopped to Listen
It was supposed to be a routine plea. I was standing in line waiting to approach the bench when another lawyer stepped up with her client to enter a plea on a theft case. The offer was deferred adjudication, and everything appeared to be moving in the ordinary rhythm of a busy criminal court docket.… Continue reading A Case and a Crisis Are Not the Same Thing: What Happened When a Courtroom Stopped to Listen
Both Things are True: Why I Refuse to Choose Between Justice and Mercy
For the past several months, I've been trying to find the language for a tension that keeps showing up in my life and work. It appears in courtrooms and classrooms. In ministry and in writing. In conversations about crime, poverty, trauma, faith, and justice. I knew what the tension felt like, but I didn't yet… Continue reading Both Things are True: Why I Refuse to Choose Between Justice and Mercy
