Page 29 - Delaware Lawyer - Summer 2023

him to consume his four daily news- papers and tend the 50 tomato plants whose fruit he gives to neighbors.
Yet, some of his most daunting and rewarding moments followed.
At the request of President Judge Jan Jurden, Graves handled a motion for post-conviction relief on a 1996 first-degree murder case in Kent County. The work occupied much of 2019 and led to a 119-page opinion in State v. Swan, 2020 Del. Super. Lexis 2996, aff’d, 248 A. 3d 839.
After COVID arrived, Judge Jurden sought Graves for another post-conviction marathon, involving James Cooke, convicted of the noto- rious assault, torture and murder of a University of Delaware student in 2005. The motion, answer and reply totaled 670 pages. Discover y brief- ing ran 138 pages. In an era of empty
courtrooms, oral arguments filled two days. Ten months of work led to a 245-page opinion, State v. Cooke, 2022 Del. Super. Lexis 1442.
In the first year after his retire- ment, Graves heard cases that could lead to a more upbeat denouement, in the drug court and mental health court where he played an important role since their inception.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was completely different from what a judge normally does. I probably had a repu- tation of being a tough judge on the prosecution. But on drug court, men- tal health court, it was completely different,” he shares. “Drug court is more like a regular probation situation. You’re really working to try to get peo- ple clean and sober. In drug court, you had a feel for what you could do and how you could be helpful.”
“Mental health court was differ- ent,” he adds. “You can’t go into mental health court with thunder and lightning. That’s the opposite of what these people need. It’s got to be kinder and gentler. When people graduated, sometimes you fought tears. When they’d graduate, I’d say, ‘This is your graduation day, I’m not the guest speaker, you are. Do you have anything to say?’
“They would tell you stories about how they’d been estranged from their family, their children, and how they’d reconciled. They’d say, ‘When I got into this program, I thought you were the meanest sum’bitch around, and now I realize that you had a plan, and it worked out.’
“I got many thanks when they graduated.”
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SUMMER 2023 DELAWARE LAWYER 27