Henry Parish on Sleepy Hollow is a bad lawyer. Not a bad lawyer in being incompetent to practice law, but bad in that he had a client unknowingly sign over his soul in blood, mailed crushed bone to turn a Marine into a Wendigo that fed on Marines and civilians, and working for a demon to bring about the Apocalypse. All or these actions demonstrate a total failing of having the “moral character” necessary to practice law.
Henry Parish has committed enough acts to warrant disbarment if he is an attorney. Will disbarment be enough to stop the end of the world? One only needs to see that Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion that there is more than one way to bring down a criminal enterprise specializing in domestic terrorism.
As one New York Judge said in 1908: An attorney is disbarred not only to rid the profession of an unworthy practitioner, but to warn other members of the profession. In re Clark (1908) 128 App Div 348, 112 NYS 777 (Emphasis added).
Henry Parish fraudulently having Frank Irving sign his soul over in blood would create a conflict of interest between lawyer and client, violating NY CLS Jud Appx R 1.7(a)(2), thus warranting disbarment for fraud in the representation of Frank Irving. This also would be an unlawful fee agreement to take a client’s soul.
New York law states that any attorney who is convicted of a felony shall cease to be an attorney or competent to practice law. NY CLS Jud § 90(4).
Henry Parish’s actions of mailing Joe Corbin crushed bone to turn Corbin into a murderous Wendigo would violate Federal law on mailing poisons and New York law for murder.
Federal law states that anyone who mails poison, hazardous materials, disease germs, and “and all other natural or artificial articles, compositions, or material which may kill or injure another,” are “nonmailable” items and that sending such items is punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment if done with the intent to kill or harm another. 18 USCS § 1716(a) and (j)(2).
New York has recognized you can murder someone by mail for over a century. People v. Molineux, 26 Misc. 589, 589-590(N.Y. County Ct.1899).
Parish could be convicted for mailing a hazardous substance to a US serviceman overseas with the intent to kill others, by turning Joe Corbin into a flesh-eating demon. These actions would violate the prohibition from mailing dangerous substances with the intent to kill. Furthermore, turning Corbin into a Wendigo, whose transformation was triggered by blood, would make Parish at least responsible for second-degree murder for the indiscriminate killing of people in New York by the Wendigo. Upon conviction, Parish would be immediately disbarred.