The Ehrengraf Appointment

This is the fourth story about Martin H. Ehrengraf, the dapper little lawyer whose clients always turn out to be innocent. Unlike Perry Mason, Ehrengraf rarely sees the inside of a courtroom, but like that fellow, he never loses a case.

Ehrengraf charges high fees, and has the good sense to represent individuals able to pay them. But in the present story he accepts a court appointment to defend a hapless indigent who has evidently beaten his wife to death in a drunken argument.

A fellow attorney assumes Ehrengraf will have his client plead guilty to manslaughter, accept his $175 fee, and go on to other matters. But how could Ehrengraf allow an innocent man to plead guilty? And why should he be content with $175, when there are other ways to make a case profitable?