Doug Blair ADMIN II
CCW GOLD MEMBER POETRY CONTEST WINNER Posts : 644 Age : 72 Join date : 2013-02-03 Location : Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
| Subject: To a Jury with the Vigilante Mon Feb 18, 2013 7:29 am | |
| To a Jury with the Vigilante
Marko wasn’t very hungry at the deli during court recess. He and his partner Evans had been attending almost every session of the five days of trial against Carruthers. The case was built up around the rage of an elder brother in dealing with the suicide death of his sister. The victim was her former fiance, and a nasty player throughout the break-up.
Marko and Evans had not felt much like re-hashing Crown Brennan’s morning of some two and a half hours of reply evidence. Long damage control after defense witnesses almost always looked weakto a jury.
Accused had retained Chernik as counsel. Four figure suits. Gawdy jewellery. Stable of three private investigators. Much publicized recent acquittal of a member of City Council in a big fraud case.
Brennan had thought it best to be very above-board with disclosure of statements and scrutiny of physical evidence. No sense in playing cranky. This did not stop the snow storm of motions from the defense however. Chernik loved to waft around his aura, sing to the press and crank up his fees.
But still it had only taken ten months to come to trial. Not a bad effort from the prosecution. And Brennan had really had his hands full in that interval. Two assistants on pregnancy leave and the Crown third in seniority doing some rehab.
Evans looked at her watch, “Ten to two. Better get back. Whatdya think Paul? About a day and a half for summations and deliberation?”
Up to the third floor, Courtroom F, big coat of arms of the Province of Alberta over the bench. Clerk just starting to pronounce “Order. This Court is now in session. Honourable Justice David Pinkowski presiding.”
“Thank you ladies and gentleman. Counsel. Mr. Clerk, would you please call in the jury?”
And so the Chernik show for the defense began:
“Ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon. I am so happy that we are now at this point. We can tie together for your benefit all the threads. We can acknowledge the viciousness of a murder. We can sympathize with the zeal of the authorities to return the community to a place of rest with news of a speedy apprehension. We can also prove that their good work is not over, for the wrong individual sits before you, accused.”
Evans nudged Marko’s elbow and whispered, “just reeking with the jaunty air of confidence”. No comment. Eyes straight forward, hunting the speaker’s intended path. He would have to remember it all to team with Brennan in any possible rebuttal.
“Quickly stated. No eye witness. No forensics at the scene related to my client. No previous dealings between the two men. No ballistics hookup on the weapon. It was a shotgun. Location was a seamy part of the City where three incidents of serious violence had been reported in the previous seven days. A parking lot behind Cromarty’s Pub. Poorly lit. Reputed scene of many a skirmish with hookers, Johns and pimps.
And a moderately successful real estate agent, aged 34 stares skyward with his face blown away. Dead.
There has been much bantered about alibis in this trial. A former girlfriend of the accused comes forward quickly confirming that she had spent the night with Carruthers. She later recants saying that the story was never discussed with the accused, but represented a foolish attempt to get back into his favour. We know that my client is a gambler from the evidence, but it would appear that this young woman has him beat.”
A couple of the men on the jury make eye contact and almost giggle out loud.
“ But then defense presents the way things really happened. At 11:00 PM the accused and an accounting firm associate Richard Parsons meet at the accused’s apartment. They go in Carruther’s car to a Pizza Hut and discuss events and performance at the firm over a deep dish meat lover’s special. Parsons pays the tab, and has presented before you the credit card receipt dated and timed at 12:30 A. M. Parsons convinces the accused that he still has the energy to visit the Casino some six miles cross town. It is the beer talking now. Parsons scores big at the Twenty-One Table and has presented in evidence to you documentation from the club confirming his winnings of some $750 and paid over at 3:00 AM on the Friday.
You also heard evidence from Parson’s secretary confirming that the two men showed up for work unusually late that morning with smiles on their faces, and Parsons bragging about his big win while out with Ted Carruthers after a late-night audit.
We have been told that an upstairs apartment dweller, named Stinson discovered the body at 2:00 AM and immediately called 911. His explanation of his evening was credible and responsible. Helping his younger brother paint a couple of bedrooms. Two beers and a hamburg consumed afterward. No foolishness.
The police arrive. The yellow tape is plastered all around. The photos are taken. The crime investigation people are delicate and painstaking. Their later work on the body confirms time of death at around 11:45 PM. They could rule conclusively that the body was shot where it fell.
And nothing, I repeat nothing, suggests the name or the face or the DNA of my client.”
There is a pause as Chernik reaches to pull his cuffs back out of the charcoal striped sleeves, gold links showing.
“Reflecting upon my friend’s case, there was much said about the painful break-up with the suicide, Ms. Trudy Carruthers. Apparently she had been cruelly cast off by the victim, Steve Thomson. But there is no evidence that the two men, Carruthers and Thomson ever made contact.
You heard of the growing blight of vigilante self-help, of guns raised and action taken when the police prove too tardy or reluctant. I am on record with the media as to my lament over this growing phenomenon.”
Evans could feel Marko’e leg tighten on the bench beside her. He turned toward her with a look that was all rage.
“And finally you heard about my client’s apartment and his entertainment choices. I ask you in all fairness what can be drawn out of a young man’s inclination to recreate after long work hours over a couple of thrilling shoot-em-up movies or novels?
The prosecution has proffered a bird’s nest of circumstantial evidence only. And this is a capital case with an argument of pre-meditated scheming viciousness. They have to be doubly thorough here.
My client has been counseled not to take the stand. He is not obligated to do so. The Crown’s duty is uphill all the way. We have adequately explained Mr. Carruther’s whereabouts. He has nothing to add pertaining to the crime scene, the victim or the night in question. His intense feeling for his sister’s loss has been overplayed without any corroborating evidence of noted changes in his behaviour after her death. He said nothing to any witness you have heard about any ill will toward the victim. Why should I put him up there on the stand for Mr. Brennan’s crafty enjoyment and opportunity to befuddle?
If even a single area of reasonable doubt exists, you must acquit. Thank you for your attention.”
With that Chernik turned toward his table, but then an addendum:
“I almost forgot, that black notebook in the apartment. Rough scribbling. Cryptic. Who knows really who wrote it, and furthermore most of the places were of the types visited by the accused in his travels. Commercial buildings. Bars. Casinos. It is posited as the diary of a methodical tracker. That one is truly a red herring. Don’t you see it otherwise, believe me…Thanks again.”
It was looking like time for the mid-afternoon break. Gavel was rapped. Jury started to go out first. Brennan turned back from his table toward Marko, puffed his cheeks, let out a slow, determined “pfooofff”.
Isaiah 40: 21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: 23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
Last edited by Doug Blair on Wed Feb 20, 2013 1:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Doug Blair ADMIN II
CCW GOLD MEMBER POETRY CONTEST WINNER Posts : 644 Age : 72 Join date : 2013-02-03 Location : Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
| Subject: Re: To a Jury with the Vigilante Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:06 pm | |
| The first instalment was filed as a short story in Fiction. But really, the power, the purse-strings, the partiality, the posturing and the obfuscation are all real. They make Law whorish in the courts. And of course law is meant to fail, and mercy to triumph over it.
I was once an attorney. I went broke. I became disgusted with it all. Made some good friends, but really nothing about the law made them shine any brighter. I am told that a good honest fight brings out the best possible solution, not perfect, but the best that we have to date. Apply this to disputes, labour, politics, sports, market competition. Rubbish!
All that it really does is create a sordid lust to win. In my estimation every candidate for law MUST read Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, Psalms 82 and 85, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Guterson's Snow Falling Upon Cedars.
There is a third instalment to my little story... |
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