19_The Innocent Man by John Grisham

Author:John Grisham
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 0440243831
Published: 2010-06-05T23:00:00+00:00

The Innocent Man

C H A P T E R 9

Annette Hudson had closely followed the Fritz trial by reading the daily reports in the Ada Evening News. On Tuesday, April 12, the front-page headline read, “Fritz Found Guilty in Carter Murder.”

As usual, the story mentioned her brother. “Ron Williamson, who is also charged with first degree murder in Carter’s murder, is scheduled to be tried here on April 21.” In fact, all six articles covering the Fritz trial mentioned Ron’s involvement and upcoming trial.

How do they expect to find an impartial jury? Annette asked herself repeatedly. If one co-defendant is found guilty, how could the other one get a fair trial in the same town?

She bought Ron a new gray suit, an extra pair of navy slacks, two white shirts, two ties, and new shoes.

On April 20, the day before his trial began, Ron was taken to court for a chat with Judge Jones. The judge was worried that the defendant might be disruptive, a valid concern given his history. As Ron stood before the bench, the judge said, “I want to see where we stand on your attendance tomorrow and make sure that when you’re here that there won’t be any disturbances. Do you understand my concern?”

Ron: “As long as they don’t start telling me that I’ve killed somebody.”

Judge Jones: “Well, you understand that they’re going to do that?”

Ron: “Well, I understand that, but it’s not right.”

Judge Jones knew that Ron had been a great athlete, so he used the analogy of a sports contest. “It’s kind of like a sporting event as far as the adversary process. Each side has an opportunity to be on offense, and they have the opportunity to be on defense, but you can’t take issue with the fact that each side gets these opportunities. That’s just part of the process.”

Ron: “Yeah, but I’m the football being kicked.”

For the prosecution, the Fritz trial was a nice warm-up for the main event. Virtually the same witnesses would be used, and in much the same order. But in the next trial, the state had two additional advantages. First, the defendant was mentally incompetent and prone to knock over tables and blurt out obscenities, behavior that most people, including jurors, frowned on. He could be eerily frightening; he scared people. Second, his lawyer was blind, and alone. Since the court-appointed co-counsel, Baber, had withdrawn from the case April 1, there had been no replacement. Barney was quick on his feet and a great cross-examiner, but not effective arguing over fingerprints, photographs, and hair analysis. For the defense, the trial couldn’t start soon enough. Barney was sick of Ron Williamson and frustrated with the sheer number of hours the case was draining away from his other, paying clients. And he was afraid of Ron, physically afraid. He arranged to have his son, not a lawyer, sit closely behind Ron at the defense table. Barney planned to sit as far away as possible, which wasn’t far at all, and

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