From a Single Seed: A Novel by Teri Ames

Author:Teri Ames [Ames, Teri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catamount Publishing
Published: 2016-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

CASSIE STILL couldn’t believe that her son had been charged with manslaughter––it was surreal. She hadn’t slept because she’d been worrying about Keenan and what might happen in court. Even though Barry had told them it was unlikely that Keenan would go to jail that day, she had still been afraid that Barry might be wrong. Thankfully, he hadn’t been.

After posting the additional bail, they met with Barry at his office. “We have some decisions to make,” Barry began. “First, the judge is giving us an opportunity to fast-track. I suspect it’s because he doesn’t want to deal with a prolonged media circus any more than we do.”

“I want to get this over with,” Keenan said.

“I can do that,” Barry said. “I don’t have any other cases that will require this level of attention in the short term. But you need to understand that, if we rush this, we’re more likely to make mistakes.”

“I need my life back,” Keenan said.

“Okay. When do you start school in the fall?” Barry said.

“Classes start the first week in September.”

“I’ll try to get trial dates at the end of August,” Barry said. “That might work to our advantage anyway. I like Judge Whippet, and Adams County is supposed to be getting a new judge in September.”

As the thought of a trial brought back images of her son in the courtroom, Cassie felt the now all too familiar turmoil in her stomach. She had to force herself to pay attention to Barry’s words––there might be something Keenan needed her to remember later.

“Right now, because of the timing, Keenan is facing charges under two separate docket numbers. The judge will want to join them, try the assault and manslaughter charges together. The prosecution too. We have to decide whether to oppose it.”

“You mean ask for two trials. Why would we want to do that?” Greg said.

“The biggest reason is that even if they’re not convinced of the assault, the jury may convict him of it as a compromise.”

“I don’t get it,” Cassie said. “Compromise?”

“Being a juror is a tough job. There’s pressure to be fair, but also not to let people get away with crimes. If we convince them that there’s not enough evidence for the manslaughter charge, they may convict on the assault charge to hedge their bets on whether they got it right. I’m not saying they do it consciously. It’s just psychology. The conventional wisdom is that we’re better off splitting the charges if we can. That way we can also try to keep the evidence of Shannon’s death out of the assault charge.”

“But everybody around here already knows she’s dead,” Keenan said.

Barry shrugged. “I’m hoping to find fourteen jurors who don’t read the papers.”

“And two trials will cost twice as much, right?” Greg said.

“For the most part.”

“I don’t want to go through two trials,” Keenan said. “I just want to get this over with.” So did Cassie. But maybe she should try to talk him into two trials. If that would help keep him out of jail.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.