The Color of Night by John H Timmerman

Author:John H Timmerman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780882824154
Publisher: New Horizon Press

For the next several weeks, that was the last moment of relaxation and peace Tim experienced.

Juries are entities unto themselves, like a twelve-celled organism. Yet, the modern voir dire, or jury selection process, tries to ensure that each cell in that organism is different. Independent intellects rather than emotional imaginations. Diverse backgrounds rather than one class stratum. The accused, after all, has a constitutional right to a jury of his or her peers.

What does this mean when applied to a Marvin Gabrion, accused of crimes so monstrous they make a rationally and emotionally stable person shudder? By the same principle of voir dire, attorneys have varying ideas of the opening statement. Some feel it is relatively useless, a mere formality—that the case will be won or lost on the preponderance of evidence alone. On the contrary, some attorneys believe that the opening and closing arguments are the opportunities to win the jackpot. It is all drama where even the most minuscule item of evidence takes on world-shaking relevance.

That is the way movies have it, anyway.

In real life some attorneys present a smooth and compellingly eloquent statement—a perfect appeal to reason and emotion. Truly also, some fumble with a sense of grammar as twisted as a new language, with a progression of ideas as lurching as a centipede and a self-assurance as firm as gelatin. Sometimes they win by a sympathy vote. But not often. In both cases, however, prosecution and defense share similar roles. One outlines the crime, the evidence and why this one individual should be found guilty of that crime. The other, for whatever reasons, answers that his client couldn’t possibly have done it. These can range from the so-called mental incapacity test (Gabrion had been examined three times since his arrest and been deemed competent to stand trial in each instance) to the infamous SODDI (Some Other Dude Did It) defense. Bereft of the first alternative, Gabrion’s case headed in the latter direction.

The courtroom was busy when Tim and Lyn arrived on that first Monday, February 25. Marvin Gabrion shuffled into the courtroom, shackled at the wrists and ankles, taking careful twelve-inch steps within the fourteen-inch ankle chain. He had perfected the jailhouse shuffle: shoulders bent forward, head twitching back and forth, eyes peering for any threat. Often he caught the gaze of a spectator in the audience and held it with his malevolent glare.

The prosecution opened its case by taking the jurors back to the calm and lovely afternoon of July 5th—five years earlier at Oxford Lake. A tranquil lake, until Rachel’s body was spotted through the lens of binoculars.

But how did this story start?

“Let me tell you how the story started,” began the prosecutor Don Davis. “On August 7, 1996, Marvin Gabrion raped Rachel Timmerman. She reported to the Newaygo County Sheriff’s department and to Gerber Memorial Hospital. Marvin Gabrion was charged with this rape and was scheduled to stand trial on June 5, 1997. Mr. Gabrion didn’t want to stand trial, but the only way to avoid it was to get rid of Rachel Timmerman.

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