The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips by Stephen Baldwin & Mark Tabb

Author:Stephen Baldwin & Mark Tabb [BALDWIN, STEPHEN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000
ISBN: 9780446544719
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2008-11-05T05:00:00+00:00

TED JACKSON WAS RIGHT. The defense didn’t take long, not in comparison to the prosecution’s case. From what Andy could gather from the bits and pieces of information on the news, and from the little bit he could squeeze out of Ted Jackson, all John’s attorney called were character witnesses. His pastor testified on his behalf, as did the prison chaplain and a few people from John’s church. One name piqued Andy’s attention. Ted mentioned that someone named Eli took the stand. Andy recognized the name as the same as the person to whom John was talking on the phone when Andy arrived on the night of Gabe’s death. However, he didn’t tell Ted or anyone else he recognized the name. It turns out that Eli was the inmate John nearly killed in the fight in the yard, then turned around and saved his life. From the way they described him on the news, Eli told quite a story from that day in the prison yard. I guess his point was that John would never hurt anyone, especially someone he loved. However, it had little to do with the night of Gabe’s death.

The defense rested late Monday afternoon with John testifying on his own behalf. Ted Jackson told him later that John never got too far away from his basic defense of “I didn’t do it. I have nothing to hide. God is my witness that I loved my son and would never harm him.” As for the testimony against him, he dismissed Angela Peters by saying that anyone who knows him knows he would never do anything like she described. He called Loraine a good mother, and said he could understand how her pain over the loss of their son pushed her to make up these accusations against him. And he showed his only hint of emotion when he addressed Brian Paul’s assertion that he had seen John kill Gabe. According to Ted Jackson, John said he did not know why Brian would make up a story like this. Brian, he said, was Gabe’s best friend and that he had always tried to be like a father to the little boy. John believed the child had to be confused because of the trauma of that night.

Reginald Chambliss didn’t spend too much time cross-examining John. His case was already so strong that trying to break John on the witness stand could work against him, especially if John didn’t break. Ted said, instead, Chambliss asked Phillips that if all these testimonies against him were inaccurate, why didn’t he press his attorney to more fiercely cross-examine them? John said, “The truth will always prevail,” or something like that. Chambliss followed up by saying, “Don’t you realize that your failure to challenge these witnesses only makes you look guilty.” John didn’t deviate from his script. He went back to saying, “I have nothing to hide. I am innocent. God will make sure the truth prevails.” Ted called it the weakest defense he’d ever seen, especially in a murder case.

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