The Motive by John T. Lescroart

Author:John T. Lescroart
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780451215727
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2005-12-27T23:44:28+00:00

In a California murder trial, the defense attorney has an option. He can either deliver his opening statement directly after that of the prosecuting attorney, as a sort of instant rebuttal, or he can deliver his statement at the conclusion of the state’s case in full. Hardy was a big fan of the former, believing as he did that the jury made up a great deal of its collective mind—impressions of the players, general believability of the state’s narrative, strength or likely strength of the evidence to be presented—in the very opening stages of a trial.

Hardy’s experience was that by the time the jury members had heard and seen all the state’s evidence, even if the veracity and provenance of every bit of it had been questioned, denied and demeaned by a vigilant defense lawyer, the weight of all of it often just got to be too much to lift. So despite being the defense attorney, Hardy didn’t want to fall into a defensive posture. The last thing he wanted was to be passive, parrying the thrusts of his opponent without striking any blows of his own.

No, a trial was a war, and the goal was to win, not simply to defend. And if you wanted to win, you had to attack.

Hardy knew the book on Rosen was that he never objected during open, believing, as did most lawyers, that it ticked off the jury. So he had a hunch he could mix a little argument into a straight recitation of his facts—in fact, his plan was to find out exactly how much argument his counterpart could tolerate.

So after his own low-key and affably gracious greeting to the jurors, Hardy wasted no time bringing out his own guns. “Well, we’ve all now heard Mr. Rosen’s account of the murders of Paul Hanover and Missy D’Amiens, and I couldn’t help but be struck by his use of the phrase, ‘we will show, and prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt.’ Just hearing him use those words creates a powerful impression, doesn’t it? He’s telling you he’s got evidence to support his theory of Paul and Missy’s deaths that is so persuasive that it will leave you in a state of virtual certainty, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Catherine Hanover killed them both.

“But let me tell you something. He doesn’t have any such thing. He has, in fact, no physical evidence at all that places Catherine at Paul Hanover’s house at or near the time of the murders.” He stopped as though struck nearly mute for a second by the enormity of what he’d just said. “Can that be right? You must be thinking, How can the State of California have arrested and charged Catherine Hanover with this heinous double murder of her father-in-lawand his fiancée if there is simply no physical evidence tying her to the crime?”

A flummoxed look on his face, he turned first to the prosecution table as though he expected an answer to this very reasonable question. When none was forthcoming, he came back to the panel.

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