Trial by Susan Kuklin

Author:Susan Kuklin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

IS THIS THE TRUTH?

• GLENN CROSS-EXAMINES JOHNNY DING ABOUT HIS UNSAVORY PAST.

• JOHNNY DING EXPLAINS HIS AGREEMENTS WITH THE STATE AND FEDERAL COURTS.

TIME: FRIDAY. APRIL 24. 1998; 3:30 P.M.

PLACE: JUDGE FRIED’S COURTROOM

Glenn takes a quick glance at his notes while Johnny Ding waits passively in the witness box. Facing the jury rather than the witness, he asks the following questions:

“In 1994, you shot and killed somebody.”

“Correct.”

“With a gun?”

“Correct.”

“The bullet hit his head?”

“It was such confusion. We shot, we fired, and all I know, he is dead. I have been told by the law officers that he’s dead.”

“You beat people?”

“I did.”

“With metal bars?”

“Correct.”

“You extorted store owners?”

“Correct.”

“You threatened them?”

“Yes.”

“And it was your goal to keep these people in fear, isn’t that correct?”

“Right.”

“So that your gang could thrive?”

“Yes.”

“And when you killed this man, it advanced your position in the gang.” Pause. “Correct?”

“That was an order from above.”

“That compliance advanced your position in the gang?”

“That’s correct.”

Glenn is deadpan. It’s as if he was asking: “You bought the tomatoes?… Right?… And carrots?… Correct?…”

Suddenly Glenn spins around and faces the witness. “You approached another man and punched him? You pulled a knife on him and demanded $1,800.” He is angry. He needs to be angry. It is appropriate to be angry. “This person is screwing my client,” he later explains. “A jury would not have the energy to acquit Joe if I wasn’t outraged at his accusers.”

Glenn becomes a bombardier, diving in for the kill. “The man ran away.… You ran after him.… You grabbed him and threatened to kill him if he didn’t pay the money.”

“That didn’t happen,” Johnny screams back.

Louder and louder. “And you threatened him—”

“… We had an argument. It was a back-and-forth argument. It was a dispute between brothers.”

Glenn turns back to the jury and serenely asks, “So it’s a lie when they charged you for that particular crime?”

“When that charge was brought against me, it was a dispute between brothers. The brother didn’t come back to accuse me.” Johnny fidgets, but only a little.

“You threatened to cut off his fingers in that case, didn’t you?” Glenn says, reminding the jury that someone bragged about cutting off Mr. Li’s finger. (Earlier in the trial, Mr. Wang said that someone whom he could not identify told him that the second victim’s finger had been cut off. “His finger—one of his fingers had already been cut off. And he waved it in front of me.” Leemie’s theory is that the unidentified person was Joe Chen. Glenn believes it was Johnny Ding.)

“That was not what I said. I threatened him on the phone. I said, ‘If you don’t give the money, then you will be beaten up. You will be hit in the leg.’”

Glenn asks about even more crimes: three other kidnappings, a few beatings, and a robbery at Jane Ding’s uncle’s massage parlor.

Glenn tilts his head; his eyes widen. “You have committed all these crimes, and all of a sudden, you want to come clean? Is that your testimony?”

Johnny replies, “Someone who committed crimes, someone who did wrong, knows it very well in their heart.

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