Dog Tags

CHAPTER 82

HIKE AND I GET TO THE COURTROOM WITH FIVE MINUTES TO SPARE.

Eli shows up looking confused, and he shrugs at me as if he has no idea what’s going on. I return the shrug, but I’m sure I’m more informed than he is. While I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, I know it’s going to mean the end of the trial.

Billy is brought in, looking nervous and concerned. He’s afraid that a verdict is reached; I think he’s been hoping for a hung jury. “What’s going on?” he asks.

“I don’t know, but it’s not a verdict.”

“Does the jury have a question?”

“If they do, I haven’t heard it.”

The bailiff comes over and informs first me, and then Eli, that Judge Catchings wants to see us in his chambers. He doesn’t say lead counsel only, so I bring Hike with me, and Eli brings his second counsel as well.

I always hate going to a judge’s chambers. It feels like I’m being dragged to the principal’s office, mostly because I’m usually being called there because the judge is pissed off at me. That’s not the case this time.

Judge Catchings sits behind his desk, not wearing his robe and looking weary. “I’ve been informed of very serious juror misconduct, and I’ve confirmed it to be true.”

“What kind of misconduct?” Eli asks.

“One of the jurors visited the murder scene on his own, though I had prohibited it repeatedly. The same juror watched media coverage of the trial.”

Eli is not completely getting it; or maybe he just doesn’t want to. A mistrial is a nightmare for the prosecution, in some ways worse than an acquittal. “You can bring in one of the alternates, Your Honor. It’s only been a day and a half; you can instruct them to commence their deliberations from the beginning.”

Catchings shakes his head. “The juror has conveyed to the other jurors his feelings based on his visit to the scene, and the coverage he watched on television. The entire panel is contaminated.”

We throw out some more questions, until all the details come out. In addition to going to the scene one night last week, the juror had watched the CNN coverage, in particular an appearance by Douglas Burns, a defense attorney often called upon as an expert commentator by various networks. I’ve seen him many times; he’s got an outstanding legal mind, honed by his earlier days as a prosecutor.

His point of view on this case was basically that Billy should be acquitted, and I assume he gave cogent arguments that I would have agreed with. More importantly, the juror seemed to agree with them, and came in and tried to convince his colleagues on the panel.

Somebody had conveyed this information anonymously to the court, and Catchings confirmed all of it. “I have no choice but to declare a mistrial,” he says.

“Which juror was it?” I ask.

“Number nine,” he says, confirming my hunch. He was the juror who seemed far too anxious to be on the panel.

“Had the jury taken any votes?” Eli asks. “Did you happen to find that out?”

Catchings nods. “Ten to two for conviction.”

It’s all Eli can do to stifle a moan, and we head back to the courtroom for Catchings to announce it officially. As soon as I see Billy, I tell him the news.

His relief is obvious. “I’ll take the mistrial; I thought we were going to lose.”

“We were,” I say. “The jury was ten–two against.”

Billy’s no dummy; he knows how this works. “With those kind of numbers they’ll retry the case.”

“Billy, I’m going to tell you something, but at this point I can’t answer the questions you’ll have about what I’m going to say. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“I strongly believe you will never be convicted of this crime. You will not even be retried for this crime. You’re going to stay in jail for a while, but it will be a short time.”

He grins. “I can think of a few questions to ask, but for now I’ll just sit with this awhile.”

“Thank you.”

Billy is taken away. I’m happy he’s going to get off, but I’m feeling very uneasy about the turn that things have taken. For all my cynicism, I believe in the criminal justice system, and I take my role as an officer of the court seriously.

This has been an abuse of the system. Juror number nine was planted there by the FBI, to be used as they saw fit. There might have been others as well, since it was possible that number nine might not have made the panel in the first place.

This worked out in my favor, and in Billy’s.

But it stinks.