The Justice Game

50

For Jason Noble and Andrew Lassiter, it was almost like old times.

But not quite.

The air between them was noticeably chillier now-not quite see-your-breath chilly but not exactly warm bayou nights either-as they sat together in Jason’s conference room and watched the videotaped depositions of Melissa Davids and Jarrod Beeson. There was an unspoken acknowledgment that Jason had not stepped up for Andrew when Justice Inc. had done Andrew wrong. That pall hung over their meeting, though both men were too reserved or stubborn to talk about it.

While he watched the depositions, Andrew toyed with a number of spreadsheets on his computer, tweaking the characteristics they wanted for their model jurors. He would need to do some focus groups to test his thinking, he told Jason, but he had researched the gun-control issue in the past.

They needed to avoid African American women and upper-class white women, according to Lassiter. No Democrats. Baptists and Pentecostals were fine; mainline Protestants were trouble. Catholics could go either way. Intellectual elites were disastrous-especially readers of Atlantic Monthly or the New York Times. Same for environmentalists unless they were avid hunters. Jason wanted folks who shopped at Kroger and Target, not Fresh Market and Nordstrom.

And Lassiter pointed out one other surprising correlation. Law enforcement personnel would side with the gun manufacturers 90 percent of the time.

“Why is that?” Jason asked.

“Most cops are firearms and hunting enthusiasts,” Lassiter responded, blinking rapidly. “They believe that disarming honest citizens does nothing to reduce crime and might deprive those citizens of the means of self-defense.”

During one of the breaks, while Lassiter was using the men’s room, Jason wandered out to the reception area.

“That guy’s weird, ” whispered Bella, loud enough to be heard down the hall.

“But very talented,” Jason said in a much softer whisper, hoping that Bella would take the hint.

“He’s got this blinking thing going on,” she complained, her volume unaffected. “And he won’t look you in the eye. When he was sitting over there waiting for you, he had the jitters like crazy.”

“He’s not trying the case, Bella. He’s just helping pick the jury.”

She shook her head, unconvinced. “Something’s not right about him,” she said, making a face.

Three hours later, Bella peeked into the conference room where Jason and Lassiter were still watching the videotaped depositions. “It’s six o’clock,” she said. “You need anything before I leave?”

“No, we’re fine,” Jason replied, his attention still on the monitor. But before Bella could turn to go, a thought hit him. He pressed pause.

“Bella, come here a minute.” He handed her the transcript from Melissa Davids’s deposition. “Pick out a question on any page,” Jason said. “Andrew, let’s see if you can guess the answer.”

“There’s no point in this,” Andrew said.

“Just humor me. Bella, go ahead and pick out a question.”

Bella and Andrew looked at Jason with matching frowns, but he wouldn’t let it go. A frustrated Bella exhaled forcefully enough to move a small sailboat and turned to the middle of the deposition. “‘Do you know what an illegal straw sale is?’” she asked, her tone registering her protest.

“‘Of course,’” Andrew said.

Bella shot Jason a look, like she’d just seen an impressive card trick. “‘Explain it to me,’” she read.

This time, Andrew stared at the wall for a moment and fluttered his eyelids. “‘Is it my job to explain the law to her?’”

Jason smiled. He remembered the line from the deposition-and his own response. “You don’t have to explain it,” Jason said, “but it might help us get out of here.”

“Actually,” Andrew said, “your precise line was, ‘Not really. But maybe if you do, we can get out of here faster.’ Then Ms. Davids says, ‘A straw purchase transaction is when an eligible purchaser of a firearm buys a gun on behalf of another person who is an ineligible purchaser of a firearm. Let’s say, for example-’”

“All right,” Bella said. “I get it. You can stop now. But let me just check something…” Like a true skeptical New Yorker, she flipped through a few pages in the deposition and started reading again.

“‘You’re aware that the cities of New York, Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia have filed lawsuits against rogue gun dealers based on guns they sold that were later traced to crimes on the streets of those cities?’”

“‘Yeah, I’m aware,’” said Andrew, playing the part of Melissa Davids. “‘You want my opinion on those suits?’”

“‘That won’t be necessary.’”

“‘Didn’t think so.’”

“Wow.” Bella shook her head, a converted skeptic. “How do you do that?”

Lassiter twitched and looked back to his computer program-game over. “I don’t know. I’ve just always been able to remember things.”

“Un-flippin’-believable,” Bella said. “You oughta go on Jeopardy! ”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”