To speak for the dead

26

The state called its first witness, and Abe Socolow stayed in his chair. Jennifer Logan, pale and frail, stood to ask Deputy Sheriff Jack Roundtree what he found in the home of Roger Salisbury. Clever strategy. Letting the young assistant handle the preliminary witnesses. Keep Socolow from exhausting the jury with his hundred-kilowatt intensity.

The courtroom was packed. Granny Lassiter sat in the front row, doing her best not to hiss Socolow and cheer me when we emerged from the judge's chambers. I could use the moral support. Judge Crane had granted Socolow's motion in limine: the videotape would not be admitted into evidence.

In his usual laconic fashion, the judge had merely said, "Mrs. Corrigan is not on trial here. Her escapades are not relevant to the issue of the defendant's guilt."

I had paced in his small chambers, musty with stacks of casebooks. I tossed my arms, argued, and made my objections for the record. The judge was unmoved. Socolow's face flickered with a vulture's smile.

Now Jennifer Logan peered at Deputy Roundtree from behind horn-rimmed glasses and asked about the black valise, the two hypodermics, and the vial of clear liquid. All were found in Roger Salisbury's study. In a desk drawer just where the affidavit of Melanie Corrigan said they would be.

My cross-examination was short.

"Deputy Roundtree, did Dr. Salisbury offer any resistance to your serving the warrant?"

"No."

"Was he polite?"

"Yes."

"When you pulled the valise from the drawer, what did he say?"

"Something like, 'What the hell?' "

"Anything else?"

"Best I remember, T can't believe she'd do this.' Something like that."

"Did he say who the she was?"

"Not that I recall."

Jennifer Logan called the lab technician who had tested the liquid in the vial. She asked for his findings.

"Sucks," he said.

She reddened. "Beg your pardon?"

"Sucks. Succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant used in surgery. Sodium pentothal puts the patient to sleep, succinylcholine relaxes the muscles and helps the anesthesiologist intubate the patient, get the tube down the trachea. The lungs stop working, the patient breathes on a respirator."

"And if there's no respirator?"

"The patient dies."

"A strong drug?"

"Very strong. Sort of synthetic curare. You know, the poison the Indians in South America make from plants. They dip their arrows in it. Ugly way to die."

"Your witness," Jennifer Logan said.

"No questions," I said, visions of poison-tipped arrows sailing across my mind.

"The state calls Dr. Hilton MacKenzie," Abe Socolow announced. The jurors straightened, Abe's appearance signifying an important witness.

Dr. MacKenzie was tall and ramrod straight with fine features and a forelock of straight black hair that fell into his eyes. He was not yet forty and gave the impression that he grew up with all the advantages of money, family, and education. He had a habit of jutting his fine patrician chin toward the heavens, looking down over his reading glasses, and speaking in a tone most of us reserve for pets not yet housebroken. He lacked nothing except humility.

Socolow ran through his credentials. Penn undergraduate, Harvard Medical School, internship at New York Hospital, residency at Mass General, fellowships in pathology, the whole bit. Into public service as an assistant ME in Miami, then chief canoemaker. My terminology, not his. I would ask him on cross who trained him. Charles W. Riggs, of course. Let their witness polish my witness's silverware.

"Dr. MacKenzie," Abe Socolow said, his voice heavy with respect, "let me show you what has been marked Plaintiff's Exhibit C for identification and ask you to identify it."

MacKenzie removed his reading glasses from a breast pocket, ceremoniously put them on, and studied the document. "It's our toxicology report on certain brain and liver samples from Philip Corrigan's body."

"Objection," I said, popping up, reminding the jury of my presence. "Improper predicate. No showing of chain of custody of the alleged samples."

Socolow looked perplexed. He asked if we could approach the bench. Judge Crane leaned to one side, away from the jury, and we huddled there, exchanging whispers.

"Judge," Socolow said, "I'd assumed Jake would stipulate to chain of custody to save one of his witnesses some embarrassment. These samples were in the possession of Dr. Charles Riggs, and my sense of propriety does not allow me to say on the record where he got them."

Judge Crane looked my way. I looked back. "This is a capital case, Judge, and I'm not going to stipulate to the kind of sandwiches you serve the jury. Doc Riggs will understand."

The judge shrugged. "Abe, you gotta call Riggs. I'll let you get this in now, subject to tying it up with Riggs's testimony."

That was okay with me. I wanted Charlie on the stand as much as possible. Make him their witness for purpose of chain of custody. Let the state vouch for his credibility before I call him.

Socolow went through it with MacKenzie, the finding of succinic acid and choline-two of the components of succinylcholine-in Corrigan's liver and brain. The buttock dissection showed a needle track. His expert opinion on cause of death, cardiac arrest following the injection of succinylcholine. The aneurysm? In the throes of death, quite possibly the stress on the system caused the aorta to rupture. But the instigating cause, succinylcholine, no doubt about it. The whole dance took ten minutes. Socolow moved to admit the toxicological report into evidence, and the judge accepted it, subject to Charlie Riggs tying up chain of custody. Then it was my turn.

I grabbed the report and pretended to read it, furrowing my brow.

"Now, Dr. Blumberg-"

"Dr. MacKenzie," he corrected me.

"Oh," I said, feigning surprise, "there must be some mistake. A Dr. Blumberg signed this report."

Hilton MacKenzie smeared me with his exasperated look. "Milton Blumberg is the toxicologist who analyzed the tissue samples."

"Oh," I said again, looking around the courtroom for the toxicologist.

"Blumberg works under my supervision and I am responsible for his actions," MacKenzie piped up, getting the drift.

I turned toward the judge. "Your Honor, I move to strike all of Dr. MacKenzie's direct testimony as hearsay. Further, he's not capable of responding to my cross-examination of the report, so it too must be stricken."

Before Socolow could rise and offer me Blumberg, a guy I didn't want, MacKenzie chimed in, "Your Honor, I am inti-mateiy familiar with toxicology methods and the preparation of this report based on the chromatography tests."

Ah, vanity.

"Very well," I said, "as long as we have the expert here, objection withdrawn."

He settled back into his chair. Before he could get too comfortable, I asked, "How much succinic acid was found in the brain?"

"How much?" he repeated.

"Yes, your report-Milton Blumberg's report-says there was succinic acid in the brain. How much?"

He seemed startled. "I don't know," he said.

"In the liver?"

"I don't know. It doesn't matter-"

"And how much choline?"

"Objection!" Socolow stomped toward the bench. "Judge, he's not letting the witness finish his answer."

The judge looked toward the press gallery. Helen Buch-man from the Herald was nodding. Or maybe just chewing her gum. No matter. "Sustained. Doctor, you were say-ing…"

MacKenzie was silent. Gathering his thoughts. He shook his head, confused. "We didn't measure the amount."

My face registered shock. I spun on my heel in front of the jury box and waved the toxicology report at the witness, a toreador taunting the bull. "So it could have been ten milligrams, twenty milligrams, a quart, a gallon?"

"You don't understand," Dr. MacKenzie said, scowling. Exasperated.

"I'm sure I don't. That's why I ask questions. Now, how much choline was found in the brain tissue?" "I don't know. Again, we didn't test for amount, only presence. It was a qualitative test, not a quantitative one."

Fancy doctor words.

"Then how did you differentiate the substances you allegedly found from the choline and succinic acid already there?"

The doctor stared at me.

I moved closer to the witness stand. "Those two substances are normally present in the body, correct?"

"Yes, of course."

"So your test may have picked up the succinic acid and choline normally found in the body, correct?"

He was silent a moment. He looked toward Socolow for help. None came. He stole a sideways glance at the jury, brushed the forelock of hair out of his eyes and said, somewhat testily, "There is insufficient choline and succinic acid normally in the body to show up in these tests."

"How much is there, normally?"

"A trace. Nothing more."

"And it doesn't show up on your tests?"

"No sir."

"Then how do you know it's there?"

"Because I know! That's all."

"Now, in your training as a chemist-"

"I never said I was a chemist," he whined. Defensive now, hunching his long, well-bred body into a corner of the witness stand.

"But you know how to do the gas chromatograph tests?"

"No." Then he added quickly, "I supervise."

"Ah," I said. I liked that. Jurors know all about supervisors, leaning against the side of the truck, drinking coffee while other guys dig the ditches.

"And of course you found succinic acid and choline near the needle track in the buttock?"

"No, I never said that. You know we didn't."

"What do you make of that?"

"I would have expected to find it, if that's what you mean."

I nodded with approval and paused to emphasize the point. "You expected to find succinic acid and choline near the needle track because the concentration of the drug should be greatest near the injection, correct?"

Again he looked toward Socolow. "Ordinarily."

"Then how do you explain the lack of the two substances near the track where the drug was supposedly injected?"

He paused. One beat, another beat. Then, very softly, a murmur barely above the whir of the air-conditioning, "Sometimes, in science, we don't have an explanation for everything."

"Quite so," I said, and sat down.

Abe Socolow had been around long enough to know how to rehabilitate a witness.

"Just a few questions on redirect," he said with perfect calm. Never let the jury sense your fear. "Now, Dr. MacKenzie. Besides looking for the presence of succinic acid and choline, what else did your tests do, and I direct your attention to page seven of the report."

MacKenzie warmed to the friendly face and followed the coaching. He flipped through Blumberg's report, got to page seven, and smiled. "We scanned for other toxins. Those tests were negative. The tests were positive only for the components of succinylcholine."

Socolow nodded. "To exclude the remote possibility of picking up traces of succinic acid and choline occurring naturally in the body, what did you do?"

Dr. MacKenzie read some more, his eyes brightening. "We tested three other bodies that recently arrived in the morgue. We performed the same chromatographic tests on brain and liver samples. None showed any evidence of succinic acid or choline."

Abe Socolow smiled too. His jury smile. To carry the message, no harm done, just clearing the confusion caused by that wily defense lawyer.

"No further questions," Socolow said, easing himself into his chair.

The judge was ready to bang his gavel and call it a day. But I had one or two more questions. Recross.

"Dr. MacKenzie, these three other bodies you tested. How many had died during or just after surgery?"

He didn't know where I was heading. But Abe Socolow did. He stood up. Tried to think of an objection but couldn't. The question was relevant and within the scope of his redirect.

"None," the doctor said, looking at the report. "Two were gunshot victims, one died in an auto accident. All DOA."

"So none had received succinylcholine within the last twelve hours before death?"

There was an inaudible mumble from the witness stand. He shook his head from side to side. Now he knew.

"You must speak up for the court reporter," I advised him.

"No, none received succinylcholine."

"You're familiar with the records of Philip Corrigan' back surgery on the day of his death?"

A quiet "Yes."

"And the anesthetics included, did they not, succinylcholine?"

"Fifty milligrams, IV drip," he said, softer than the rumble of voices from the gallery.