فصل 11

CHAPTER ELVEN

The Trial Begins

The bus arrived at the courthouse five minutes before nine. The jurors looked out through darkened windows to see how many blacks and how many Klansmen were waiting - and how many National Guard soldiers. When Judge Noose was ready to start, they were led into the courtroom and then into the jury box.

Rufus Buckley, as prosecutor, had the right to speak first, and he clearly intended to enjoy every minute. He started by thanking the jurors for being there (as if they had a choice, thought Jake). He said he was proud to be working with them in this most important case.

Jake sat and listened. It was all garbage and he had heard it before, but it still annoyed him because the jury sometimes believed it. Then Buckley started to talk about the rape and how terrible it was. He said that he was a father too - in fact he had a daughter the same age as Tonya Hailey - but that no one could take the law into their own hands.

Jake smiled quickly at Ellen. This was interesting. Buckley had chosen to talk about the rape instead of keeping it from the jury. Jake had been expecting a problem with Buckley when it came to this topic. Normally it would not be accepted as evidence during a murder trial - especially the more unpleasant details. But now Buckley had introduced the subject, so he was not going to be able to object when Jake told the jury about what the murdered men had done, and how the rape had destroyed Tonya’s life - and the life of Carl Lee Hailey.

The next mistake that Buckley made was to speak for too long. Although he had started with the jury on his side, by the end they were bored and finding it difficult to stay awake. Jake was winning the first argument without saying a word.

Jake had already planned a short opening speech, and after Buckley’s effort he decided to make it even shorter. He only spoke for fourteen minutes, and the jury liked every word. He began by talking about daughters and how special they are. He told them about his own daughter and the special relationship that exists between father and daughter. He started to tell them how he would feel if she was raped by two drunk, drugged animals who tied her to a tree and …

“Objection,” shouted Buckley.

“Sustained,” Noose shouted back.

Jake ignored the shouting and continued softly. He asked the jury to try to imagine, through the whole trial, how they would feel if it was their daughter. He asked them not to find Carl Lee guilty, but to send him home to his family. He didn’t talk about insanity yet. They knew it was coming. He finished shortly after he started, and left the jury with a strong sense of the difference between the two lawyers.

“Is that all?” Noose asked in surprise. “Well then, Mr. Buckley. You may call your first witness.”

“The State calls Nora Cobb.”

The mother of the murdered rapist sat in the witness box and listened to Rufus Buckley as he asked her where she lived, and what had happened on the day her son, Billy Ray Cobb, was killed. As Nora Cobb told her story, she started to cry.

She was not a witness who could do much damage to Carl Lee, and normally Jake would not ask her any questions. But then he saw an opportunity he could not miss - he could wake up Judge Noose and start making the jury think about what people like Billy Ray Cobb were really like. He also felt that Nora Cobb’s tears were the result of good acting - not deep regret.

“Just a few questions,” Jake said as he stood up. “Mrs. Cobb, is it true that your son sold drugs?”

“Objection!” Buckley shouted, jumping to his feet. “The criminal record of the victim cannot be mentioned in court!”

“Sustained!”

Mrs. Cobb wiped her eyes and started to cry harder.

“You say your son was twenty-three when he died. In his twenty-three years, how many other children did he rape?”

“Objection! Objection!” shouted Buckley again, waving his arms and looking desperately at Judge Noose.

“Sustained! Sustained! Mr. Brigance! You cannot ask these questions!”

Mrs. Cobb burst into tears and the sound of her crying filled the shocked courtroom. But Jake had made his point. The jury would now remember the sort of man Billy Ray Cobb had been.

The next witness was Earnestine Willard, the mother of the other victim. She was less of an actress than Mrs. Cobb, but Rufus Buckley asked her the same questions he had asked the first witness, and brought the same tears to her eyes. When he had finished, Jake stood up.

“Mrs. Willard, I’m Jake Brigance.” He stood in front of her and looked at her without pity. “How old was your son when he died?”

“Twenty-seven.”

Buckley pushed his chair from the table and sat on its edge, ready to jump up. Noose removed his glasses and leaned forward.

“During his twenty-seven years, how many other children did he rape?”

Buckley immediately shouted, “Objection! Objection! Objection!”

“Sustained! Sustained! Sustained!”

The shouting frightened Mrs. Willard, and she cried louder.

But once again, Jake had made his point.

Ozzie was the first State witness after lunch. Buckley questioned him first, asking him to repeat exactly what had happened on the day of the murder. He then showed Ozzie the gun that Carl Lee had used, and asked him to say if this was the one he had found near the bodies. To finish, he then brought out a set of color photographs of the murder victims, some taken so close you could see how the bullets had broken through the skin and bone. Rufus Buckley made the jury members look at each picture, pointing out the horror of the way the two men had died. He wanted them to remember the violence of what Carl Lee had done.

Jake looked at his notes as he walked across the courtroom. He had just a few questions for his friend.

“Sheriff, did you put Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard in jail?”

“Yes I did,” answered the sheriff.

“For what reason?”

“For the rape of Tonya Hailey.”

“And how old was she at the time of the rape?”

“She was ten.”

“Is it true, Sheriff, that Pete Willard signed a written document saying that he had raped Tonya Hailey?”

“Objection! Objection! Your Honor! We can’t discuss this case and Mr. Brigance knows it.” Ozzie had already said yes. “Sustained.”

“Please ignore the last question from Mr. Brigance,” Noose told the jury.

“No further questions,” said Jake.

The next two witnesses gave technical evidence to show that Carl Lee Hailey had, as everyone knew, killed Cobb and Willard. Again Buckley bored the jury by going- into great detail and asking long and complicated questions. The jury members were becoming increasingly tired of the sound of his voice.

When it was Jake’s turn to ask questions, he said that he had none.

The second day of the trial started in the same way, with the jurors in their seats by nine o’clock. Rufus Buckley brought in his next witness, the doctor who had examined Cobb and Willard’s bodies. Again, Buckley talked too long and asked too many questions. No one was denying that Cobb and Willard had been killed with an M-16, or that Carl Lee had killed them, so why spend so much time on it? The jury members were bored and the judge spent a lot of time cleaning his glasses in order to stay awake.

Once again, when it came to Jake’s turn, he looked at the judge and said, “I have no questions.” Judge Noose and the jurors all smiled. It was becoming clear which lawyer they preferred, but Buckley still didn’t seem to understand what he was doing wrong.

The last witness was Officer De Wayne Looney. Buckley had chosen him to speak last as a way of reminding the jury of the damage Carl Lee had done. Looney walked into the courtroom with difficulty, leaning on a stick.

Buckley asked Deputy Looney his age, where he worked, and who he took to the courthouse on Monday, May 20. He then asked what had happened when he had taken the men out of the court. Deputy Looney described how he had led the prisoners out of the court and how, suddenly, Carl Lee had come out of a side room.

“Then what happened?” asked Buckley.

“When Cobb was near to the foot of the stairs, the shooting started. I was waiting to go on down. I didn’t see anybody for a second, then I saw Mr. Hailey with the machine gun. Cobb was blown backward into Willard, and they both screamed and fell down, trying to get back up to where I was.”

“Yes, sir. Please describe what you saw.”

“You could hear the bullets coming off the walls and hitting everywhere. It was the loudest gun I ever heard.”

“What happened to you?”

“I never got down the stairs. I think one of the bullets came off the wall and caught me in the leg.”

“And what happened to your leg?”

“They cut it off,” he answered softly. “Just below the knee.”

“Did you get a good look at the man with the gun?”

“Yes, sir. It was Mr. Hailey, the man sitting over there.”

That answer was a good place to stop asking questions. But Buckley then took out large plans of the courthouse and arranged them in front of the jury so that Looney could walk around and show his bad leg. Jake rubbed his forehead and Noose cleaned and re-cleaned his glasses. The jurors moved around in their chairs. Buckley had lost them again.

“Any questions, Mr. Brigance?” Noose asked at last.

“Just a few questions. Officer Looney, who was Carl Lee looking at when he was shooting?”

“Those boys, I think.”

“Did he ever look at you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“So he didn’t aim the gun at you?”

“Oh no, sir. He just aimed at those boys. Hit them too.”

“What did he do when he was shooting?”

“He just screamed and laughed like a crazy man. It was the strangest thing I ever heard. With all the noise, the gun firing, the bullets whistling, the boys screaming as they got hit - over all that noise I could hear him laughing that crazy laugh. That’s what I’ll always remember.”

The answer was so perfect that Jake had to fight off a smile. He and Looney had worked on it a hundred times, and it was a thing of beauty. Every word was perfect. Jake looked through his notes and then looked up at the jurors. They were all waiting for the next question. Jake wrote something down and then looked carefully at Looney, just to make the silence last a few more seconds.

“Now, Deputy Looney, Carl Lee Hailey shot you in the leg.”

“Yes sir, he did.”

“Do you think he meant to?”

“No sir. It was an accident. I do not want to see him punished for the shooting, sir. I have no bad feelings about the man. I would do the same.”

Buckley dropped his pen and sat back in his chair. He looked sadly at his star witness.

“What do you mean by that?” Jake asked.

“I mean I don’t blame him for what he did. Those boys raped his little girl. I’ve got a little girl. If somebody raped her, I’d kill him just like Carl Lee did. We should give him a prize!”

“Do you want the jury to find Carl Lee guilty?”

Buckley jumped and shouted, “Objection! He can’t ask that question!”

“No,” Looney shouted. “I don’t want him to be found guilty. He’s a hero.”

“Don’t answer, Mr. Looney,” Noose said loudly. “Don’t answer!”

“He’s a hero! Set him free!” Looney shouted at Buckley.

“Order! Order!” Noose banged his table.

Buckley was silent. Looney was silent. Jake walked to his chair and said he had no other questions. Looney smiled at the jury and walked slowly and painfully from the courtroom.