survived a broken back and was now walking with a cane. Had he not, it would have become a murder case.
And on the personal front, time also gave Jaywalker an opportunity to get reacquainted with his own family, whoâd seen precious little of him over the past few weeks. He prided himself on being an active, if not quite equal, partner in the raising of his daughter. Lately, however, his wife had begun to comment that he seemed to be distracted and complained about his growing habit of being absent even when he was present. If their daughter noticed, she didnât say anything. Of course, she was only four. But kids didnât miss much, he knew.
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Jacob Popeâs response to Jaywalkerâs motions arrived in the mail. First off, he supplied the locations and times of the crimes. As Jaywalker read the numbers and transposed them from military time to civilian, he could see that each of the attacks had taken place in the early afternoon hours. Even though heâd been expecting as much, seeing it in black and white came as a major blow. It meant Darren had no alibi. He hadnât been at work during any of the incidents.
Jaywalker reacted almost viscerally. During those early weeks and months, his belief in Darrenâs innocence had swung back and forth like an unseen but ever-present pendulum. One day Darren would look him in the eye and swear he knew nothing of the rapes, and Jaywalker would believe him with all his heart. The next day would bringsome new fact or development that would point directly and inexorably at Darren, and Jaywalker would be filled with doubt all over again. The realization that he wasnât going to be able to call a single witness to account for Darrenâs presence on any of three separate days was a perfect example. And with each such setback, Jaywalker had to contend once again with the distinct possibilityâindeed, the overwhelming probabilityâthat maybe they had the right guy after all.
Popeâs response continued. He stated that he had no admission or confession of Darrenâs to offer at the trial. He conceded that a pretrial identification hearing would be necessary, because a photographic lineup had been conducted, and a judge would have to decide if it had been fair or overly suggestive. He resisted supplying the defense with police reports the law didnât require him to turn over yet. And he opposed the request for a severance, contending that all four attacks should be tried together, as one case.
The severance issue was one that bothered Jaywalker. Did he really want one grand roll of the dice, a single trial including all of the victims, winner take all? Or would it truly be better if the case were split up into four, so that a jury trying one part of it wouldnât even learn of the other three attacks? The advantage to such an approach was obvious: they would avoid the prejudice that would flow from the sheer number of incidents and wouldnât have to contend with a juryâs falling into a where-thereâs-smoke-thereâs-fire mindset. But there was an equally obvious downside, too: severance would give Pope multiple opportunities to convict Darren. They were looking at as many as four separate trialsâfive, if the remaining victim surfaced. He could win three or even four times, only to lose the last one, and still have Darren end up with a fifteen-or twenty-five-year prison sentence.
As the defense lawyer, Jaywalker had had no choice but to make the motion. Failure to have done so would have risen to the level of ineffective assistance of counsel, maybe even malpractice. More to the point, it was the right thing to do. But now, as he thought about it, he began to wonder if they shouldnât be careful about what they asked for, on the chance that they might just get it.
He opted to postpone making a decision on the matter. It could wait, he knew, until such time as he and Pope had to argue the question in front of a