The Tenth Justice Read Online Free PDF Page B

your armpits. Everywhere.”
    “It’s your decision,” Rick warned. “If you’re right, good for you. But if you’re wrong, Hollis’ll deny the stay and you wind up with egg on your face. It’s not that big a deal, but since it’s your first few weeks, I’d want to gain a bit more of his confidence before I crawled out on a limb.”
    “So I should let this guy fry so I don’t look bad?”
    “Listen, I don’t know the facts of the case,” Rick said. “I’m just saying pick your battles wisely. I have to run, but if you have any questions just give me a call.”
    “Listen, thanks for the help,” Ben said. “We really appreciate it.” After writing down Rick’s number, Ben hung up the phone, turned on his computer, and reentered the Westlaw database.
    At five-thirty P.M. , Joel, one of Chief Justice Osterman’s clerks, entered the office. “We’re out. Osterman’s denying the stay.”
    “So you’re leaving now?” Lisa looked up from her stack of papers.
    “You got it,” Joel said with a smug smile. “Our day is done.”
    As Joel walked out, Lisa shouted, “I wish you a life ridden with hardship and a lingering death.”
    “See you tomorrow,” Joel sang. “Hope you’re not wearing the same clothes.”
    Within the next three hours, Justice Gardner denied the stay, while Justices Veidt, Kovacs, Moloch, and Dreiberg all granted it.
    “Three justices left, and all we need is one more yes vote,” Ben said. “What are the chances this decision falls on us?”
    “I don’t want to talk about it,” Lisa said, her eyes glued to the document in her hand. “I just need to stay focused, and this will all be over soon. I am calm. I am focused. I am the center of my universe and I am one with the document.”
    At eleven P.M. , Lisa leaned back in her chair and screamed, “I can’t take it anymore! I haven’t moved for the past twelve hours!”
    “What happened to being one with the universe?” Ben asked.
    “Fuck the universe,” she said, getting up from her chair and pacing around the office. “I hate the universe. I whiz on the universe. I am now one with anger, resentment, and hatred. Let’s fry this bastard and go home.”
    “Now that’s exactly the kind of jurisprudence we need to see more of on this Court.”
    Suddenly, the office door opened and Angela announced, “Both Blake and Flam are out. Stay denied. It’s all on you.”
    Ben looked at Lisa, whose shoulders slumped in defeat. “So if we fry this guy, we can go home?”
    Not long after midnight, Ben was sitting in front of his computer, his eyes fixed on his screen. “I don’t see the proof here,” he said for the third time in fifteen minutes. “I don’t know this guy, I never met him, but I know the proof’s not here.”
    “You don’t know shit,” Lisa said, stretched out on the sofa with her arms covering her eyes. “Now what do we want to say in this memo?”
    “Let’s give Hollis a brief overview of the facts, and we’ll recommend he grant the stay based on factual innocence.”
    “We don’t know this guy is innocent,” Lisa said.
    “This defendant did not receive a fair trial, and that’s a fact.” Ben stopped typing. “The arresting officer swears in the police report that he saw someone run out the back door of the house when the defendant was arrested. But when the defense tries to admit the officer’s testimony, the trial judge denies the request saying it’s inconsequential. That’s ridiculous.”
    Lisa sat up on the sofa. “It’s called judicial discretion. There’s no reason to assume the judge was wrong.”
    “There is a reason,” Ben said, turning his chair toward his co-clerk. “The defendant contends that this mystery figure was an alibi witness on the night of one of the murders.”
    “That still doesn’t explain the other two murders,” Lisa said. “Even if he didn’t kill one child, he killed two others.”
    “You’re missing the point.” Ben’s voice rose with