Unintended Consequences Read Online Free PDF Page B

George Calhoun deserves to die.”
    Dani skimmed through Bob Wilson’s opening statement. He made some valid points about the lack of forensic evidence, but in the movie running through her mind, she saw the jurors’ eyes glaze over.
    She read quickly through the testimony in the prosecutor’s case. The most damning evidence was Mrs. Calhoun’s confession. As Dani read the transcript, she envisioned the jurors listening with rapt attention as Sallie said, “My husband beat our daughter unconscious. He poured gasoline over her body and set her afire. I watched him do it and I did nothing. I didn’t stop him. He wrapped her body in a blanket and we drove to Indiana. I was with him in the car. He pulled off the road when we came to a forest. I stayed in the car while he carried our daughter into the woods. He came back without her and we drove away.”
    “Why did George do this to your daughter?” the prosecutor asked.
    “She had the devil inside her. George said we had to do this to get the devil out.”
    Bob Wilson limited his cross of Sallie to attacking her credibility. “Mrs. Calhoun, during the two years between your husband supposedly doing this to your daughter and the police knocking on your door, did you ever notify the authorities?”
    “No.”
    “Did you ever tell any friend or relative what your husband had done?”
    “No.”
    “And isn’t it a fact that you’ve been given a sentence of life imprisonment instead of facing the death penalty in exchange for your testimony?”
    “They just told me to tell the truth and that’s what I did.”
    After reading Sallie’s testimony, Dani needed a break. Her whole body felt dirty, as if even considering taking on George’s case had blackened her. She poured a cup of coffee and headed to Bruce’s office.
    “Have a moment?” she asked as she walked in and made herself comfortable in the chair opposite his desk. It was just as threadbare as the one in her office.
    Bruce looked up and smiled. “Do I have a choice?”
    “I’m not feeling so good about this case.”
    “Okay. Don’t take it then.”
    Just like Bruce. Always pushing his staff to make decisions. Most of the time she liked that. Today she wasn’t so sure. “I’m not finished reviewing the transcript, but already it gives me the willies.”
    Bruce fixed his eyes on hers. “You shouldn’t take the case if you think the guy is guilty, no matter how many mistakes were made at trial. But if those mistakes got in the way of the truth, he deserves to be heard. Your personal feelings about the nature of the crime are irrelevant. Only the truth matters. And it’s your job to find the truth. So, have you read enough to know what the truth is?”
    “No, I haven’t even gotten to the defendant’s case.”
    “Well, then two things might happen. The defendant’s attorney could have done a bang-up job and convinced you doubt existed about his guilt or left you certain after hearing both sides he was guilty, or—”
    She didn’t let him finish. “Or he did a lousy job and I need to conduct my own investigation, right?”
    “You got it, girl.”
    She thanked Bruce and went back to her office to finish reading the transcript. After Sallie’s testimony, the prosecutor entered into evidence photographs of the burned and battered body of the murdered child, despite objections about their inflammatory nature. Side by side with one gruesome photo was one of Angelina Calhoun, a pretty toddler with blond hair framing her face. The contrast was designed to enrage the jury, as it no doubt did.
    The prosecution then ended its case, and the judge sent the jurors home for the day, leaving them with the sickening images of the corpse to linger in their thoughts overnight.
    Wilson began his defense the next day with George Calhoun’s testimony. Once again, Dani’s mind turned the words on the page into a movie of the trial. She saw George take the stand, saw him swear to tell the truth. Wilson took him