Key Witness by J.F. Freedman

(5.) 1294.) Key Witness by J.F. Freedman (1997) - A swirl of plotlines are led by big law mega lawyer, Wyatt Matthews. He is burned out after years litigating huge corporate cases. From the latest he will receive a $3,000,000 bonus. Wyatt is ready to resign from the 168 lawyer firm for which he is the primary rainmaker. The firm funds two of its lawyers every year for  pro bono positions with Legal Aid. When, at a senior partners meeting, one of the positions is announced as open he offers to take it. The 17 other senior partners, desperately not wanting to have him resign, rush to let him go practice criminal law for 6 months. He will work with the poor and poorer. Most will have committed the offences for which they are charged. He is eager to practice on the “right side of the street” for a while. His wife, Moira, thinks he is crazy.

As Wyatt transitions from his huge corner office to a Legal Aid cubicle half the size of his former private bathroom, a serial killer strikes again. The “Alley Slasher” has moved from killing prostitutes to murdering a young factory working woman.

Within the jail system Dwayne Thompson, a manipulative computer genius and mean criminal, is in the city to testify against another inmate to get his current jail term reduced. He has made a career of crime and being a snitch. It is a wonder he is still alive.

Marvin White is 18 with a stereotypical future for a young inner city Black man before him. He has just been fired from his delivery job for stealing from his employer. His mother, Jonnie Rae, fed up with his behaviour, has kicked him out of her home. He has no skills or training. He quit school. He is functionally illiterate.

Marvin tries to rob a Korean convenience store. He botches the robbery and gets a load of buckshot in his ass.

Wyatt skilfully defends Marvin but Marvin has a big mouth. He talks in jail, while awaiting trial, about what he knows about the serial murders. Dwayne, who has an almost photographic memory, is an avid listener and assembles the information into a supposed confession by Marvin that he is the Alley Slasher.

Marvin is charged with the 7 murders and Wyatt will defend him.

Josephine DiStefano, a talented Legal Aid paralegal, is Wyatt’s sole assistant.

Moira hates Wyatt representing Marvin. She moves into the spare bedroom.

Dexter Gordon, Marvin’s best friend, is ready to help. A very successful drug dealer at 18 he has connections, including the police, throughout Marvin’s part of town and lots of money. 

Freedman does a good job of setting out the detailed questioning by Wyatt of a new client in a major case. The approach adds to the length of the book but it is real in the time and sometimes intrusive questioning needed. Marvin’s memory is far from photographic.

Helena Abramowitz, young and attractive and aggressive, is lead prosecutor. Alex Pagano, the DA aspiring to higher office, makes appearances when the media circus is largest.

Judge William T. Grant, the senior judge in the city, has his own aspirations for higher judicial positions. He is “conservative, a stern jurist” with expectations the lawyers before him will know the law.

Both Helena and Wyatt watch Dwayne testify. He had met Marvin while waiting in jail to give evidence in another case where he is a jailhouse informant. He is the perfect witness. He is candid, precise and consistent. Lawyers are uncomfortable with perfect witnesses. If they are perceived as speaking a script a case is in grave jeopardy.

Wyatt has the personal resources and determination to dig into Dwayne’s history as he prepares to cross-examine Dwayne. It is doubtful any of the defending counsel in Dwayne’s earlier snitch cases made such inquiries.

Can Wyatt find a way to impeach Dwayne? 

An early trial date is set.

(My next post completes pre-trial preparation and discusses the trial.)