I apologize. I was giving Carl a bad time. Can you just glance through that. And I think we gave you a copy, Marcia. Not that you wanted to read it, but I think we gave you a copy.
Any other comment regarding the Grisham book? And I will mark this letter as a Court's exhibit for this discussion.
Well, I would think that as long as the Court reminds the jury that the book is fiction, I would think that that would be okay for them to review the book. As I mentioned yesterday, when we objected to jurors reading books having to do with prison life, the Defense convinced the Court, as I recall, that that is appropriate reading and now that we have a book that discusses domestic violence, now they want that book excluded. The point being the jurors are intelligent enough to distinguish between what is fact and what is fantasy and what is the evidence is in this case. And my position is that they should be allowed to keep their books.
If I might just respond briefly your Honor. First of all, correct me, your Honor. I don't recall us having a discussion about if "He Makes Me Want to Holler." I don't think anybody ever made an objection on that. This is the first time that I can recall that we had an objection based upon even a subplot of domestic violence. And the Court has gone out of its way to be very careful about that. We brought this up only out of an abundance of caution and what we did is we had Miss Chapman read this to point out certain things. It involves a 19-year old player, a washed up jock, and life goes downhill ever since. And sure enough, it is absolutely fiction, but at the same time--and you can't even compare it with "Makes Me Want to Holler." That is basically a true story of a guy who is not a journalist with the Washington Post. This case has incident, your Honor, of the gentleman involved, batterer, wielding a baseball bat, which is his weapon of choice. He comes home drunk all the time, pins his wife's wrist, tries to have sex. The police officers come, they never do anything, charges are dropped. She said that over and over again people tell her if you don't get rid of this jerk you might be dead in a month. I can't file for divorce, he will kill me. He tells me so all the time. She has bruises on her shoulders and that sort of thing. Charges are dropped against the husband because the wife won't testify and they go on and on and they have an incident with a Judge. And so there is an incident at page 390 where she has another beating, cuts and bruises, 391 black and blue, swollen bruises on thighs and fists, all those things, your Honor.
So you know, I think that we have been very careful in trying to do this. I'll submit it to you. I just think that even though it is fiction, there is some concern we have, and I think in a case like this where they try to make a big thing out of the whole issue of domestic violence, and we didn't raise that as an issue, that abusive relationships and things and alleged abusive relationships, one has to be careful, and that is the whole thing. And we have put restrictions and jurors and we are not saying they can't read this book. All we said is that they shouldn't read it while they are sitting on jury duty. There is lots of book they can read and we have been very careful about this. This particular book was spotted, so that is why I would ask your Honor to be mindful of this.
All right. I think the Court's obligation is to make sure with a sequestered jury that they get information regarding the case itself. This is clearly a novel, it is clearly fiction, and I think the jurors understand their obligation to decide this case based upon the facts and the evidence presented here in Court and not on anything else. So I'm going to return to the book to the jurors.
Wait, wait, wait. If we could say something to them, I think that will be appropriate, and then the other thing is I think our lawyers, Blasier and Bailey, are very upset that People--as a lawyer, really upset with what they think the People are doing with regard to this questioning and they want to be heard further about what happened with this questioning.
They are very upset, and if you take a break, we want to address this again in Court, if we could do that as soon possible. I'm sorry.
One other matter, your Honor. We would like out of the presence of the jury to inquire or have you inquire of Mr. Deedrick whether he has any statements, summaries or reports about other types of fabrics or hairs similar to what.
So that you know, Blasier will make a representation that he told him yesterday he had some kind of report that he was going to charge us $85.00 for, and he has something, so that you know I may want to inquire. We will pay the $85.00 if that is reasonable. Perhaps the People will inquire.
I think I was joking about having him stand there and photocopy the report.
KEY QUOTEThe point being the jurors are intelligent enough to distinguish between what is fact and what is fantasy and what is the evidence is in this case.
I can't file for divorce, he will kill me. He tells me so all the time. She has bruises on her shoulders and that sort of thing. Charges are dropped against the husband because the wife won't testify.
This is clearly a novel, it is clearly fiction, and I think the jurors understand their obligation to decide this case based upon the facts and the evidence presented here in Court and not on anything else. So I'm going to return to the book to the jurors.
I think I was joking about having him stand there and photocopy the report.