Randy Singer - The Justice Game

“Make your point quickly,” Garrison said, as if Jason had been stalling for hours. “Objection overruled.”

“Where was I?” Jason mused for a second. “Right. This brilliant man, John Forbes Nash, also believed that extraterrestrials spoke to him. As a result, he was confined to a mental institution. When a Harvard professor visited him and asked how a mathematician like him could possibly believe that extraterrestrials were sending him messages, Nash told him this: ‘Because the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way that my mathematical ideas did. So I took them seriously.’”

Jason paused and let the jury think about this. He had no notes and spoke matter-of-factly, like a lecturer in a college classroom. “Judge Garrison will give you the jury instructions at the end of this case. He will tell you that your job is to decide the case based on the facts and the law, using your own common sense. But you cannot let your emotions influence your decision.

“The left side of your brain uses logic, math, and science. It is detail-oriented, where common sense rules. But the right side of your brain uses feelings and emotions and is impetuous. What the judge will be saying is that anybody with half a brain can get this case right-I know, bad pun. But maybe not somebody with a full brain.

“To do justice, especially on an emotionally charged case like this, you need to use the left side of your brain. Because if you engage that right side, your emotions will overwhelm justice. And that’s what makes it so hard to render unbiased justice-because your thoughts and ideas, whether they are primarily based on logic or emotion, all seem to come to you the same way. They all seem to come from the same source.

“It will be your job to constantly ask yourself: Logic or emotion? Facts or feelings? In this case, you must work hard to separate your common sense from your emotions. ”

A few of the more favorable jurors seemed to have relaxed their tight facial expressions, but most still looked skeptical. The visual image of Rachel Crawford had been burned into their brains-right side or left, it didn’t seem to matter.

“I will help you do that as much as I can. I want you to know that I have sympathy for Mr. Crawford too. Nobody should have to bear the silence that Ms. Starling talked about. The question here is not whether life has been fair to Mr. Crawford. The question is who should be blamed.”

Jason hesitated. This next promise was a bit of a risk, but it was a manageable risk. The conventional wisdom was that a good defense attorney wouldn’t cross-examine an innocent victim like Blake Crawford who had no factual knowledge about the event itself. Plus, Jason already had the man’s video deposition. He could play the video if he needed it.

“I don’t want Mr. Crawford to be sitting there wondering if I’m going to put him through the meat grinder on cross-examination.” Jason turned slightly and caught a glimpse of Crawford. “So I’ll tell you and him right now. When Mr. Crawford takes the stand, I’ll have no questions for cross-examination. The man has already suffered enough.”

A few of the jurors gave Jason a curious look. They hadn’t been expecting that.

Jason picked up the MD-9 firearm that Kelly had left on the exhibit table and took it back to his own counsel table. He placed it in the middle of the table, a foot or so from Case McAllister’s legal pad. He had warned Case to keep the table clear of everything else.

“I want you to keep your eye on that gun,” Jason said. “The murder weapon. The one used by Larry Jamison. Sold by Peninsula Arms. Purchased by a man named Jarrod Beeson. And manufactured by my client, MD Firearms.

“I want you to watch it closely during my entire opening statement.”

Jason moved back in front of the jury box. “Larry Jamison is not here today. He caused all of this heartbreak and chaos and loss. But he is not here. Why? Because the SWAT team took him out before he could kill other innocent victims in his vile rage. They used a standard issue Colt CAR-15 to do it. And you won’t see that gun being introduced into evidence in a lawsuit against its maker. It’s a military assault weapon, every bit as deadly as the MD-9-no doubt about that. But it was used to protect innocent life, not take it.”

Jason walked over to his counsel table and stood behind the chair he had been sitting in. “There’s an empty chair at the defense counsel table. Until now, I’ve been sitting here. But I’ve decided I’m not going to sit here anymore. Why? Because this is the number one chair at the defense counsel table, and the person sitting in this chair ought to be a lawyer for Larry Jamison. He’s the one who pulled the trigger.”

Next, Jason leaned over and asked Case McAllister to move down a seat, freeing up the second chair at the defense table. “This chair,” Jason said, “ought to belong to Jarrod Beeson. Right now, he’s a little busy, spending twelve months behind bars for participating in a gunrunning operation. He bought the gun for Larry Jamison, knowing that Jamison couldn’t purchase it on his own. In fact, Beeson bought more than twenty guns from Peninsula Arms and turned right around and sold many of them to criminals.”

Jason stood there for a moment, his hands on the chair in front of him. “This is Beeson’s seat.”

There was only one chair left at the counsel table, the seat now occupied by Case McAllister. Behind the table were several other leather chairs for legal assistants and others helping the lawyers. Jason took two of those chairs and moved them parallel to the counsel table but several feet away, on the opposite side of the table from the jury. He asked Case McAllister to move into one of those seats.

For the rest of trial, Jason and Case would be sitting there, with no table to put their notes on. It would be awkward but it would be a lasting visual reminder of his opening statement.

But Kelly Starling was on her feet. “Judge, I object to this… whatever it is. It’s certainly not an opening statement; it’s more like musical chairs.”

“It’s unusual,” Jason said, “I admit. But I’m not aware of any rule that says we’ve got to sit at the table instead of next to the table.”

“Let’s get on with it,” Garrison said. “Objection overruled.”

“This last chair,” Jason continued, “the last one actually at the table, is for Peninsula Arms. They engaged in numerous straw sales. They have actually been cited three times by the ATF. And they sold this gun to Jarrod Beeson knowing that he would in turn sell it to somebody else who wasn’t a legal purchaser. Yet you won’t hear from the store’s owner or the clerks; they’re all taking the Fifth Amendment.”

Jason surveyed the table and walked back to the jury. “There are only two reasons the plaintiffs are trying to put my client at that table. The first is because my client has money-”

“Objection!”

“Sustained. Watch yourself, Mr. Noble.”

“The second is because my client sold guns to Peninsula Arms even though they allegedly knew the gun dealer had sold some guns illegally. But let me ask you a question. When you buy a car, do you expect the car dealer or car manufacturer to check your driving record and refuse to sell you a car if you’ve got a few speeding tickets? No. You expect the government to suspend your license if you’ve got too many tickets to be driving. But if the government allows you to drive, and you’ve got a valid license, you expect the car dealer to sell you a vehicle. Ford’s job is to sell cars, not police the roads.

“In the same way, it is the responsibility of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms-we commonly refer to them as the ATF-it is the ATF’s job to police the gun stores. It is MD Firearms’s job to manufacture guns-good guns, guns that work as advertised-and then sell those guns to any licensed firearm dealer.”