T. Bunn - The Great Divide

Judge Nicols frowned, a swift notice of concern, there and gone as fast as scuttling clouds. “Counsel may approach the bench.”

When they had gathered there before her, she went on, “Does the plaintiff wish further time to prepare?”

“No thank you, Your Honor.”

“Very well. I am limiting each side to two hours of closing.”

Marcus wished there were some way to thank her for the anxious cast to those stern features. “We would like to take an initial thirty minutes, then hold the right to speak again after the defense.”

Logan countered, “Then we request an additional half hour to rebut the plaintiff. It is our right to go last, Your Honor.”

“All right. Mr. Glenwood, you may begin.”

Marcus rose and walked directly to the podium. He had given scores of closing arguments before all kinds of juries. The words came easily and well. As he spoke, a portion of his mind weighed the jury’s reaction. He walked them through the evidence, gave them a careful summary of the early witnesses whom they might otherwise have forgotten. And he studied them. On a majority of faces, he saw concern. This was bad. Even worse was how some now held expressions of pity. Pity was murderous. Charlie Hayes had once said the only time a jury showed pity for a lawyer was when they agreed with him in their guts but had decided to follow their minds. And their minds had chosen for the other side. Marcus had never known Charlie to be wrong on this count.

Marcus began his conclusion. “Through using a pea-in-the-shell game, the defendants have sought to hide their connection to this factory. But the evidence has clearly demonstrated that, in fact, the New Horizons company does not only purchase tens of millions of dollars worth of products from Factory 101, they actually own a significant interest in the factory. One they have sought to hide both from you the jury and from the federal authorities. And we have shown you why.

“Through documentary evidence and the testimony of witnesses, we have revealed that New Horizons Incorporated and Factory 101 were in a conspiracy to profit from the systematic abuse of prisoners of conscience.”

“Objection!” Logan bolted from his chair. “Your Honor, the Chinese prison system is not on trial here.”

“Overruled. Continue, Mr. Glenwood.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.” Marcus turned back to the jury and went on, “We have shown how our client was abused because she threatened this profit. She was treated in the same callous manner as their workers. This upstanding American student was made to disappear because she got in the way.”

Logan rose another time. “Your Honor, I must protest.”

“Overruled.”

Marcus fought back the desire to beg the jury to share with him the conviction that Gloria had been right all along. “Gloria Hall was kidnapped and abused by the defendants because she threatened a commercial relationship that was mired in pain and fear and blood. A relationship that cared for nothing save money and power. A relationship that existed purely to exploit those who had no voice to complain. She sought to bring light into the darkness that was endured by many, and for no other reason than because it benefited the company’s bottom line. These partners must be punished, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. They must be brought to justice.”

Silence followed Marcus back to his seat. He endured the congratulatory pats from Charlie and Alma, though their hands burned like branding irons. He could not face the jury, not until Logan had approached the podium and demanded their attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I am sorry we are here. Sorry we have taken your time and the court’s time. Sorry we have dragged us all through this charade for the sake of a lost and forlorn cause. The plaintiff’s lawyer has constructed the worst possible kind of case. He has played upon the emotions of two distraught parents and tied us all up with cords of convoluted lies, creating knots of empty half-truths.

“A good case is like a jigsaw puzzle. When things go right, the plaintiff’s lawyer should stand up in the beginning and tell us how the puzzle will look at the end. Then we should watch the pieces being set in place, one by one, as the witnesses are presented. Afterward, in what’s called the summation or closing argument, the plaintiff should be able to describe the finished scene.

“Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this has not happened in our case. The puzzle is not complete. The picture is blurred, distorted. The pieces of evidence are mismatched. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we have not arrived at what could be called a real picture at all.

“Let’s begin here by listing some of the words we’ve heard the plaintiff’s attorney bandy about.” He lifted a printed board and set it on the easel by the lectern. “All right. There was the word document . You remember how the lawyer sitting over there used it? He said he would present documentary evidence. That’s our second word printed right here, see it? Evidence . Then the third word, an accusation of collusion . It gets worse, because then comes the word abuse , and after that prisoners of conscience . And finally there was the word he used to describe the missing woman. Remember that one? Upstanding . That’s what he said.”

Logan left the board and turned his full attention to the jury box. “Now let’s take a moment and remember what the experts said about all this so-called evidence. If you’re going to look anywhere to decide whether or not there really is any culpability, wouldn’t you look to the experts? Of course you would. And what did the experts tell you? That there was no substantive evidence that pointed to New Horizons’ being directly involved. None.”

He used his silver pen like a wand, punching the air, prodding the jury to pay attention and believe him. Above all, believe him. “Most importantly, we have the woman herself. Someone who has gone out of her way to look for trouble. She has made a profession of standing in harm’s way. She protested continuously. She disliked the Chinese government. Why? Who knows? Whatever the reason, we know for certain that Gloria Hall went looking for trouble. Sadly, she probably found it. Is that my clients’ fault? No!

“What the plaintiff’s lawyer has failed to prove is how New Horizons’ business relationship with a Chinese factory could be tied in any way to such nasty words as collusion and prisoners of conscience . Let me remind you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that New Horizons Incorporated runs ninety different operations, more than two dozen of them overseas, employing over thirty-seven thousand employees in nineteen different countries.” Instantly he held up his hand. “Not that this issue is minor. Not at all. The possibility that Gloria Hall might be missing is terrible. We all hurt for her and for her parents. But ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the opposing counsel has not offered a shred of concrete evidence to tie New Horizons to Gloria’s Hall disappearance. Can anyone tell me why these companies would endanger such a lucrative operation by kidnapping a visiting student? Where is the motive?” He paused a moment, then jerked his shoulders in a humorless laugh. “Does this entire supposition seem as ludicrous to you as it does to me?”

Logan left the podium and began a tight little victory parade before the jury box. “Up to this point, our trial has not been about seeking truth at all. Instead, we have watched as the plaintiff has taken an upstanding North Carolina firm, one that employs four thousand people right here in this great state. A company that is in the process of expanding their operations and adding another two thousand employees. A company that supplies more eastern North Carolina families with incomes than almost any other firm. And how do we thank them? By sitting here and watching the plaintiff’s lawyer smear their name in the dirt. By tarring and feathering the senior executives. Is this the way we treat our corporate citizens? Threatening them with baseless slurs on their reputation?