David Kessler - No Way Out

The man rose to face Claymore. They were evenly matched for size, but the man was a lot younger and probably a lot fitter.

“You talkin’ to me Tom! ”

The words were backed up by an open-handed shove.

“Yeah you!” Claymore shot back, shoving the man equally hard.

Then the man took a swing at Claymore. Claymore ducked and dove in under the younger man’s guard, clamping on a side headlock and a hooking his right leg around the younger man’s left leg in a grapevine. The young man took a swing at Claymore with his left fist, which Claymore deflected with his open right. But he couldn’t avoid the younger man’s rabbit punch to the back of his head, a second before he swung the man round and grappled him to the ground.

At that point the whole place erupted into pure chaos as a nervous guard hit the panic button

“So when are you going back to LA?”

Alex was sitting with Juanita in the reception of their San Francisco office on the 15 thfloor of the Embarcadero Center. He had flown back that afternoon, after the consultation with Claymore, and was now briefing his paralegal on the background to the case.

“We’ve got the prelim in twelve days and I’m planning on pushing hard for a change of venue.”

“What are the chances?”

“Well the DA will fight us all the way. It’s Sarah Jensen. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her.”

“I’ve heard of her,” said Juanita. “Ventura County Domestic Violence section. The rumor mill says she’s got her sights set on her boss’s job.”

“And her boss has his sights set on Sacramento.”

“Exactly. Anyway, we already had a fight on our hands about Andromeda Phoenix taking second seat and we won that. But that’s ‘cause she didn’t really have a leg to stand on. That means she’ll be even more determined on this one. And she’s got time to do her homework so it’s going to turn ugly.”

“Maybe you should step aside and let it turn into a catfight. Assuming she’s good enough.”

“Oh Andi’s good. But I don’t know if she’s fully-”

The phone rang. Juanita picked it up.

“Alex Sedaka’s office… oh hallo, Ms Phoenix… I’ll put you through right away.”

She put the call on hold.

“I could have taken it here,” said Alex.

“I need this phone free for other calls,” said Juanita in her sharpest tone. “This is an office.”

“Okay boss,” he said, with a smile, as he rose from his chair.

Juanita put the call through to his office before he got there, making sure that his phone was ringing by the time he went through the door.

“Hi Andi,” he said into the handset.

“Hi Mr Seda — Alex. Listen, I’ve been working here with the demographic department at my firm and we’ve been trying to figure out which are the best counties to try the case. We’ve come up with a list of counties based on demographic analysis and some public prejudice questionnaires.”

“And which counties are they?”

“Well the best is Alameda. I emailed a file over to you. Take a look at the demography. It has about 300,000 Hispanics to 200,000 African-Americans and half a million white non-Hispanics. It’s also got 350,000 Asians, who may or may not be friendly to Claymore. We’ll have to run some surveys to check that out.”

“Okay. But the 200,000 African-Americans won’t necessarily be too friendly to Claymore.”

“No, but I was thinking about this white liberal issue.”

“What about it?”

“Well, you can cherry pick the liberals at the voir dire.”

“Yes, but whatever cherry picking we try and do, the prosecution will do the opposite.”

“I know that. But it’s a question of how many liberals there are on the panel.”

“Yes, but like you said, Andi, there’s no such thing as a white liberal county.”

“Alameda’s the closest you’ve got. Don’t forget Berkeley right on your doorstep.”

“You could be onto something,” Alex conceded. “The trouble is, the prosecution has ten peremptories too — and they’ill fight us every step of the way.”

“Only if you tip your hand.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If you make it look like you’re afraid of a black jury and wary of Asians , they might just go for it themselves. The trick is to let the judge suggest it as a compromise.”

Alex thought about this for a moment.

“Andi, if you were here right now, I think I’d kiss you.”

“…In addition to the unfavorable comments on the talk radio stations, an opinion poll in the area has shown that seventy eight percent of the women and ninety six percent of the men in the district believe my client to be guilty.”

The judge in Court 12 at the Ventura Country Superior Court appeared to be listening attentively to Alex, giving no impression on his stony face of which way he was inclined to go. If he had formed an opinion, his face was not saying.

“Clearly,” Alex continued, “it would be impossible for my client to receive a fair trial in Ventura County under these circumstances. On the other hand there have been no such signs of prejudice in Sacramento.”

Andi was watching Alex as he spoke. Sacramento was eleven percent Black and eighteen percent Hispanic.

“Any addition to your earlier response Ms Jensen?” asked the judge, looking over at the prosecutor. Sarah Jensen rose, sweeping a strand of her black hair out of her eyes. She paused for a moment, as if trying to assess the judge’s current state of mind. This was a tricky matter, and one so sensitive that the entire outcome of the trial could hinge upon it. What happened here today could render everything that followed largely irrelevant. So the ADA had to pitch it right… just right.

“My only argument is what I said in response to the defense counsel’s earlier argument, namely that the voir dire should be sufficient to weed out any prejudiced jurors, as long as the panel is large enough. However, I would also point out that defense counsel appears to be trying to relocate the trial to a venue with more favorable demographics.”

“Are you suggesting that the demographics of Sacramento are likely to be pro-defense” the judge prompted.

“Not necessarily. But it does have a higher percentage of bla — of Mr. Claymore’s own ethnic group. ”

Alex knew that the ADA had to chose her words carefully. She wanted to accuse the defense of trying to get more blacks onto the jury, but by opposing it, she was effectively saying that prosecution was going out of its way to prevent that.

“But there’s nothing constitutionally improper about the demography of Sacramento is there?”

The judge was smiling as he said this. Sarah Jensen’s embarrassment was palpable

“I… we.. that is, the prosecution accepts that there is a case for a change of venue. And obviously it should be away from the south and possibly in the Bay area. But Sacramento would not be the best choice”

Alex saw his opportunity and pounced.

“If the DA is concerned about the demographics of Sacramento, the defense is quite amenable to a county where the demography is more to their liking, like Santa Clara.”

Sarah Jensen blushed. They both had the stats in front of them and Sarah knew that while Santa Clara County — Silicon Valley — was 2.7 percent Black and 62 percent white. But many of those white people were working in the computer industry, where there was a high proportion of liberals and libertarians, unlike the traditional conservatives of Simi Valley in Ventura. But Sarah Jensen could hardly use this in her argument.