Sergio De La Pava - A Naked Singularity

“Us.”

“Nothing! Because of course Alabama would have to be one of only two states where once the direct appeal is complete, a death row inmate like Kingg is no longer entitled to an attorney despite the fact that there are about a zillion further legal actions that can be taken to try to prevent him from being zapped. But Mrs. Kingg is in her fancy subterrestrial box and with her so interred there’s no one left who can picture Jalen’s face except those who wouldn’t want to. So without a lawyer the deadline to petition for state remedies passes.”

“Yes.”

“The two year deadline to petition for federal habeas relief passes.”

“Yes.”

“Enter us to mop up.”

“Well I like to think we can do more than that.”

“Really? That’s nice, and I like to think there’s a brotherhood of man except every time I let my hands down I get belted in the face. Has anything that’s been attempted on Kingg’s behalf so far worked? The Governor, who has one eye on November and has sole authority to commute Kingg’s sentence, has proven to be an obvious dead end.”

“True.”

“The State Supremes said there was nothing interesting here.”

“True.”

“Leaving us, you and I, alone and abandoned by our sponsor organization, to do what exactly?”

“District court.”

“Right. To file a three point brief with a judge from the appropriate district court urging sweet relief. Three points, one for each of us. Only that fuck Ledo did less than zero on his Yellow Mama electric chair point before heading out to the dopey place where they plant giant letters on hillsides and the sea swallows the sun each nightfall.”

“True but we knew what Ledo was when we gave him the least meritorious point, a point that has already been decided by the Supreme Court. And besides I like what we have on that issue now anyway.”

“Fine but the worst thing about Ledo is I’m filled with this overwhelming desire to take the next flight headed left, find him at whatever Melrose Place sidewalk joint he’s sitting in discussing the use of light in Rohmer’s films, snatch the tofu burger out of his mouth, and rap him in the face with a fork. Only that desire is tempered by my realization that, if not for the last week or so, I wouldn’t have done any more work than he did. Everywhere I look I see Ledos and I fear I may be no better than them. Isn’t that frightening? Shouldn’t somebody as good as me be appreciably better than a Joe Ledo?”

“Is this the point?”

“At the moment.”

“Can I read it?”

“Sure, it’s no secret.”

“So what’s it going to be then, eh?”

“Heard you the first time.”

“And?”

“And I’m thinking.”

“Well don’t think too long. Remember the balancing act I spoke of. The balancing act Casi.”

“Okay Dane.”

“Well?”

“Well I think we need to get by the roof guys undetected.”

“Twice?”

“Yes, I mean, at least the first time for sure.”

“Because?”

“I know that incapacitating them, and by that I assume you mean tying them up or something, has the advantage of facilitating our exit as well.”

“Exactly.”

“However, the downside of that method is the difficulty it would present for our stated goal of keeping Escalera in the dark as long as possible.”

“How does it do that?”

“Say these guys are tied up at 3:00, what happens at 3:05 when Escalera radios up to them to make sure everything looks good? When he gets no response he’s going to panic and investigate and he’s going to do that at a time when we’re still dancing with the The Whale on the second floor.”

“Good point.”

“On the other hand, if we sneak by them at 3:00 and again at say 3:10, then the first time Escalera will sense that something is wrong is when he asks Ballena to bring down the money at about 3:15 or 3:20, and incidentally we should look into possible methods for further delaying that time of discovery. Anyway, by then we should be back in the car.”

“Seemingly the problem then becomes The Whale. Him we have to incapacitate because he’s specifically guarding the bag we want. What happens when Escalera radios Whale while we’re two feet away and gets no answer?”

“First, Escalera’s far less likely to radio Ballena, other than to call for the money, because he’s not a lookout. Second, I think you’re right when you say we’ll have to physically confront The Whale because it’s highly unlikely that said creature will peel its eyes off that bag for even a second. So unlike with Heckle and Jeckle on the roof, with The Whale we seemingly have no viable choice.”

“So sneak past the roof guys, harpoon The Whale with our swords, and sneak back out, all in ten minutes or so?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Less than ten minutes is going to be tough.”

“No harpooning.”

“What’s this now?”

“No harpooning.”

“Did you not read the profile? The Whale is an inveterate savage.”

“I’m serious Dane, no.”

“Amazing. Fine, sneak in, incapacitate The Whale, and sneak back out with the bag.”

“Right.”

“So really all that’s left to decide is how exactly we sneak in then out and the precise way we deal with Ballena.”

“If you want to oversimplify, yes.”

“I want to, tomorrow?”

“See you then.”

“I read your draft last night Casi.”

“Ditto.”

“I don’t know how you did that in less than a week.”

“Paid good money for that point.”

“Do you agree with me that the electric chair point is as good as it’s going to get?”

“Yes, as good as, given the directly contrary and controlling legal authority from the highest court in the land.”

“Well put, and my draft?”

“Haven’t read it yet.”

“You just said you had.”

“Never.”

“You said ditto.”

“Right, ditto. You said you read my draft last night and I indicated that I also read my draft last night. Had I wanted to quickly yet artfully convey to you that I had in turn read your draft I might have said vice versa or something similarly pithy.”

“How precise.”

“Thank you.”

“It wasn’t a compliment.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t you think you should have read it by now.”

“I will do so imminently don’t worry Toom. Meanwhile I encourage you to view my inaction as a token of my immense trust in your abilities.”

“I’ll do that then. My only question about your draft is right here where you wrote this.”

“You mean, I bet, where I wrote in gargantuan font GAPING HOLE.”

“How did you guess?”

“I think we have two big problems and not a lot of time to remedy them. The one Gaping Hole refers to is the one whereby probably our best argument is that Jalen’s trial counsel was remiss, and consequently that his performance was ineffective to a degree that is constitutionally impermissible, primarily because he did not during the penalty phase present sufficient evidence to the jury, and by extension to the court, of Kingg’s mental impairment; the theory being that an adjudicator well-informed in that area would not have chosen to fry a dim Kingg.”

“Right.”

“Well is it just me or is it not true that in making that argument it would be the very definition of advisable to present the court with unimpeachable and specific proof of exactly what Kingg’s condition is, i.e. a psych exam of some sort? I mean, yes, it’s obvious to us from his letters and these meager school records that there’s some serious synaptic interference here but that does nothing for us, we need the court to understand that. Where are the experts lining up to say this kid is more like a human clam with the idea being that, although Alabama of course permits the frying of the mentally infirm, and putting aside for the moment the pending Supreme Court action on the issue, the more mentally messed up Kingg is the graver his attorney’s omission in failing to adequately establish that mitigating fact and therefore the more likely that Kingg was denied his Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel?”