A Circumstantial Case

When the prosecutor began asking his questions of Lisa, he started with, "Can you account for your whereabouts between midnight Saturday, the time at which your husband made his last email transmission, and 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon?"

Lisa was embarrassed by the question, and answered, "I told Mr. Smith where I was. I was with Blake Moore, at his home, from eight o'clock on Saturday evening until approximately 1:30 on Sunday afternoon."

"You didn't really answer the question, did you? I would like you give us a chronology of what you were doing between midnight on Saturday until you arrived home on Sunday."

Lisa was flustered and embarrassed. She finally said, "Well, at midnight I was in Blake's bedroom, and we were ah... you know... we were having sex." She had been forced to complete the sentence because the prosecutor kept motioning for her to continue with each of her hesitations.

"How long did it, shall we say, continue?" He stood there waiting expectantly for her answer.

"Ah... we... finally we went to sleep at one o'clock. It might have been a little bit later than one o'clock." Again Lisa was very flustered as she answered.

"So, from midnight to around one o'clock the two of you had sex, and then you went to sleep. Then what? Please continue with your chronology."

"Well, ah... we were asleep until about quarter to six, I think. I remember getting up to use the bathroom."

The DA asked, "Was Mr. Moore there in bed, when you woke up? Please continue."

"Yes, he was there. We, ah, we had sex again, and went back to sleep about 6:30, and then we got up at about 11 o'clock in the morning." Her answer had started out slow, but the words had come out faster as she spoke, as she apparently was anxious to finish the statement.

"So, when you came back from the bathroom Mr. Moore initiated sex with you, and that continued until about 6:30 a.m., after which the two of you went back to sleep. Is that correct? Is that exactly what happened?"

Lisa was very embarrassed now as she said, "No, that's not quite right. He wasn't awake when I came back to the bed. I woke him up."

The DA had obviously been surprised by her answer, but quickly recovered as he asked, "You woke him up. What did you do; shake him by the shoulder until he woke up so that you could ask him to have sex?"

Lisa was really embarrassed now as she said, "No. I... I didn't wake him up that way. I... gave him oral sex until he was ready, and then I woke him up." It seemed that she could barely get out the words as she gave this answer.

The DA could tell that he was getting somewhere with the jury, as the four female jurors clearly seemed offended by her answers thus far. He decided to continue with this line of questioning. "Kindly tell us how you woke him up, if you didn't shake his shoulder, and if the oral sex hadn't caused him to awaken."

Lisa seemed resigned to having to continue with the answers, especially after her lawyer's objections had been denied by Judge Cox. "I just... started having sex with him. That was when he woke up." She was very red in the face, and kept her head turned away from the jurors, the opposite action to what her lawyer had suggested. He had asked both of them to look the jurors in the eye so that they could see their sincerity as they spoke.

Jeff Bagdon was ready for the coup de grace now. "Earlier, you told your attorney that you love your husband. Is that correct?"

He waited for Lisa's emphatic "Yes", an answer accompanied by a vigorous nodding of her head.

He then continued, "I'm a little confused. You tell us how much you love your husband, but you've just finished describing how you spent the night he lost his life. It was a night you spent in the bed of his best friend, having sex, initiating sex, and behaving very much like a woman who has no regard for her husband. How are we to believe that you couldn't also have been involved in his murder?"

He stood there waiting for a few moments, but it was obvious that Lisa wasn't going to answer his last question. She was crying softly, hiding her face in her hands. It was Judge Cox who finally put an end to her misery when he asked if there were any further questions for the accused, or a re-direct by the defense. When each said there wasn't, the judge announced that the court was going to adjourn for lunch.

The courtroom was almost empty when Lisa finally regained enough control to leave the witness stand and join her lawyer and her codefendant. The three of them went out for a very somber lunch, during which the experienced attorney warned them that the case could now go either way. Privately he felt a bit more pessimistic than that, as both of his clients had failed miserably in the witness box.

The afternoon session of the court ended quickly, as Basil Smith announced that there were no further defense witnesses. Both lawyers were prepared for their closing statements, and there was nothing surprising in either one. The prosecutor told the jury that there was simply too much to explain away for the two accused to be innocent.

The defense lawyer emphasized the circumstantial nature of the case, the lack of a body, the possibly he could still be alive, and the fact that no real motive for Mark's murder had been suggested. The case was given to the jurors by four p.m., and they deliberated for two hours before they adjourned for the night.

The next morning Lisa and Blake joined Basil Smith at his office while they waited for the call that the jury had returned with a verdict. While his two clients waited in one of the conference rooms, Basil Smith was able to keep himself busy with other case work. He had warned them that it could take a while before they heard from the courthouse, and he was correct about that.

While they had been forced to share the conference room Lisa and Blake set aside their differences, and they talked about their chances for acquittal. Both of them were still hopeful, and neither one could accept that the jurors would believe they were capable of murder. Finally, at 3:30 p.m., the call came in; the jury had decided their fate.

Lisa's parents had come into town for the trial, although they didn't attend at the courthouse during the testimony. She was extremely thankful for that, as it meant that they didn't hear her admissions on the stand. They had been in contact with the court continually during the day, and had been informed when the news that the jury had made their decision came down. Lisa was relieved to have their support as she sat at the defense table beside her lawyer.

The reading of the verdict took place very quickly. Lisa and Blake were found guilty of second-degree murder. Neither one could believe it, and Lisa broke down in tears, again, while Blake pounded his fist on the table in frustration. In just a couple of minutes they were handcuffed and taken into the custody of the deputies on duty. Lisa had just a couple of minutes to speak to her parents and profess her innocence. Being normal parents, they joined her in her grief. Before the two convicted murderers were led out to their cells, they were advised that they would be back in a week for sentencing. It was a very bad end to a trying day.

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The week between conviction and sentencing passed quickly. During that time Lisa's parents visited her daily, while Blake had one visit from a cousin. His parents were deceased, and he was an only child. The week passed very slowly for him, and he soon realized just how slowly time could tick away when you were in custody. He was also beginning to comprehend just how bad his future looked. Lisa was still in denial, and refused to talk about the future when her parents brought up the subject.

Mercifully, sentencing took just a few minutes. They were both handed terms of 15 years to life. Basil Smith expressed his sympathy for their situation, and said he would look over the court transcripts for an avenue of appeal.

Once sentencing had been completed, things moved very quickly. Within 3 days the two convicts had been transferred from the local lockup to state prison. The women's prison that Lisa was assigned to had a reasonable reputation, but the same could not be said for the one to which Blake was sent. It had been the scene of more than one disturbance in the last few years.

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Now that the trial and sentencing were over, the local news media no longer featured the case. The last reports on the local television channels featured the scenes of prisoners being transported by a converted school bus to the state prison. It may have even been stock footage used to give body to the short reports outlining the destinations of the two convicted felons. Within days there were new disasters to report and fresh crimes to seize the attention of the news anchors. It was as if Lisa Evans and Blake Moore had dropped from the face of the earth.

A couple of months after their sentencing, Basil Smith joined Jeff Bagdon for a drink after a new case had brought the two of them together again. The Evans murder case had been nagging at Basil Smith from time to time, and he said to Jeff, "You really went after them. To tell you the truth, I was surprised when the convictions were brought in. I had come to the conclusion that they were most likely innocent, as they never once wavered from their stories."

Jeff pondered his brandy before replying, "12 of their peers didn't buy their explanations. I try not to take these cases personally, although that's nearly impossible to do when the crimes involved are too terrible, or involve children. This case wasn't the worst I've ever tried, but it wasn't one where I could generate a lot of sympathy for the accused. It only works if we accept what the jury decides."

Basil Smith thought about his tablemate's statement and said, "I guess you're right, but the case still bothers me."

About a year later there was a small article in the news about a major disturbance at the men's prison. One name stood out when Basil Smith read the article, and it got him thinking about the case again. Blake Moore had been stabbed during the riot and had been transferred to a hospital for treatment of a collapsed lung. It said that he was in guarded condition, but would survive.

It was almost eighteen months after the convictions of Lisa Evans and Blake Moore for the murder of Mark Evans. Enough time had passed that even Basil Smith rarely thought about the case that had troubled him for the first year after he had represented the defendants. He had checked the transcripts thoroughly several times on his own time, but could not find legal grounds for launching an appeal. There had been no failure in the law that he could exploit for the benefit of the two convicted murderers.

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It was a relatively quiet Wednesday morning in the New York City offices of The Innocence Project. The receptionist had just returned from her morning coffee break and was taking a moment to check her appearance in a small mirror when the FedEx delivery man stepped up to her desk with a package. It was one of those large padded envelopes that are regularly used for interoffice delivery of the information and products that business and industry simply cannot do without…. and that have to be delivered yesterday.

The receptionist signed the electronic pad she was offered, and then watched as the very buff young man, clad in his summer uniform of shirt and shorts, left the office. The exact nature of her thoughts were for her alone to know, but the naughty smile on her face would have provided a clue to anyone there to witness the whole event. In this case the reception area was populated only by the attractive young black woman sitting at the receptionists' desk.

The package had been addressed simply to the office, so she opened it to determine what the disposition of its contents should be. Inside she found a DVD, a sealed black plastic bag with a biohazard symbol, and a multi-paged letter. Since there was nothing pressing for her to do at the moment, she began to read the letter.

It took her a few minutes to do that, and the range of emotions that crossed her face while she read the letter would have intrigued an observer of the scene. No one else had entered the office since the departure of the hard bodied FedEx man, so again her expressive reactions were unseen.

When she completed reading the letter, she sat in contemplation for a moment before picking up her phone and pressing one of the intercom buttons, waiting for a few seconds, and then saying, "Tony, could you come out here for a moment? We've just received a package that I think you're going to find of interest." She sat listening for almost fifteen seconds before she continued, "Yes, it does appear to be something that the team can work on. It concerns a couple of murder convictions that apparently should be reversed."

About a minute later a tall, red haired young man wearing a short-sleeved white shirt and a pair of well-worn jeans came out of one of the offices that opened into the reception area, thanked her while picking up the package, and then disappeared once more behind the door from which he had appeared.

The comfortably dressed young man was Tony Kelly, a recently graduated lawyer who felt that before he began chasing some high-paying Associates position in a Wall Street law firm, he should devote some time to the public good. He had worked at The Innocence Project for almost a year, doing mostly basic legal research for the more high-profile lawyers who had begun the office a number of years earlier.

While he knew that he wouldn't be staying there for the rest of his career, he enjoyed making a difference in the lives of some of those who had been unjustly convicted of serious crimes.

Once he had returned to the comfortable swivel chair that was behind a relatively cheap veneered desk, he placed the contents of the FedEx envelope on his blotter and picked up the letter, after taking a cursory glance at the DVD and sealed bag. He maneuvered his chair so that he could lean back and place his Nike clad feet on the corner of his desk while he read the letter. It had been clearly printed from a computer system in an easily read font, and he was quickly lost in its contents.

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The Innocence Project,

New York City.

Re: the murder convictions of Lisa Evans and Blake Moore.

I hardly know where to start with this, so I'm going to just start at the beginning. This way I will be able to keep everything in sequence, and hopefully not forget anything important.

My name isn't of any consequence, but the information I have been asked to give you could make a real difference in the lives of not just the two convicted murderers named above, but in the future well-being and happiness of five other people, of which I am one.

The beginning that I am going to start with is the day almost fifteen months ago when a man walked in from the street in response to an ad that I had placed in our local paper. I was looking for someone who was computer literate to join me in my small computer services company. A short interview made it obvious that he knew at least as much as I did about computers and their use in business networks. I've since learned that he knows even more than me. In any event I hired him immediately.

This man, who I will refer to as Mark throughout this letter, was probably the quietest person I had met in quite some time. That didn't affect his ability to do his job, which he did very, very well. Within two months my business had grown by at least 50% due to his efforts, advice, and the long hours that he seemed to insist on working.

When he started working for me, he told me that he had just arrived in town, and hadn't yet rented a place to live. Since my business was still going through the pains of infancy, I had contemplated renting out a basement room in our home for extra income. I wanted to be able to plow the profits from my business back into it, making it grow so that it would eventually provide a living for my young son and I. I knew that I was taking a small chance when I rented this room to Mark, but there was something about him that convinced me that he wasn't any threat to us.

We began a routine that continues to this day, although it has changed in its dynamics. He spent the first three months in that basement bedroom, although he ate with us and the two of us would travel to and from work together every day. In the beginning he would always return to the office to work extra hours, time that he did not ask to be paid for. He would always tell me that he would rather spend the time productively, rather than in front of a television set or sleeping.

Over time, our relationship changed from one of boss and employee to one of friendship and eventually to what it has become now; a loving family relationship. My son calls him his Daddy, and that is what he is in every way.

From the very beginning I knew that something was weighing heavily on Mark's mind. Over time his extremely quiet nature, and his frequent habit of lapsing into deep thought about things that I knew nothing of, brought a confrontation of sorts between us. One afternoon when it was extremely quiet in the office, I locked the door and called him into my private office.

I was determined to find out what was bothering him so much, as I had begun to realize how my feelings for him had developed.

It took a while, but I convinced him to share what it was that was bothering him. Eventually he told me that he was running from a disastrous marriage, one that had shaken him to the core of his being. He told me his wife had betrayed him with a good friend, and that he had almost committed murder and suicide over it. We continued talking for the rest of the afternoon, sharing our feelings about adulterous spouses.

My husband had left me for another woman, and Mark had left his wife because of her relationship with another man. We had that common ground, and our talk seemed to somehow help him over one of the last hurdles he faced on the road to getting over his past life.

That talk also seemed to be the catalyst that brought the two of us together. We began dating on weekends, maintaining two separate relationships; employer and employee during the week, and man and woman on Saturday nights. After a month of that, things had progressed to the point where it made no sense for him to maintain his bedroom in the basement, and he moved into my bedroom with me.

Since that time we have been a family, although there were still times that I felt he was keeping things from me.

We continued in our relationship, growing as a couple. I know I love him, and I'm sure that he loves me and my son. I really should say our son; because that is the way he treats him. The boy will soon be four, and he needed a loving relationship with a father, something that his biological father completely failed to provide. He hasn't seen his biological father since he was an infant too young to even remember him.

This is where we found ourselves four days ago when Mark collapsed at work. It took three days in the intensive care unit before they decided that his problem was related to his heart, and that he was going to need open heart surgery to correct a condition that has apparently been there since his birth.

Once his condition was stabilized, he was moved to a private room. He was awake now, and we could finally talk to each other. When I first walked into his room, I could tell something was wrong, and that it was seriously bothering him. That was when he told me this story; the one that he was afraid would die with him if he didn't make it through his heart surgery. It's very important to him to finally close the door on this episode of his life.