Between Black and White (McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #2)(72)
And it was money that had put him on the bus that morning. One of his regular patrons wanted to march with the crazies and had paid Cappy a handsome sum to go along so that no one would ask questions.
Rubbing sweat from behind the back of his neck, Cappy turned to his customer, who had sat next to him on the bus ride over and had marched beside him throughout the morning. “Hotter than hell out here, huh?”
Underneath the hood given him by Dr. George Curtis, JimBone Wheeler nodded. “It’s only going to get hotter.”
54
Helen Lewis gave a thirty-minute opening statement that was both powerful and effective. She methodically laid out the state’s case step-by-step, focusing first on Bo’s motive to commit the crime and then using a flow chart to list all of the physical evidence against Bo. She finished with the theme of her case.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this case is about revenge. The defendant, Bocephus Aurulius Haynes, carried around a burning hate for Andy Walton for forty-five years. You will hear his own cousin tell you that the defendant promised on many occasions that he would one day kill Andy Walton. That day turned out to be August 19, 2011. After a heated confrontation with the victim earlier in the night at Kathy’s Tavern, the defendant could no longer keep his hate under control. He decided to take the law into his own hands and finally exact revenge on Andrew Davis Walton.” Helen paused and took a moment to glare at the defense table and in particular Bo. “I am confident that when you hear and see the mountain of evidence against the defendant, you will find him guilty of murder. Thank you.”
Helen strode confidently back to the prosecution table and took her seat.
“Thank you, General Lewis,” Judge Connelly said. Then she nodded toward the defense table. “The defendant will now give his opening statement.”
As Rick stood, he felt a hand grab hold of his own. He looked and saw Bo’s intense eyes, which were so black they reminded him of the water at midnight in Destin Harbor. “Pure, dog. Be pure. Be you.”
Rick nodded and blinked his eyes. He felt emotion welling in his chest and fought it off. Be me, he told himself. Be me . . .
“May it please the court,” Rick began, talking from behind his chair at the defense table and then moving in front of the table. “Your Honor.” He looked at Judge Connelly. “General.” He moved his eyes to Helen Lewis, who stared back as if she were looking right though him. “Members of the jury.” Slowly, he directed his eyes to the twelve men and women who would decide the case, holding his gaze on the schoolteacher, Millie Sanderson. “There are two victims in this case. The first is obviously Andrew Davis Walton. The second is . . . Bocephus Haynes. Mr. Haynes, would you please stand.”
Bo stood to his full height of six feet four inches, and Rick walked to the side of the table and put his arm around him. During trial competitions, the Professor had always instructed them to make sure they put their hands on the defendant in a criminal case. It was important for the jury to see the defense lawyer touch the accused. For the jury to know that, regardless of whatever monstrous crime the defendant had been charged with, he was still a person. A human being. “This is Bocephus Haynes. In August 1966, a mob of the Tennessee Knights of the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in Bo’s family’s yard. Then, threatening to torch the house if Bo’s father didn’t come outside, these men dragged Bo’s father, Franklin Roosevelt Haynes, to a tree in a clearing just a half mile away.” Rick paused. “There they kicked him and beat him and . . . hanged him. Bo Haynes was five years old at the time. Five . . . years . . . old. Much too young to have seen such a gruesome tragedy.” Rick paused, and as they had rehearsed the night before, Bo sat down. “But old enough to recognize a familiar voice. The men who lynched Bo’s father wore the robe and hood of the Ku Klux Klan. They could not be recognized by appearance, but Bo knew the voice of the one who did the talking. Bo grew up on Walton Farm. His father worked the fields, while his mother worked in the house with Mrs. Walton. Five-year-old Bo Haynes had heard Andy Walton’s voice every day of his short life. He knew it, but the sheriff of this county at that time would not prosecute Mr. Walton based on the word of a five-year-old boy.”
Rick paused, moving out from the table and standing in the well of the courtroom, that place right in front of the jury. “General Lewis is right. Bocephus Haynes has lived with the tragedy of his father’s murder for forty-five years. Can you even imagine what this man has gone through in his life?” Rick glanced at Bo, then back to the twelve jurors, again meeting Millie Sanderson’s eye. “So let’s examine that life more closely. Bocephus Haynes attended elementary school and high school here in Pulaski, graduating from Giles County High. He obtained a scholarship to play football at Alabama, where he played for Coach Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.” Rick noticed that Woody Brooks, the retired juror who Ray Ray had said voted for Obama, had his arms folded across his chest but was nodding. “Law school followed at Alabama, where Bo graduated in the top ten percent of his class. Bo had offers from all the big Birmingham firms and several firms in Nashville, but he turned them all down. From the day he set foot in a law school class, Bocephus Haynes knew he would always return here. To Pulaski. His home.” Rick moved a couple of steps to his right for effect, maintaining eye contact with Woody. “For twenty-five years Bo has practiced law in Giles County, raising a family with his wife, Jasmine, right here in Pulaski.” Rick gestured to the front row of the gallery, just a few feet from the defense table, where Jasmine Haynes sat with T. J. Unprompted, Jazz stood from her seat and leaned over the railing, placing her hand on Bo’s shoulder. Rick noticed that she wore the same orange corsage over her heart as she’d worn the day before, though today her dress was hunter green. Bo squeezed his wife’s hand and then she returned to her seat.