Practice to Deceive

rapist?”
    Overwhelmingly the panel believed that the justice system should handle it.
    But could they all deal with graphic and grisly photos? More dropped out. Five responded that they watched violent television shows, and could view the photos without becoming upset.
    Matthew Montoya asked more questions. “If you were required at this point to say what you believe?”
    All answered “innocent.”
    The day was inching by and it was after three. The courtroom had become progressively more muggy and warm and it was difficult for many to keep their eyes open. This is the curse of summer trials.
    Greg Banks asked several members of the panel if they knew the difference between “reasonable doubt” and “beyond the shadow of a doubt.” This was a hard one, and none of those questioned could give a clear-cut answer.
    Montoya asked how the panel would evaluate the credibility of a person or a scenario.
    “By a person’s actions, eye contact, body language, intuition, and demeanor,” one prospective juror answered. Court adjourned at 4:10 that first day of trial. They had eliminated only twenty-seven members of the panel.
    On Wednesday, cameramen from Dateline were busy setting up their gear and rearranging benches to be sure they got good shots of the participants.
    Greg Banks told the forty-eight remaining members of the jury panel that there was an “extra chair” in the courtroom. He referred to “someone else who might be involved, but would not be called to testify.”
    The only logical person would have to be Peggy Sue Thomas, now charged with first-degree murder, and long considered a prime suspect in Russel Douglas’s murder. She still wore the tracking anklet on her leg. Brenna Douglas was also a likely contender, but she was on the witness list.
    And there was an empty witness chair, which would never be filled, one that the state had hoped would be occupied by Brenda Gard. Brenda had cooperated fully with the prosecution team, and they had expected her to make a compelling witness—probably the strongest witness—against Jim Huden, first—and then against her own half sister Peggy Sue. She had been prepared to testify that Jim and Peggy had offered to kill her estranged husband for her.
    But Brenda had been dead for almost ten months. Mark Plumberg had called the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office within minutes of learning Brenda had died to tell detectives there that her “suicide” might be not be as it seemed. There were likely suspects who might well have wanted Brenda out of the picture.
    In the end, the preparations she had left, her note, her financial records, other important documents, and her state of mind had convinced both counties’ detectives and medical examiners that Brenda had died by her own hand.
    The possibility that someone might have murdered her just didn’t hold up, considering physical and circumstantial evidence.
    One prospective juror said that any missing witness would not be an issue for him, and others agreed. It would have been foolhardy for Peggy Sue to show up in the courtroom with the tracking device on her ankle. Moreover, all eyes would have been on her, and most spectators would consciously or unconsciously link her to Jim Huden and a plot to kill Russ Douglas. Anything she said would, indeed, tend to incriminate her.
    A man’s future depended on an impartial jury, and both Banks and Montoya were asking questions that many laymen wouldn’t have thought of, striving to dismiss those who might not qualify.
    Greg Banks asked: “If you received a confession of a serious crime by a good friend or relative, would you report it to the authorities?”
    “It would depend on the facts,” one said.
    Several knew Wahl Road very well.
    Three had higher degrees and were confident they could evaluate physical evidence.
    Four said they had had good experiences with police.
    Matthew Montoya asked several panel members: “Who do you trust?”
    “My wife.”
    “My wife and my dad.”
    “I don’t trust anyone—been burned too many times.”
    The mostly middle-aged panel, which had begun with more men than women, was growing smaller and smaller.
    By late morning on the second day, the accepted jurors and alternates were seated.
    Judge Churchill gave her instructions to the jury and adjourned the session for lunch. At 1:30, Greg Banks would give his opening remarks, and the trial itself would begin.

C HAPTER T HIRTY-FOUR
----
    A S JIM HUDEN’S TRIAL began in