The Innocent Woman

“What we don’t have, is one shred of evidence connecting this particular defendant to the crime. The District Attorney says he has eyewitnesses who will place the defendant at the scene of the crime, well, I say bring ’em on. Let’s hear what they have to say. Just between you on me, I don’t think they can prove a thing.
    “But it’s not up to me. That’s up to you. You listen to their testimony and you listen to the cross-examination, and then you make a determination how much these people actually know. I think you’ll find it adds up to nothing at all.
    “No, when you come right down to it, I think you’ll find the District Attorney’s whole case turns on the fact Amy Dearborn said the petty cash drawer was open and the cops found it shut.”
    Steve spread his arms. “That’s all he’s got. I know that’s all his got, because I saw what lengths he went through to make sure you understood he had it. You will recall he emphasized that when confronted with the shut drawer, Amy Dearborn did not say a thing. I could have objected there, and that objection would have been sustained. Because, under law, a District Attorney has no right to infer guilt from a defendant’s refusal to explain.
    “What happened was simple. Amy Dearborn was telling her story to the police. Cooperating fully. She had phoned them, reported a crime, waited for them to arrive, and was in the process of telling them all she knew. At which point she was suddenly confronted with a closed drawer.”
    Steve paused, raised one finger in the air. “The fact is, the defendant had no idea how that drawer came to be closed. And yet, the officer was asking her to explain.
    “And by asking her to explain, he was doing something else.
    “He was suspecting her of a crime.
    “He showed her that closed drawer in an attempt to contradict her story. In an attempt to get her to make an admission. He was, at that point in time, suspecting her of a crime . Not only was the defendant under no obligation to explain, but at that point in time, the officer was under obligation to inform her of her constitutional rights, to inform her that she was under no obligation to explain.”
    Steve stopped, spread his hands wide. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is all the defendant in this case is actually guilty of. Of exercising her constitutional rights. Confronted with this accusation by this police officer, all the defendant said was, I would like to consult a lawyer.”
    Winslow pointed again. “The District Attorney would like you to take that as an admission of guilt. It isn’t. It cannot be used in that manner. That’s the law.
    “That’s the law, and he knows it. He’s the District Attorney. He knows it, yet he tried to do it anyway. When I heard that, that’s when I realized the man hasn’t got a case.
    “Even so, Dirkson’s going to argue, she said the drawer was open, it was closed, she can’t explain it, she must be guilty. If that’s his whole case, let’s dispose of it now.
    “The District Attorney has pointed out that this is a case of circumstantial evidence. The judge will inform you that in any case involving circumstantial evidence, if the circumstances can be explained by any reasonable hypothesis other than the guilt of the defendant, than you must find the defendant not guilty. That is the doctrine of reasonable doubt.
    “The circumstantial evidence in this case is that the defendant said that drawer was open when it was actually shut. Can we come up with any reasonable hypothesis other than the fact that she’s guilty? I should think so. How about this? She arrives at the office, finds the cash drawer robbed. Goes into Fletcher’s office, finds him dead. She runs back into the outer office and calls the police. And where is the phone she calls the cops from? On the same desk where the drawer was robbed. The defendant’s hysterical, she’s just had a huge emotional shock. And while she’s calling the cops, she unconsciously and automatically closes the drawer and doesn’t remember doing that.
    “You think that’s farfetched? Remember, this was the defendant’s own desk. The one she used to work at. When making a phone call from her own desk, you think setting that desk in order wouldn’t be automatic, practically a reflex action?
    “If you don’t like that, try this. While she’s being questioned in the other room, cops are searching the office. A rookie who doesn’t know any better happens to close