Page 63 of The Accomplice
He nodded.
Harry had a stack of notes in front of him from the medical examiner’s testimony.
‘Do you want to take this guy ?’ I asked.
A half smile gave me my answer.
‘Doctor Climpton,’ said White, ‘did you find any defensive wounds on Stacy Nielsen’s body ?’
‘There were none,’ he said.
‘Just so that I understand this, Doctor, there were no defensive wounds on Margaret Sharpe, Lilian Parker, Penny Jones, Suzanna Abrams, nor on Tobias and Stacy Nielsen ? No defensive wounds on any of the six victims ?’
‘Correct. There were none.’
‘And were all of the female victims attacked with a knife ?’
‘Yes.’
‘Were all of the female victims sedated ?’
‘Yes, by injection into the neck area.’
‘Were there any scratch marks or needle marks anywhere else on the body that would indicate a struggle ?’
‘None.’
‘In your extensive experience of dealing with victims of stabbing or knife crime, is it unusual not to have any defensive wounds ?’
‘Highly unusual.’
‘Again, based on your extensive experience, can you offer any explanation for this ?’
He cleared his throat. Took a sip of water.
A tell.
District Attorney White would have prepared Climpton’s testimony carefully. Coaching him. Pushing him as far and as wide as he was willing to go. This last question was the outer limit, and I could tell Climpton wasn’t happy. He was stretching his testimony to give the DA what he wanted. Like a fifty-five-year-old truck driver in an advanced Pilates class, the stretch would be painful.
‘It is possible,’ began Climpton, ‘that the reason we don’t have defensive wounds is because the victims were restrained by another person during the attack.’
White turned to the jury, repeated the answer, slowly, in a triumphant tone. Then he turned to me, said, ‘Your witness.’
‘Just a moment, Your Honor, we do have questions for this witness,’ said Harry. Then whispered to me, ‘How do you want me to handle this ?’
Harry and I had already talked strategy. There are any number of ways to take apart a witness, and many more tactics when facing a professional witness like Climpton who had plenty of trial experience.
‘That crack about a third party restraining the victim went way out of Climpton’s comfort zone,’ I said.
‘Agreed. Either we go Joe Frazier or Larry David. I’m thinking Larry.’
‘Larry David, all the way,’ I said.
Harry took hold of his legal pad, and his pen, and walked around the defense table beaming a big smile at the witness.
Cross examinations are like short cons. You need the right style for the right mark. Option one with Climpton was to go Joe Frazier, a legendarily powerful hitter who liked to fight in the pocket. Boxers use the ring and the space between them and their opponents in different ways. Angelo Dundee, a legendary cornerman, once said that Ali liked to fight in a room, Tyson liked to fight in a closet, and Frazier liked to fight in a phone booth. The Frazier style of cross examination is to get right into the witness’s face and throw hard fast questions in the hope one will knock them out.
Harry went with the Larry David.
