Page 64 of The Accomplice
‘Doctor Climpton,’ said Harry, adjusting his glasses, ‘before we begin, I’d like to thank you for your testimony and the respect and courtesy you have shown not just for the victims, but for their families. I know you’re doing your professional duty here today, to the very best of your ability, but your enthusiasm, commendable as it may be, has got the better of you. Let’s correct those mistakes. Just a moment, let me check my notes here …’
The classic Larry David opening. Harry hadn’t asked a question. He had complimented a professional who worked for the city, and after that he had told the witness he had made some mistakes, and Harry was going to help him correct them. Then, the pause. To let Harry check his notes. Of course, he didn’t need to read his notes. He needed to give the jury time to absorb what he’d said and to recognize that Climpton didn’t seem to be arguing with him. The witness didn’t have a question to answer, so like all pros he waited for one. Meanwhile, the jury thinks Climpton has accepted some mistakes. And those mistakes were not malicious – the witness wastoo enthusiastic. It’s a way of using the witness’s authority against them, which is probably more powerful because it makes them a defense witness, instead of the DA’s witness.
This style referred not to Larry David himself, but to his TV show. It was all about getting the witnessto curb their enthusiasm.
‘Doctor, you stated for the record, that apart from the trauma to the ocular area there was usually only one or two stab wounds on the female victims, in the stomach or chest area ?’
‘Yes.’
Professional witnesses have been on this ride before. They know to keep their answers short, snappy. Don’t elaborate, don’t speculate. The more they said the greater the chance of the defense being able to slip a crowbar between those words and start breaking them up into worthless little pieces.
‘Lilian Parker and Penny Jones all had single stab wounds to the chest ?’
‘Correct.’
‘And those wounds proved fatal ?’
‘Yes, instantaneously, I would say.’
‘And this second attacker you mentioned, how would they restrain the victims exactly ?’
This was an open question. It allowed Climpton room to say whatever he wanted, and back it up however he liked. In any cross-exam, open questions are a bad idea. They carried enormous risk because you had no control. The witness would say something more than ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Probably a lot more. This is why the Larry David method carried so much risk.
‘From behind, I would say. Restraining their arms from behind,’ said Climpton.
He was still on shaky ground. Not where he wanted to be, and it was the DA who had put him there.
‘The victim would struggle against the second attacker’s grip ?’
‘Most assuredly,’ said Climpton.
‘I don’t want to put the images of the crime scenes before the jury again, to spare them, but I will if I must. It depends on your next answer, Doctor. My question is, in any of those crime scene photographs we’ve had to look at, did any of those scenes show signs of a struggle ?’
Climpton bit his lip.
Harry had put him in a tight position. If he disagreed, Harry would bring out the photos, and go through them in detail, pointing out that all the furniture was upright, there’s no blood spread around the room and nothing is broken. And the jury would have to go through this again because Climpton insisted on it. They would blame him for it, and when he tried to argue his point in the face of what the photos clearly showed, they would doubt his credibility even more.
‘No,’ said Climpton, swallowing that one in case Harry put him through hell with the photos.
‘There were no signs of bruising on any of the victims either ?’
‘No, there was no bruising.’
‘These women were fighting for their lives. They would have tried to break free, yes ?’
‘Yes.’
‘The victims would have cried out, too ?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Climpton, trying desperately to avoid walking this path.
‘But you’ve just told this jury that the victim’s arms would be restrained from behind. The second attacker would need to use both hands to do that. So there would be nothing to stop the victim screaming, would there ?’
Climpton was now looking at the DA as if he had sold him a used car with a hole in the exhaust and no engine.
‘No, I guess not.’
‘Penny Jones and Suzanna Abrams were murdered in the same apartment, not twenty feet from one another, isn’t that right ?’
