Chapter 30

An hour and a half later Judy again chirped, "Let's vote!" Maggie looked around. People looked tired. A lot had been said, but there didn't seem to be any general consensus. Voting would at least be trying to make progress. She passed out ballots.

This time, when she separated the pieces of folded paper, there were four in the guilty pile and eight in the not guilty pile. Everyone looked surprised.

"My, my," said Maggie, who had changed her vote, but didn't expect anyone else to do so. The others who had changed their votes felt the same way. It buoyed them all a bit.

"Interesting," said Tim, who hadn't thought anyone other than Hank would change his vote.

"What just happened?" asked Jim, whose laptop was open on the table in front of him. He'd tuned them all out for the last 45 minutes, when they seemed to be saying the same things over and over. He'd simply voted with the majority this time ... except that he was suddenly in the minority. "I want to change my vote," he said.

Everyone looked at him. "Why?" asked Maggie.

"Cause I want to get out of here," he said honestly.

"Dude!" said Hector. "Try not to care too much about this woman, you know?"

"What do you care for?" asked Jim, staring at the Hispanic man. "You don't know her. She's from a different world than you and me."

There was a stunned silence. This was the first time Jim had spoken more than a word or two. All of them had seen him pecking at the keyboard of the laptop. Most thought he was taking notes for some reason. None of them had realized he didn't really care about the issues until he spoke this time.

"Let me tell you a story," said Hector. "There was this girl I knew. Her name was Maria. She was like thirteen, OK? So she's sitting there, doing some math homework, minding her own business, when this carload of dudes drives by and unloads a clip of nine millimeter. She takes one in the head and boom ... she's dead. Just like that. No more homework. No more going to school. No more getting a goodnight kiss from her mother ... just dead."

Jim's fingers left the keyboard. "OK, sure that's sad, but she IS from your world. What does that have to do with this case?"

Hector didn't frown or give any other indication that he was upset.

"She was sitting in an ice cream parlor, over in midtown, not in the hood. She went there every day to get away from the hood, so she could do her homework without being afraid. They wasn't shooting at her. They was shooting at the ice cream parlor, because one of the guys in the car thought the owner of that place had dissed him. What I'm saying is there is only one world, and we all live in it. You can't just decide that because that chick lives over there, and you live over here, that it ain't your problem. It IS your problem. It's ALL of our problem ... you know?"

"Very astute," commented Tim.

Hector looked at him. "Man ... you need to learn some English." He sat back in his chair, looking disgusted.

Jane was frustrated. The vote had surprised her, because she thought Fetterman's status as guilty had been agreed upon. Hadn't everybody agreed that she killed the man? Tim's rambling comments had seemed stuffy. She was still nervous about Hector, and hadn't gotten his point.

"I don't understand," she said suddenly. "She killed the man, right?"

There was a nod or two.

"So what's the problem here? I just don't get it."

Helen was sitting across the table from Jane. She leaned forward. "Are you comfortable with sending Lacey Fetterman to prison for the rest of her life for killing her rapist?"

Jane looked uncomfortable. "That's not the point," she said.

"It most certainly IS the point," said Helen. "If we find her guilty, that's what's going to happen, plain and simple."

"No it's not," said Waldo suddenly. "She can get parole in ten years."

Helen looked at him now. "Are you comfortable with sending Lacey Fetterman to prison for ten years for killing her rapist?"

"We have to!" said Waldo, interrupting. "She murdered a man. Read the Bible. Thou shalt not kill!"

"Oh Jesus," moaned Jim.

Waldo looked at him sharply. "Yes! Jesus! He paid the price for our sins, and he told us to obey the law!"

"Well then," said Hector calmly. "If he died for our sins then she's covered, right?"

"Don't mock God!" Waldo almost shouted.

"I'm not mocking God," said Hector. "I'm just saying ... you know ... would Jesus have voted to send her to prison?"

"Please," moaned Maggie. "Let's not bring religion into this."

"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's," intoned Tim from the end of the table. "This is a matter for Caesar."

"Exactly!" Said Waldo. "She broke man's law and she must be punished."

Danny laughed. It was almost shocking in the room, which was filled with tension.

"It's not funny!" shouted Waldo.

"Hang on," said Danny, still smiling. "Look what just happened. You said it was God's law first, and now you're saying it's man's law. You said that Jesus paid the price for our sins ... Lacey's sin ... and yet you demand that she be punished. I'm not laughing at you. I just think you're confused, that's all."

Waldo DID look confused. He folded his arms. "I just know murder is wrong," he said stubbornly.

"That's the problem with the law," said Tim. "The law is black and white, but real life is full of shades of gray."

"I actually understood that," said Reggie. "Congratulations."

Tim smiled tentatively. "It's what I was trying to say during lunch."

Hank spoke up. "IT IS full of gray," he said. "I get what Waldo is saying. But I also get what Tim just said. All I know is that this man attacked her. I voted guilty the first time, but I changed my vote because I thought about how he grabbed her, there in the car. Can you imagine what must have been going through her mind? Here was the animal who had caused her so much pain ... had ruined her whole life. He had a hold of her again! I can't help but think I'd have done the same thing she did."

Waldo almost jumped up. "There you go!" he said. "That's manslaughter! Acting in the heat of passion. You said you'd do it too. That's one of the elements of proof! And grabbing her was provoking her. That's another element of proof! If you won't vote for murder, at LEAST vote for manslaughter!"

"But he was helpless," moaned Jane. "He grabbed her, but he couldn't DO anything to her. She could have jerked loose. Even I could have jerked loose, and I'm weak."

"What if you HAD been in her place?" asked Hank. "What if you tried to jerk away and couldn't. What would you have done then?"

"I don't know," moaned Jane. "Screamed! I would have screamed!"

"Everybody was screaming," said Hank. "The man raped you. He said he'd be back. He has your wrist in his grip! You can't get away. What are you going to do?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" screamed Jane. There were tears in her eyes.

There was a moment of silence as Jane wiped furiously at her cheeks.

"She smelled gasoline," said Kelsey. "Didn't she say she smelled smoke? If he held her there, and the car caught on fire anyway, she could have been killed. What if she was unconsciously afraid of that? Wouldn't that be self defense?"

Maggie shook her head. "There was no testimony about that. She didn't say she was afraid the car would catch on fire. We can't try to imagine what was in her mind. I'm like Helen. I think the punishment is too much, but we have to obey the law. The judge said so."

Hector looked at her. "So you were one of the guilty votes this time?"

To read this story you need a Registration + Premier Membership
If you have an account, then please Log In or Register (Why register?)

Support the author's future writing by purchasing this book from Bookapy

Mistrusting a Memory

Lubrican

$4.50