The Sacrifice (51 page)

The Catawba student playing the part of Pete Pigpickin held up well under cross-examination by one of the plaintiff 's attorneys.

“Isn't it true that you weren't looking at the road when you approached the intersection?” the lawyer asked.

“I'd been looking at the road all morning long since I left my house in Hogbottom Hollow.”

“But when you approached the stop sign, you looked away from the roadway because you'd dropped a barbeque sandwich on the floorboard of your truck.”

Pete stared at the lawyer without answering. The lawyer waited, then faced the judge.

“Please instruct the witness to answer the question.”

Pete spoke up. “Judge, he didn't ask me a question. He told me what he thinks happened. I only have a fourth-grade education, but I'm smart enough to know that this fellow wasn't riding in my truck on the day of the wreck. I have a policy not to pick up hitchhikers or lawyers.”

The lawyers in the jury box laughed out loud. Scott smiled. He had told the witnesses to listen closely and only answer questions, not respond to statements. Pete was following directions.

The lawyer persevered. “Well, isn't it true that you took your eyes off the road as you approached the intersection because you dropped your sandwich on the floor?”

Pete looked at the lawyers in the jury box. “It's true that I dropped my sandwich, but I never took my good eye off the road. I was driving like this.”

Pete leaned over in his seat so that he was peering over the edge of the box that surrounded the witness stand and moved an imaginary steering wheel back and forth. “This is how I did it. I've been driving like this since I was eight years old, so it wasn't a problem at all.”

“Isn't it true that you have only one good eye?”

Pete squinted. “Yes, and I don't have any problem shooting a squirrel out of a tree from seventy-five yards away.”

“Objection, your honor,” the lawyer said. “He's testifying to facts outside the mock trial problem.”

Yvette was on her feet. “Your honor, the witness is allowed to give an illustration to explain an answer so long as it does not contradict a fact in the case. The facts say that Mr. Pigpickin has a bad eye, but there is no indication of the condition of his vision in the good eye.”

“Overruled.”

“Thank you.” Yvette sat down.

The case quickly progressed to the closing arguments. Yvette took a chance and spoke without notes. Everything went smoothly until she became confused about a twist in the testimony from one of the witnesses and then made an overgeneralization.

“And even though Billy Bob Beerbelly and Pete Pigpickin are second cousins on their mother's side and first cousins on their father's side.” She paused. “Wait, maybe it's the other way around. Anyway, Billy Bob said he wouldn't lie for his mother and remember that Ralph Risky's testimony about not drinking is unbelievable. A lot of people drink at high-school parties.”

“Objection. There is no evidence before the court about other high-school parties.”

“Sustained.”

Yvette's face flushed, but she ended without any further snags.

The other attorney was as smooth in his closing argument as his partner had been in the opening statement. The young man bobbled his cross-examination of Pete Pigpickin, but he nailed the closing argument. When he finished, the judge and lawyers left the courtroom to grade the round. The students quickly crowded around.

“I'm glad it's over,” Yvette said.

“Don't worry about the objection during your closing argument,” Scott said. “The rest of it was great.”

Turning to the other students, he said, “You all did well. Dustin, you made some good objections, and I thought Yvette's cross-examination of Betty Moonbeam went smoothly. All the witnesses knew their parts and came across as very believable.”

While they waited, the lawyer/coach of the other team looked across the room at Scott and gave him a confident smile. Kay saw the exchange between the two men and whispered to Scott, “Your friend thinks they won.”

“He's not my friend, and I'm not so sure. Our kids did pretty well.”

Kay quickly squeezed Scott's hand. “They were great.”

The judge and jury returned and gave a critique of all the lawyers and witnesses. Their goal was to encourage, but they also pointed out areas for improvement. In each round, a witness and lawyer received special recognition. The panel selected Pete Pigpickin as the best witness, and the plaintiff's lawyer who delivered the flawless opening statement as the best attorney.

“Finally,” the judge said, “we have to declare a winner of this round. It was difficult to decide, and we had a sharp debate that kept us in the jury room longer than we expected. However, considering all the witnesses and the lawyers we give this round to the plaintiff.”

Scott quickly looked at the team members to see how they took the news. No one seemed upset, and he realized that the students were so relieved to have survived the experience in one piece that they didn't consider themselves losers. Only Dustin walked over to him with a downcast look.

“Sorry, coach.”

Scott put his arm around the boy's shoulders. “If we'd been able to play a full game, we would have worn them out.”

“On to round two,” he said to the whole group. “We switch sides and argue the plaintiff 's case.”

It had been an advantage for Frank and Janie to watch the other team. It was even more helpful for the witnesses to observe students from other schools portray the characters the Catawba students would assume during the next round.

They left Courtroom 307 and walked down the hallway to Courtroom 303. Their opponent was a team from a public high school in one of the best neighborhoods of south Charlotte. Frank went outside and waited in the hallway. Janie sat next to Alisha. Kay slid into the seat beside Scott.

“What do you think?”

Scott looked at the young man and woman who were arranging their papers at the table reserved for the student lawyers who represented the defense. The young man was dressed in a dark gray suit, white shirt, and red-striped tie. The girl was in a navy women's suit that must have cost five hundred dollars.

“Those two look like attorneys from a big firm in Raleigh that represents insurance companies. I want to see their birth certificates; I'm not sure they're still in high school.”

“They're probably seniors.”

“Maybe at Harvard.”

The judge and three lawyers came into the room. Janie stepped into the hallway to get Frank. Scott suddenly felt butterflies in his stomach.

“I'm nervous,” he said softly to Kay.

“You know how good they can be and want to see them do it.”

Frank and Janie took their places. Janie had placed everything neatly across their table. The judge, a woman attorney with curly dark hair, called the case.

“Proceed for the plaintiff.”

Janie stood up and began just as Scott had taught on the first night of practice. “May it please the court. My name is Janie Collins. Together with my co-counsel, Frank Jesup, it is my privilege to represent Betty Moonbeam, the plaintiff in this case.”

Janie's accent immediately captured the attention of the courtroom. It helped that her grammar was perfect, thus debunking for a moment the stereotype that someone from the country didn't know a participle from a preposition. Scott smiled. He was glad he lived in a generation that didn't try to keep women like Janie out of the courtroom. She concluded by looking directly in the faces of the lawyers in the jury box.

“After you have heard the evidence, my client will entrust the decision about these important issues into your hands for your careful consideration. Thank you very much.”

Kay elbowed Scott in the side and whispered, “I see that smug look on your face, but remember who recruited her.”

Janie's counterpart was the male member of the other team. He didn't give a canned speech, but worked in some direct responses to what Janie said in her opening statement. Scott was impressed. This was going to be an interesting match.

Frank debuted by conducting the direct examination of their first witness. He didn't try to project himself into the center of attention but kept the focus where it needed to be—on the testimony. After a cross-examination that didn't do much damage because of some of the witness strategies developed by Frank, the case moved forward smoothly.

Alisha played the role of Betty Moonbeam. Janie questioned her and brought out the pathos and pain she'd suffered. Alisha had a gift that can be the bane of men in the hands of a manipulative woman—the ability to cry on cue. She shed a tear when Janie questioned her about the effect of her injuries on her life and added a few more when she was cross-examined too strenuously by the male defense lawyer.

When the last witness for the plaintiff stepped down, Frank said, “Your honor, subject to rebuttal, that concludes the plaintiff 's case.”

The defense lawyers started out with their own version of Pete Pigpickin. It was a strong role, and the young man in the witness chair had a piece of straw stuck behind his left ear as a prop for the part. Frank was scheduled to cross-examine the driver of the barbeque truck. As Scott listened, he realized it would have been better for Janie to take on her fellow countryman, but it was too late to change.

Frank began with some good questions and had Pete back-pedaling down the road until the witness gave an answer Frank hadn't anticipated. Frank's face suddenly grew red, and he said, “I object, your honor, that is, uh, outside the ability of the witness to observe and offer an opinion.”

The female lawyer on the other team stood up. “Judge, nothing in the facts prohibits the witness from offering his lay opinion about the condition of the roadway. He testified that he's driven on the road at least once a week for ten years.”

“Objection overruled,” the judge said.

The setback threw Frank off his rhythm, and a few questions later he committed one of the cardinal sins of cross-examination—he gave a witness the chance to repeat a damaging answer. Pete testified that Billy Bob's car had on its right turn signal, then turned left. This tended to shift blame away from Pete to Billy Bob. Instead of pointing out an inconsistent statement that Pete gave to the policeman who investigated the wreck, Frank asked sharply, “That's not true, is it?”

Pete gave Frank a long look. “Mr. Attorney, I put my hand on the Bible before I started testifying and everything I'm saying is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. What I said about seeing the right turn signal before Billy Bob entered the intersection is all of those kinds of truth.”

Frank salvaged a few points toward the end of the questioning. Janie cross-examined the other two witnesses for the defense. The female lawyer then delivered her closing argument. It was hard-hitting. Scott decided that in a few more years she might be another Lynn Davenport.

Scott could see Frank's profile. He was staring straight ahead, not watching his opponent. Scott had told him to listen closely enough that he could counter the other side's argument without becoming vulnerable to the logic of the presentation and be psyched out. The defense lawyer finished with a passionate flourish.

Frank stood up.

Scott should not have worried. Rarely referring to the few note cards in his hand, Frank proved his own case and refuted several of the key points made by the other side by quoting almost verbatim from the testimony of the witnesses. The young man had an incredible memory, and the closing argument gave him an opportunity to show what a potent weapon it could be when combined with a sharp, analytical mind. Putting his hands on the railing in front of the jury box, he concluded by asking them to remember what Janie had said during her opening statement.

“Betty Moonbeam cannot make the defendant do the right thing. That power is in your hands. Use it wisely and with compassion.”

The judge and lawyers left to discuss the presentation. The coach for the other team, a young teacher about Kay's age, came over to them. With her was an older lawyer with gray hair and small, frameless glasses.

“Is this your first year in the competition?” the teacher asked.

“Yes,” Scott replied.

The lawyer introduced himself to Scott and Kay. “I've been coming to these competitions for ten years, and I've never seen a better round than we just witnessed. The only one that comes close would be the state finals three years ago when we lost to a team from Asheville. You did a great job preparing them.”

“The girl who played the plaintiff was superb,” the teacher added.

Scott returned the compliments, then gathered the students in a huddle and told them about the older lawyer's comparison to the state finals.

“Whatever happens, you can be proud of what you accomplished.”

They waited anxiously in small huddles for several more minutes before the judge and jury returned. The room was totally silent. The judge took off her glasses before she spoke.

“I've been trying cases for twenty years and it's rare to see real lawyers as prepared as these two teams. All of you deserve recognition. I've asked my colleagues to speak first.”

Once again, the lawyers in the jury box gave a brief critique, followed by the judge's comments.

The judge continued, “Now for the hard part. We frequently have to make decisions as lawyers or judges, but some are harder than others. Picking the best attorney, witness, and team was very difficult, but we have selected Alisha Mason as best witness”—the judge looked down at a piece of paper—“and Janie Collins as best lawyer.”

Janie and Alisha were sitting next to each other. They both screamed and hugged. The judge smiled and banged her gavel. “Order in the court! We're not finished. Although the best witness and lawyer are from the plaintiff 's side, we give the overall top score to the defense. They were the most consistent from start to finish.”