In the Wine Country murder trials are as rare as a good merlot so there was a lot of interest here in the closing arguments that were scheduled for this past Friday. When my morning appointment was unexpectedly cancelled, I asked my assistant to rearrange the rest of my schedule and flew down to the courthouse. Out of breath and pounding on the elevator buttons to the second floor courtroom I saw a strange sight–the lead investigator of the murder case leaving the building. When arrived upstairs I learned why. Closing arguments had been postponed and the jury had been dismissed until next Monday because the prosecutor was feeling too ill.
Too ill? Trial work is supposed to make you ill. I have made closing arguments with one eye swollen shut from a stye that I was unable to treat during a long trial. Another time right before commencing my argument the lectern fell and cut open a swath of my leg. I stood there with blood running down my leg, but I finished what I had to say, and we still got a conviction.
Does anyone besides me remember William Hodgman? He was one of the original prosecutors assigned to the O.J. Simpson criminal trial before he collapsed in an office in the Criminal Courts Building and was rushed to hospital to be treated for stress from the trial. He was replaced by Christopher Darden who together with Marcia Clark led the jury to an immediate acquittal.
More recently, the defense of Kenneth Lay in his conspiracy and fraud trial was derailed by the mid-trial loss of Lay’s lead attorney, Michael Ramsey, from complications from the blockage of the carotid artery. Rather than delaying the trial Ramsey urged another member of the legal team, George “Mac” Secrest to lead and prepare Lay for his doomed testimony. According to published accounts, Secrest was a highly ineffective trial lawyer, and Lay’s courtroom presence suffered.
According to the New York Times Ramsey had huge regrets about the timing of his health problems, “I will always regret I got sick in the midst of this particular trial,” he said. “That is something I will live with the rest of my life.” –EF
