One Life for Another, page 5
The kids all sat in quiet anticipation as Steve began his presentation.
“Good morning,” said Steve. “I plan to give you a short lecture on the particulars of death penalty procedure in Oklahoma. But, at any time, if a question arises, please feel free to interrupt me.
He continued, “In the United States, the only way a person can receive the death penalty is if he or she is convicted of first-degree murder. That means you have to actually kill someone or be an active member of a group of people who kills someone before a jury is allowed to consider the death penalty as a form of punishment. It is a process known around the courthouse as ‘filing a bill.’”
A hand shot up from a blonde-haired white girl sitting on a green beanbag to Steve’s left. The irises of her curious eyes were a perfect color complement to her seat. A part of Steve wondered if the only reason she raised her hand was to stop him from continuing any longer. “Hi, Mr. Hanson. My name is Alex Wright! Thank you so much for coming to speak to our class today. Have you ever been to death row?”
“Yes,” Steve said, unsurprised by the question. “I actually went there for the first time yesterday.”
“What was that like?” the girl asked, not missing a beat.
Steve did his best to describe his trip to death row in a schoolfriendly way; he decided to leave out the part about writing the wrong letter and Scottie being in handcuffs.
Another hand shot up. This time, the hand belonged to a black boy sharing the green beanbag with the girl who had asked the first question. They weren’t being too obvious with their body language, but the way the boy had his other arm relaxed behind the girl’s back told Steve that the two were in a romantic relationship.
“Hello, Mr. Hanson,” the young man said. “My name is Dominick Harrison. Thank you for being our guest lecturer today.”
Steve nodded and smiled. Although the young man was more reserved than his girlfriend, they both seemed to be considerate and curious students.
“What if the jury doesn’t think the defendant committed the murder?” asked Dominick.
“Well, he or she would be acquitted of murder; they would be released, and the criminal case would be over. From a criminal law standpoint, that’s the end of it, whether the person is in fact innocent or guilty. They can go home and will never be tried for that crime again,” Steve explained. “For the purposes of this discussion, we will assume the jury finds the person guilty so we can move to the second stage of a capital murder trial—the sentencing stage.”
Steve looked around the room. All of the students now seemed engaged in his presentation. The students’ attentive expressions gave him more confidence as he continued.
“Once a jury sentences a defendant to death, that defendant goes through the state appeals process. If they lose at all levels in the state, then they have the right to go to federal court. Their federal appeal begins at the district court level.
Steve took a moment to explain, “Generally speaking, there are three federal court levels. There is the district court. Every state has at least one district court, and larger states have several. Then, there are courts of appeal which are mostly regional. Oklahoma, Kansas, and other nearby states are covered by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Finally, there is the U.S. Supreme Court, which gets to pick and choose which cases it wants to hear. You can’t just take a case there.
“Now, the federal district court is where I come in,” Steve said, returning to his explanation of the sentencing stage. “I am appointed by the federal court to represent these people on their federal habeas petition. If the case is lost at all levels of the federal court system, ending with the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., the defendant will most likely be executed, though the final outcome always depends on the state’s decision of whether or not to keep the case moving forward to a conclusion in the death chamber.
“Some states execute faster than others, Oklahoma and Texas being fairly quick about it,” Steve said dryly. “In California, it can take many years for the execution to occur, if at all.”
Another student raised her hand. “Hello, Mr. Hanson. My name is Maria Hernandez, and I appreciate you visiting our class today. What do you do once you are appointed?”
“I read the entire state court record, looking for constitutional error. The record includes every document filed and transcripts of all of the testimony. I then point those errors out to the federal district court, and if I don’t win there, I point out the errors to the Tenth Circuit, then eventually to the US Supreme Court.”
“So, you basically look for a loophole to get the guy off?” she replied.
“Well, some people might look at it that way, but I believe the U.S. Constitution is the bedrock of our society, and protecting it is more important than executing any one person, even if that person is a murderer. But as long as the police do their job correctly in the investigation, the judge and district attorney follow the law at trial, and the defense counsel does an adequate job representing their client, then the habeas petition will likely be unsuccessful.” Steve tried not to think of Scottie’s case as he gave this explanation. “The purpose is to ensure that all the rules were followed, and the accused’s rights were honored. It is not to retry the case. If all the rules were followed, the appeal will probably fail.
“There can even be what is called ‘harmless error.’ Harmless error is when a constitutional violation occurs, but the appellate court believes it did not affect the jury’s final decision, so the appeal is denied even though there was mistake.
“In summary, the only time a new trial will be ordered is when an error occurred that is so egregious the court believes the jury might have decided differently if the error had not occurred. I think everyone would agree that, in those cases, anybody and everybody should get a new trial. I know that if I am ever accused of something, I pray my trial will be held in accordance with constitutional standards.”
The student who’d asked the question nodded her head slowly, accepting and processing Steve’s words.
Dominick then asked, “What if everything was done constitutionally, but it turns out the person clearly didn’t do it? Not just that he could be found not guilty, but that, with new evidence, he could be proven innocent?”
“In those rare cases, the person is released from prison. To be clear, if I win an appeal on constitutional grounds, that just means my client gets a new trial, a trial where a new jury could still give him the death penalty all over again. The only way someone would actually be released, and the charges dropped, is if new evidence showed they didn’t do it at all.”
When the class period came to an end, the students thanked Steve for all of the insight he had given them on Oklahoma’s death penalty system. He drove back to his office afterward to take care of a few things before his meeting with Dr. Babbage.
Just as Steve was about to wrap things up and head out the door, he heard a fellow lawyer rushing down the hall. The young attorney stuck his head in Steve’s office as he passed and said, “You need to come see this.”
Steve got up and followed several other lawyers to the break room. All around the small room, he heard snippets of quiet, somber conversation. “Just a teenager… African American boy… was shot… was killed by… a white cop in Claremore. They think the kid was unarmed.”
On the television, local newswoman Sandy Shores was reporting live from the front of the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office.
“That’s right, Tom. We do know the incident occurred at a trailer park outside of town, and the young man is dead. I’ve been informed there are no witnesses other than the possible victim’s sister. She claims it was unprovoked, and the young man was unarmed. At this point, we do not know if the young man was armed or not.”
The television cut to a video of a young African American woman screaming hysterically at the several television cameras aimed at her. “That cop shot him! He shot my brother. He killed him dead in front of my trailer! He didn’t have no gun or nothin’.
That cop just shot him.”
“What was your brother doing?” a reporter asked.
“Nothin’, he wasn’t doin’ nothin’. Just standing there, and that cop just shot him.”
The young woman broke into sobs again.
The station cut back to Shores live. “The officer involved was Deputy Sheriff Andrew Blackburn. The sheriff’s department has not issued any statements other than to say the incident is under investigation, and Deputy Blackburn has been suspended with pay until completion of the investigation.”
“Thank you for your report, Sandy,” said the news anchor. “We have also just received notice from the Black Lives Matter organization that they are planning a protest in front of the Rogers County Sheriff’s Department tomorrow night at six.”
The anchor then put his hand to his ear and said, “I have just been told the family of the victim has been informed of his death, so we can release his name. The victim was Dominick Harrison, a student at Booker T. Washington High School. We will have more information about him later tonight.”
Steve fell back and put his hand down on the counter he was standing near. He bowed his head and put his other hand over his eyes and face.
As soon as he got back to his desk, Steve called Davis to see how he was dealing with the news. As he rode the elevator from his office to the parking garage, he thought about Alex, the greeneyed girl who had shared a beanbag chair with Dominick just a few hours ago. As he started his car to head to his meeting with Dr. Babbage, Steve wondered how Harrison’s family was dealing with the news.
CHAPTER 9
Steve pulled into a spot outside Dr. Babbage’s office a little after 4:15 p.m. Her office was in a small strip mall and he parked under one of the many trees lining the street. While he sat in the parking lot, he called Hamilton to let his client know what was about to happen.
“Jordan, I’m sitting in the computer forensics expert’s parking lot and am about to go in and see exactly what evidence she has uncovered.”
“Look, Steve,” Hamilton replied. “I didn’t do anything. I have no idea what she could have found on my hard drive. If she says she found something she probably planted it there herself.”
“Okay. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Steve told the young man at the reception desk that he was there for a four thirty appointment with Dr. Babbage and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Turner. The man hit a buzzer, and both women soon came out to greet Steve.
Dr. Babbage came over and shook his hand. When their hands touched, Steve felt that familiar jolt and once again he got a little balsa in his pants. He wondered if she felt something, down there, too.
“Nice to see you again, Dr. Babbage,” Steve said while trying to keep his cool.
“You can call me Emily, and it’s nice to see you again too,” she said with a knowing smile.
All three of them walked back to the computer lab where Emily worked. Once in the lab, Steve saw Hamilton’s computer on a workbench. Emily walked over to his client’s computer and sat down, pointing to the chair next to her. “Sit over here where you can see the screen.”
Steve readily obliged and scooted the chair up near her.
Emily began typing on the keyboard and working the mouse. “You see, unless you expertly whitewash your hard drive, nothing you delete ever completely goes away. The computer just moves it to a different section on the hard drive.”
Steve watched the incomprehensible data stream flow by on the screen and asked, “So, what’s that mean?”
“In layman’s terms, everything that is ever typed into your computer stays on the hard drive somewhere, forever,” Emily explained. “When you drag an icon to the trash or delete something, the information doesn’t magically disappear. Instead, the computer labels the information ‘deleted’ and then it knows not to worry about those files. The process allows the computer to complete search requests faster than if it had to look through everything that had ever been typed into it, but the computer never truly erases anything from the hard drive itself. Does that make sense?”
“I think so. Do you mean that when I am typing a letter or document, if I type a word, then hit backspace and change the word, all of that is stored somewhere?”
“Yes. Every time you strike a key on the keypad, a record is kept. So, if you typed the letter ‘I’ and hit backspace once and then typed the letter ‘A,’ I could find the record of all three of those actions. This is called metadata. Another example is the FBI going through Hillary Clinton’s servers to see what emails were sent and received using it. All that information remains on your hard drive, someone just has to know how to find it.”
“So that’s metadata… I see.” Steve could already guess where this was going.
Emily smiled at him. “Unfortunately for your client, I have the training and experience to locate all the files he thought he had deleted. I have thoroughly examined his hard drive and found several files that Mr. Hamilton never wanted anyone to see.” As she continued to speak, her smile widened into a wicked grin. “At least, not anyone from law enforcement.”
Emily began to show Steve the evidence she had found. There were files that showed Hamilton had written checks for fake invoices. Other documents proved he created the fake invoices. Most damning of all, Emily had found a ledger that Hamilton maintained, showing all the money he had embezzled over the past five years from the company.
Emily pointed to the screen. “This Excel sheet details an embezzlement operation that has been going on much longer than your client’s company originally thought, but in the last year, he started taking much larger chunks of money. The bigger amounts are what eventually raised red flags in the accounting department.
“The last part here proves the old adage that pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered,” Emily said. “If he had just kept taking amounts less than a thousand dollars, like he did the first few years, he probably would have gotten away with this forever. Once he started taking thousands at a time, it was just a matter of course that he would get caught.”
As Steve mulled over all of the information Emily had managed to pull from Hamilton’s own computer, Turner looked to Steve and said, “I am still willing to work out a plea deal for your guy wherein I will only take into account the current charges which amount to $52,347 in stolen funds. If your client doesn’t want to plea-bargain, I will add new charges based on the total amount of $123,478 that Mr. Hamilton’s spreadsheet shows he has taken. That will not only affect the sentence I think a jury would give him, but it would also be the amount of restitution the court will require him to pay back to his now former employer.
She paused before continuing, “However, I believe the most important issue here is getting some of the victim’s money back. If I send him to prison, there isn’t much chance of that ever happening. So, if your client will agree to waive his preliminary hearing and plead, I will reduce the charges to a misdemeanor and put him on five years’ probation with the understanding that he has to pay back the fifty-two thousand and change during that timeframe. If he pays all of that back, he will never have to spend a night in jail, let alone prison, and he will only have to pay back half of what I honestly think he took. You need to make sure he understands that is one hell of a deal.”
“Well,” Steve said, “I’ll talk to my client, but I can’t give you a final answer until then. As you know, it’s his case, so it’s also his choice.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. You defense lawyers tell me that every day. ‘Always the client’s decision.’ I’ll give you till our preliminary hearing to give me an answer. If you waive, you get the deal; if you don’t, I will file more charges.” Turner shrugged. “Now, enough business. It’s five fifteen, and I’ve been hard at it since eight this morning. I could use a drink, and I imagine you could too after what you just saw.
Steve simply nodded in agreement.
“I’m sure that forty-five minutes ago, you actually believed your client was innocent. You young defense attorneys always believe those lying clients. Trust me, you will get over that in due time.” She turned to Emily. “Would you like to join me and Mr. Naïve here for cocktails at The Empire Bar?”
“I would love to,” Emily responded with a smile on her face. “Let me just close up this place, and I will meet you two there shortly.”
CHAPTER 10
The Empire Bar had been pouring Guinness and serving drinks in Tulsa for over twenty years. When Steve and Turner walked in, they saw people in suits, like themselves, who apparently had just arrived for happy hour. But the guys shooting pool wore T-shirts and looked like they had been there all afternoon. By eight thirty or so, the suits would mostly have trickled out, with the local college students taking over and a band playing later in the evening.
One reason Steve loved living in Oklahoma was the occasional “summer” day in the middle of winter. Oklahoma always gives its residents a couple of sunny, over-seventy-degree days to break up the chill of the coldest months. Today was one of those days, so Steve and Turner each ordered a drink at the bar and went outside to the patio.
The two of them found a table on the lower tier and began discussing different cases each had been involved with to date. Shortly after, Emily approached their table with a Hoegaarden in her hand. Everyone exchanged greetings again, and she quickly joined in the conversation.
Turner had been around long enough to know Steve had only been in private practice a short time and kindly gave him some advice about dealing with different prosecutors in her office. After a while, Turner said she had reached her two-beer limit for driving, and she needed to get home to her family in south Tulsa. As she excused herself, she smirked at Steve and said, “I felt like a third wheel around the two of you anyway.”
Steve and Emily ordered another round. All things considered; Steve felt like the two of them were genuinely hitting it off.
Emily started talking about the last time she had been to The Empire Bar. “It was almost two years ago during the 2014 World
