The Hate Crime

by Rachel Sinclair

  At some point, the judge came out to the bench. This was before the jury was in the courtroom. She looked at me. And then she looked at Alayna, who had just arrived herself. “Well, counselor, is there anything that I have a need to know before you start your defense of Mr. Harrison?”

  “Yes. There is. Besides my client, I’m going to only have one witness on the stand, and it’s not any of the witnesses I mentioned in my opening statement. However, it is a witness who was on my list, so I ask the court to give deference on this and allow me to go ahead and call him.”

  “Ah, counselor, you’re going to disappoint your jury. They’re looking forward to seeing certain people on that stand. But, yes, as long as this witness that you’re going to be calling to the stand was disclosed to the prosecutor’s office, I see no reason why you shouldn’t be able to call him. And he’s going to be your only witness, besides your client?” She smiled. “Sounds like we’re going to be done early. Thank God.”

  At 9 o’clock on the dot, the jury filed in. It was almost time to start our case.

  The judge addressed the jury. “Ladies and gentlemen, the defense will begin this case today.” She looked at me. “Counselor, call your first witness.”

  At that, Harper stood up. “The defense calls David Harrison.”

  I turned around and saw David Harrison come through the door. He was accompanied by a guard. He was dressed in an ill-fitting suit, that was probably given to him on the fly. He walked with a stoop in his shoulders. He had a full head of hair, that was completely silver. His eyes were steely blue, and his mouth was turned down in a frown. He looked like he probably had a permanent scowl on his face. He was slightly overweight, mainly in his stomach, although his legs were quite thin.

  He was sworn in, and Harper approached him. He looked her up and down. “Little Miss,” he said to her. “What are you doing here? You’re not going to be asking me questions, are you?” He shook his head. “I can never understand why you ladies want to do jobs like this.”

  I was quite sure that he was questioning Harper because he felt that Harper belonged at home, in a kitchen somewhere, making dinner for her man and children. In David’s world, that’s where women belonged. They certainly didn’t belong in a courtroom. Not in his world.

  Harper took a deep breath. “Could you please state your name for the record?”

  David leaned into the microphone. “David Earl Harrison.”

  “Mr. Harrison, you are the father of the defendant here, Beck Harrison, right?”

  “So they tell me. I don’t know. I’ve never taken a paternity test, but his old lady says that I’m his dad. That’s what his birth certificate says, so I guess, yeah, I’m his dad.”

  This was getting off to a stellar start.

  “Mr. Harrison, are you currently serving time in prison?”

  “Yeah. I am. For murder one. What of it?”

  “Mr. Harrison, what is your relationship like between you and your son?”

  He leaned back in his chair, and crossed his arms. “I ain’t got no relationship with my son. Why do you ask that question?”

  Harper knew that her work was cut out for her. But I knew that she would rise to the occasion. “So you say you have no relationship with your own son, correct?”

  “That’s what I just said. I got no relationship with him.”

  “So when you say you have no relationship with him, does that mean that if he were to have a homosexual relationship with somebody, or date a transgendered woman, you would be okay with that?”

  He visibly fidgeted in his seat. He made a fist, and then released it. He took a deep breath. Then he spoke. His voice was dripping with tension. “Hell, fucking no. I’ll say that right here in front of God and everybody. I don’t even care if this lady judge holds me in contempt. That boy, I don’t hardly know him, but he carries my name. He carries my name, so he better fucking live up to that name. And by live up to that name, I mean that he ain’t going to be messing around with no man, and he certainly ain’t going to mess around with no woman with a man’s parts.”

  I looked at the judge. I knew that she was going to hold him in contempt for using foul language in the courtroom. But she chose just to warn him. Which I was grateful for, because if she held him in contempt, and had him taken away, that would mean that my star witness would be gone. I knew why David cussed like that on the stand. He literally had nothing to lose. So, the judge held him in contempt, what would that mean to him? Absolutely nothing. Less than nothing. Even better, it would get him off the stand, and that’s what he would want.

  “Mr. Harrison,” Judge Grant said to him. “If you use another profanity in this courtroom, I will hold you in contempt of court.”

  That was the wrong thing to say to him. “I’ll say whatever I want, and I won’t have some lady judge telling me that I can’t say this or that.”

  Harper looked back at me, and I shook my head. The judge was put into a bad situation here. She knew that if she held him in contempt, and he was taken into custody, it would only be giving into what he wanted out of the situation. He would be fined, but who cares? He was serving life in prison. He wasn’t ever going to pay that fine.

  She looked at Harper and Alayna. “Let’s take a short recess. Mr. Harrison, please remain seated. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you may take a 10-minute break. Ms. Ross, Mr. Harrington, and Ms. Wilder, I need to see all of you in my chambers.”

  We followed her back to her chambers.

  She didn’t beat around the bush. “Ms. Ross, you put me into a really bad situation with this witness. I can’t have him on the stand dropping F bombs. He doesn’t show respect for this court, and he doesn’t show respect for the jury. I’m inclined to have him taken into custody, but I know that that would do no good. It also wouldn’t do any good to have him fined. So what am I supposed to do here? You didn’t prepare him for the stand, did you?” Judge Grant was really steamed. She was looking at Harper accusingly. “Well?”

  Harper looked embarrassed. “I’m so sorry, Your Honor, but this witness is going to be a hostile witness for me. I didn’t prepare him for the stand, because I need to blindside him with my questions. And, with all due respect, I don’t think that preparing him for the stand would’ve done any good.”

  “What are you going to get out of this witness?” Judge Grant demanded from Harper.

  “I have reason to believe that he is the actual murderer of Adele Whittier. I have this on good authority. Namely, his cellmate came to my investigator, who told me that Mr. Harrison confessed to killing Ms. Whittier. His motive for killing her is because he found out that his son was seeing her, and he knew that she was transgendered. He framed his son, because he wanted his son to be behind bars, so he could keep a close watch on him. So, again with all due respect, I need this witness on the stand. Without him, I don’t have a case. Well, that’s not necessarily true – I could try to put on my other witnesses, but they didn’t do it. Mr. Harrison did it. David Harrison, that is.”

  Judge Grant shook her head. “Well, you’ve put me in a real pickle. You put a witness on the stand with nothing to lose, and he’s just going to come out and say whatever he’s going to say. And I guess we just have to take that. Oh, I’ll fine him, and I’ll scold him, none of which is going to do any damned good. But, if he’s your case, I guess we have to forge ahead and put up with his disrespecting this court. I hate to do that, but I’m sure the people on the jury have heard it all before. It’s not like Mr. Harrison is offending any virgin ears. I don’t like it, but it is what it is.”

  Harper looked embarrassed, but she knew that there wasn’t much she could really do.

  All of us went back into the courtroom. David was still on the stand, with the guard by his side. He looked at Harper and Judge Grant, giving them both the evil eye. He looked at me, and smiled and nodded his head. I was quite sure that he liked me, just because I was white and male. He probably felt like I was on his team, for that reason alone.
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  I smiled, as I realized something - the murder of Adele actually was a hate crime after all. It just wasn’t a hate crime committed by my client.

  The jury came back in.

  “I would like to apologize to the ladies and gentlemen of the jury, for the behavior of this witness,” Judge Grant said. “Unfortunately, this witness is indispensable, and, while I will do my best to hold him in contempt for his rude behavior and his profanity, my hands are basically tied.” She turned to David. “Mr. Harrison, I would like to remind you that you’re still under oath.”

  Harper took a deep breath and approached him again. “Mr. Harrison, before the recess, we were talking about your relationship with your son. I remind you that your testimony was that your son, because he carries your name, isn’t going to shame that name by having a romantic relationship with a man or a transgendered female. Is that an accurate description of your testimony?”

  He crossed his arms, and just glared at Harper. He didn’t say a word.

  “Mr. Harrison, please answer the question,” Judge Grant said to him.

  “I’ll fucking answer the questions I want to answer. And I don’t want to answer that one.”

  Judge Grant banged her gavel on her bench. “I’m holding you in contempt, and I’m fining you $100,000.”

  “Ooooohhh, I’m scared. Lady, I’m serving life in prison, do you really fucking think that I care if you fine me $100,00 or $1 million? The answer to that is no. I don’t give a shit what you do to me. Unless I win the fucking lottery behind bars, I ain’t paying that fine no-how. Go ahead, fine me all you want.”

  I looked nervously at Judge Grant, wondering how much more of this that she was going to take before she just blew her stack and had him taken away. But she knew, as well as we knew, that doing that would be playing right into his hands. He didn’t want to be on that stand. He didn’t want to be answering questions. To have him taken away would be giving him exactly what he wanted. That meant that Judge Grant was going to keep him on that stand for that reason alone.

  Harper continued. “You may not have answered the question, but I can tell you that that was your earlier testimony. You did say that because my client, Mr. Harrison, bore your name, that he was not going to shame you by having homosexual relationships, or having a relationship with a transgendered female.”

  “Yeah, what of it? Yeah, that’s how I feel. Any son of mine, ain’t gonna be no faggot.” He looked right at Beck. “Do you understand that, son? You ain’t gonna get with no men. And you really ain’t gonna get with no lady with men’s plumbing. That’s just sick. An abomination. What’s wrong with these people? They’re trying to mess up what God made them. If you’re born a lady, then you better goddamn well stay a lady. If you’re born a man, you better goddamn well stay a man. The less sick freaks like that in the world, the better, but, son, you ain’t going to be getting with them. Do you hear me, son? You’re not to be messing with those freaks of nature.”

  This was going very well. However, I looked over at Beck, and he was shaking. He was near tears. He looked just like a small boy who was desperate to please his father, but there was no pleasing him, and the father was a hateful bastard. Hateful, murderous, bastard.

  Somehow, Harper was unruffled by this man. And, Judge Grant, by that time, was resigned. She fined him $100,000. She might as well have fined him $1 million. It didn’t make any difference. So she was gonna ride it out.

  Harper was going to try to steer him to where she wanted to go. It was going to be extremely easy to do that. “Mr. Harrison, would you like your son to be behind bars with you? After all, if he’s behind bars, with you, you’ll be able to make sure that he doesn’t soil the good family name, by dating a man, or transgendered person. Isn’t that right?”

  Judge Grant looked at Harper. “Ms. Ross, do you need to treat this witness as hostile?”

  “Yes, Your Honor. I would like permission to treat him as hostile.”

  At that, Judge Grant smiled. “In this case, its rather fitting that you would treat him as hostile. So, please proceed.” I guessed that Judge Grant got her sense of humor back. Which was a good thing.

  “Please answer the question.”

  He crossed his arms in front of him. “Yes. I would like my son to be where I can see him. If he’s out here on the street, messing around with females who ain’t females, or men, then I can’t have that. If he’s behind bars, I’m straightening his ass out. I’m making him a man, if he’s behind bars with me.”

  “Then is it safe to say that you would do something to make sure that he goes to prison? Something like having a transgendered female killed, and making sure that her body is dumped close to where your son lives? It seems that that would be two birds one stone, for you. Your son goes to prison, and the transgendered female that he’s seeing is dead. That would be the best-case scenario for you, wouldn’t it?”

  He crossed his arms in front of him. It finally dawned on him what was going on. And, just like that, he apparently decided that he was not going to talk anymore. After all, he did all this to make sure that his son went to prison. He knew that if he confessed on the stand, that that wouldn’t happen. So there was no way that he was going to confess to it.

  No matter. The damage was done. Harper managed to get him to admit on the stand that he wanted his son behind bars. She also managed to elicit every hateful thought that the man had on gays and transgendered people.

  He just stared at her. “I’m done. I ain’t answering no more questions. You can make me sit here all week, and I’m not going to open my mouth again. So don’t even try it.”

  Harper didn’t care. Her work was done. “I have nothing further for this witness.”

  “Thank God,” Judge Grant said. When she said that, everybody in the jury laughed. “Ms. Wilder, do you have any questions for this witness?”

  “No, Your Honor.” I think that Alayna knew that it was pointless to ask him any questions. After all, he announced to the court that he wasn’t going to answer any more questions. Alayna knew that if she asked any questions, it wasn’t going to do any good.

  “The witness is excused.” Judge Grant looked like no four words that she had ever spoken have ever made her any happier. And that was probably the case. “Ms. Ross, call your next witness.”

  Harper called Beck to the stand. She simply wanted to establish that Beck didn’t do it. She also wanted to ask him questions about his relationship with William Page, and Adele Whittier. It was important for her to establish this, because it made David Harrison’s reason for killing Adele that much more stark. Beck was ashamed to be giving this testimony, but he knew that it was necessary, and, it was probably also cathartic for him. Indeed, after he got off the stand, he seemed relieved.

  Alayna did not bother with cross-examining Beck.

  After that, Judge Grant asked Harper to call her next witness.

  “The defense rests.”

  “Okay. We’ll take another short recess, and everybody come back in 15 minutes, and then the defense and the prosecution will give their closing statements.”

  The jury left. Judge Grant looked at Harper, me, and Alayna. “Eye yi yi,” she said after the jury left. “In all my years on the bench, I’ve never had to put up with that kind of disrespect.”

  “I know. And thank you very much for your patience.” Harper was mortified.

  “You know what, it’s okay,” Judge Grant said. “There wasn’t anything that any of us could have done with that. If I would’ve held him in contempt, and had him taken away, he would have loved that. And I’m all about making sure that guys like him don’t get what they want. Plus, you needed to make your case. But, Ms. Ross, I hope you never do that to me again.” Judge Grant popped a Tums into her mouth and shook her head.

  Chapter 37

  The jury came back in, and Alayna gave her perfunctory closing statement. I could tell that she was not into it. She was phoning it in, but I didn’t blame her for that. She knew as well a
s we did what the deal was.

  “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Again, thank you for your service. You heard evidence that Mr. Harrison and Ms. Whittier were together on the evening of June 5th of this year. You heard evidence that Mr. Harrison and Miss Whittier had words on that evening. Specifically, Mr. Harrison told Ms. Whittier that he wasn’t going to help her distribute prescription drugs. Ms. Whittier was upset by this, and she told him so. Mr. Harrison rightfully did not want Ms. Whittier to be dragging him down, and he knew that she would be because she would’ve kept pressing him to help her distribute drugs. You also heard evidence that Mr. Harrison and Ms. Whittier were together at the Zoo Bar on the night of June 5 of this year. You also heard evidence that nobody ever saw Miss Whittier alive after that night. You heard evidence that Ms. Whittier’s body was dumped in the alleyway next to Mr. Harrison’s apartment. The evidence clearly points to Mr. Harrison murdering Ms. Whittier in the early morning hours of June 6. For this reason, I ask for a finding of guilty. Thank you very much.”

  It was time for Harper to give the closing statement. It was only fitting that she give the closing statement, considering the fact that she was the one who set this case down with her examination of David Harrison.

  She approached the jury, and looked at each juror in the eye. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I think you know what happened here. You saw David Harrison. He all but admitted that he killed Adele Whittier, with the purpose of framing his son, because he wanted him to join him behind bars. He needed to make sure he kept an eye on my client, because he was shaming him by getting romantically involved with men, and transgendered people. Well, that’s not necessarily true. Mr. Harrison was only involved with one man, and one transgendered person – and that person was William Page, who became Adele Whittier. Mr. David Harrison clearly found out that his son was dishonoring him by getting involved with a person that he, Mr. David Harrison, found to be sick. He, Mr. David Harrison, is evidently a very hateful man. He especially is hateful against transgendered people.”