by Roger Bray
He tapped his bottom teeth with a pencil while he thought before throwing the pencil down onto the table and, standing abruptly, he began pacing.
“Look, I was up late last night reading through the documents I had, reading statements and …” he stopped, thinking and looking lost before continuing, “… there has to more to it than this.”
“How so, why would you say that it was enough to convict Alex?”
“It was, but I can’t see how. For the life of me I cannot see it. Look at this for example.”
He pulled some documents out of his bag and spread them across the table. Alice looked at them and recognized them as witness statements, mainly professional witnesses, police, crime scene investigators, all outlining their part in the case.
“The inference is there, the point the prosecution was making was that Alex assaulted and killed Hazel, by accident or on purpose. There’s no evidence of a fight, no evidence of Hazel being beaten around the kitchen. A forensic team went through the house with a fine-tooth comb and didn’t find much. They found one fingerprint of Hazel’s, which was in her own blood under the counter top. A few drops of blood, again Hazel’s, on the floor at the edge of the kitchen area. And that’s about it. What does Alex say about this?”
“Nothing other than he knew nothing about it. Hazel told me that she had cut herself in the kitchen. That was a month or so before they split up. A stupid thing she said; they were having an argument, well she admitted that she was angry and being irrational and wanted an argument, but Alex wouldn’t. He was being his usual calm self which only managed to annoy her even more.”
“What happened?”
“She said that she was drinking and in a moment of anger she put the glass down too hard and the stem snapped, she didn’t even spill any wine, but she did manage to stab herself in the finger with the broken stem.
“And there was a lot of blood?”
Alice nodded, “Apparently. Hazel said that she couldn’t believe how much was coming out for such a small cut, but with Alex’s help, she bandaged her finger and they cleaned up the mess.”
“And the glass?”
Alice shook her head, “I don’t know, put in the garbage and thrown out.”
“Why didn’t Alex mention it? If he was there and had helped Hazel clean-up?”
“He’d forgotten all about it. It was only after, when I reminded him, that he remembered. It was such a trivial thing he said that it had slipped his mind completely.”
“And this happened a long time before Hazel went missing?”
Alice nodded again, “Before she left him. In all the upheaval of what followed, some small incident like a cut finger didn’t seem that important to him. When that got to court the prosecutor claimed it was Alex cleaning up the crime scene and disposing of evidence. Which is how they explained not having the murder weapon or much in the way of forensics. Then they claimed he lied about it when a few drops of blood that he missed were found.”
Steve shook his head slightly as he turned pages in his notebook.
“Hazel’s car,” he said, “They made a big case about some blood found on the carpet in the car. Human blood according to what was stated in the prosecution’s deposition but there doesn’t seem to be any scientific basis for that.”
Alice was shaking her head now.
“There was blood,” she said, “quite a lot of it from what I know, but it was from meat. Alex and Hazel organized a barbecue and Hazel went and bought a load of meat which she put in the back of her Volvo, one the bags leaked, and she was annoyed that it had soaked into the carpet.”
“She cleaned it up?”
“Yes, that’s what she told me. She bought some industrial strength carpet cleaner and gave it a good scrub, you couldn’t see it at all when she had finished. She was still annoyed that it had happened though.
“At the trial the prosecution claimed it was human blood on the carpet but, due to the chemicals in the cleaning products, the blood group couldn’t be matched, and no DNA could be drawn from the sample. They managed to infer that it was Hazel’s blood, which Alex had spilled while transporting her body to dispose of it. And then he had expertly cleaned the mess up.”
“But surely that couldn’t happen? I can’t believe that that could happen surely, they must still be able to tell human blood from animal blood, even after cleaning?”
Steve was tapping his pencil furiously on his notebook.
“The DA said it was human blood, but he didn’t prove it was human blood. So they couldn’t prove that it wasn’t spilled from the barbecue meat either. I suppose that at least it was blood, so they got that right. Some people have been convicted on less than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was helping out with an innocence project last summer and did some research on forensic and scientific evidence in different cases relating to blood and scientific bias.”
“What do you mean by ‘bias’, do you mean that the forensics were wrong, that it wasn’t blood at all? Or that they were biased toward the prosecution and didn’t test it properly?”
“I have no idea what it was,” Steve shrugged his shoulders, “the analysis says there’s a strong probability that it is blood but the sample has been contaminated by a strong industrial cleaner rendering further analysis impossible. You said that Hazel told you that she did spill juice from meat in the car where they found it and she’d cleaned it up with detergent. So, it looks like they did get a reaction from the tests that correctly identified the stain as blood. She must have soaked the area in detergent to leak though to the underlay.”
“But why bias, what do you mean by that?”
Steve looked at her and smiled sadly, “I’m not suggesting anything in this case, I wish that I could but sometimes the science tries to prove the case rather than presenting facts, there’s pressure on forensics to prove a prosecution theory, it may not be on purpose but that’s when things can go badly wrong.”
Alice shook her head, “But blood is blood. If they find blood, then they find it, I understand the matching it to someone could be difficult if the cleaner has changed it but surely it’s blood whatever they say.”
Steve laughed, “You would like to think so wouldn’t you but that’s isn’t always the case. Sometimes what is identified as blood is nothing of the sort, it’s so far from the truth, but people have been convicted by those mistakes.”
“How?”
“A scientist says they found blood, and the prosecution goes along with it. One of the cases I looked into, what they identified as blood in a car was actually what they spray on the underside of a vehicle to muffle and deaden road noise.”
“And someone went to jail for that?” she asked doubtingly.
Steve nodded, “Remember the case in Australia where a woman was camping with her family and her baby went missing and she said she had been taken by a dingo?”
“The wild dogs in the outback?”
“Yep, that’s the one, she was convicted in part because a scientist had found blood in the family car. Not just blood, but fetal blood, so if true it had to be from the baby, right? With that piece of ‘evidence’ they were able to push the theory that the mother had cut her baby’s throat and the blood had sprayed up under the dash where the sample was found, and that arterial pressure was the only way the blood could have got there.
“She was jailed, but on appeal it was found to be this stuff that was sprayed under the car, all cars of the same age had it and most even had the same spray pattern, which was also used as evidence that the baby had been murdered.”
“And they were wrong?”
“It was utter rubbish. There was a minimal amount of blood found, and not fetal. It was bad science and scientific bias: trying to prove something to fit a prosecution theory rather than let the evidence speak for itself. If the science had been correct to start with, she would have never been found guilty.”
“This can’t help Alex though?”
> “No, but it shows how incorrect science, bad analysis, and a prosecution with a warped theory can lead a jury. They are blinded by the science and Miss. the evidence.”
“But what forensics found in Alex’s case is correct?”
“Well, yeah, it looks like it. To be honest, there’s nothing in the forensics that proves Alex guilty or innocent, it’s what it is. The only thing is the blood in the car but forensics were honest when they said it was blood, but the industrial cleaners prevented further analysis, it was the DA that made all the assumptions, pushing the theory to the conclusion that it was Hazel’s blood without proof.”
“So, no bias, no bad science, nothing that can be appealed?
“No, but that doesn’t mean too much in itself. It may be a case of limited science, perhaps the processes at the time couldn’t go any further with the analysis. It’s what the DA did with it that was biased. But he was doing what he was paid to do so we can’t get upset about it. If Alex’s defense team was too slack to even try to counter the rhetoric and the assumptions, and the jury was too stupid to ask the right questions then that’s their fault; not the DA’s. He put it out there and it was accepted. Rightly or wrongly that’s what was believed.”
Alice looked crestfallen and started chewing her bottom lip in that sign of anguish or indecision that Steve was starting to recognize.
He took her by the lower arm and squeezed gently.
“I expected this,” he said, “I expected that there wouldn’t be much in the evidence that we could attack, although I’m surprised at how little there’s in the evidence. What I’m interested in is what’s not in the evidence.”
Chapter Nine
As Alice and Steve walked into the visitors’ area Alex stood slowly and looked at them neutrally. His hopes had been dashed too many times now for great optimism and he wasn’t sure yet whether it was for him or because the guy was interested in Alice.
Alex was torn; go through it all again with this guy—maintain the rage and hope that there was evidence out there to help him, some small shred of something that could prove his innocence, or should he simply give up and save himself from another round of false hope?
Steve and Alex eyed each other like pack animals trying to sort out their alpha status as they shook hands. Sizing each other up they both came to a surprisingly similar conclusion; in different circumstances they could have been good friends.
They sat around the stainless-steel table and Steve glanced around at the visitors’ area that they were in. Depressing surroundings but recognizing, and grateful for the fact, that he could get up and walk out.
Alex sitting opposite wasn’t so lucky.
“Alice tells me that you’re a PI, licensed but you don’t do much in the way of investigating?”
Steve nodded, “True enough, not at the moment, anyway. I got my license because I could, it seemed to fit in with my previous life, I’m studying law and it all came together.”
“You were an investigator in the army?”
Again, Steve nodded.
“And how many murders have you investigated?” Alex asked, knowing the answer already.
Steve looked straight at Alex. He spoke softly but Steve thought that he could see a small glimmer of, if not hope then interest in this new development. There was no point in trying to sugar coat any of this, and he could see where Alex was going with his questions.
“None.”
“So, what makes you think that you can find enough to get me out of here?”
“I don’t know if I can, Alex,” he said bluntly.
“So why?”
Steve was quiet for a moment.
“Alice told me that you were in here after we first met, at first, I was a bit intrigued. I must admit that and when she asked me to have a look at the evidence, well,” he shrugged, “I offered, rather than she asked, but, I suppose initially I did do it to try to impress her. But this isn’t some sort of hobby, I used to do this professionally, I suppose that I still do. Honestly, I didn’t think at first that there would be much in it. You’ve had a trial and a series of appeals, but then I read the evidence …”
“All of it?”
“Pretty much. All of it that matters anyway, I think. I’ve been through the DA’s case and all the other documents, pictures, and statements. I must say that there are precious little of them, so while I have some way to go to cover everything that I would want to cover, I have read enough to get a good grasp of what the evidence presented to the court and the jury amounts to.”
“And?”
“And, there’s not a lot there, everything I have read tells me that the DA’s case was based on his smart personality which he used to swing the jury to his way of thinking. I don’t think that there’s a lot of evidence against you at all, in fact I’d say there was none, nothing concrete, anyway.”
“So, why am I in here then?”
“Three words pretty much sum that up, Alex, Your Defense Sucked. They chased the DA’s game instead of beating their own path. The basic idea of the law is that the prosecution makes an accusation but then has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense can sit back and do nothing, and unfortunately that’s exactly what your team did. Look, reading between the lines, they knew that the DA’s case was weak, but instead of attacking it, they let it roll. I think they believed the jury wouldn’t be convinced that the evidence was enough. They were wrong because the jury only heard one story, the prosecution’s.”
Alex nodded, “You’re right, my lawyers were convinced that the case was so weak that to put up a strong argument would justify the charges. If they ignored the more obvious holes, then the jury would see the flaws in the prosecution’s arguments and be able to see the truth for themselves. At least that’s what they thought.”
Steve nodded, and said sarcastically, “And that worked out so well for you. Juries need leading and there was only one team leading them along.”
Alex laughed and nodded his agreement.
“I read the closing remarks from your counsel and he pointed out the holes in the DA’s case. So yeah, they nibbled away a little at the edges, but they let the DA overstep the mark again and again. By the time it came to the closing remarks, the prosecution’s case became the only story being told, it was already entrenched in the minds of the jury. The defense needed to get in much earlier to kick the DA’s ideas out. Eventually the prosecution’s case came down to diatribe and rhetoric and didn’t amount to anything. The defense didn’t challenge it, that I can see, so it got to the jury. Some jurors would have been swayed from the start by the fact that you were there. There’s a lot of expense in a trial and they don’t charge innocent people do they?”
“And what makes you think that you can do any better than the lawyers I had?”
Steve shrugged his shoulders.
“I can’t do any worse, can I?” he asked.
“I suppose not, but you have to understand something.”
Steve looked at him waiting for him to carry on.
“You are going to spend a lot of time looking into this, I know that, and I thank you for it. I understand how much effort you will put in, but you have to understand that I’m the one in here, in the orange jump suit. I will be investing a lot of emotion into this and while that may not seem a lot, you have to realize that even a chance, a small chance that the truth will come out and I might be released …”
Alex took a breath and looked directly at Steve. “…that, that right there, is what I survive on in here. I have almost given up on that. Well, I had until Alice told me about you. Now I have to drag my bit of hope back out from the little, dark closet I had locked it in for safety. I have to drag it out and brush it down and look at it afresh and give it another go. But if this ends up, like all the other times, a failure, then the dark, little closet gets a lot darker and a whole lot smaller.”
Steve nodded slowly, “I understand.”
“I don’t think that you do. I don’t
think I can stand another failure, so please walk away now. Walk away and don’t feed me bullshit unless you’re sure that there’s something in this, that there’s some sort of hope. If you can do that, I will go along with this, for Alice’s sake as much as mine, but I don’t think that she could survive another failure either.
“She has invested a lot of herself into this, and although the outcomes for her if we fail again is different to mine, it will be bad for her as well. She has suffered as well, and I don’t want my sister hurt anymore.”
“Alex, I do understand something of what you’re saying, I know despair, I’ve seen it before and I’ve seen it in Alice. But you have to know that there’s nothing certain in these matters, nothing at all is certain. You must know that. Through the guilt and unhappiness, you no doubt felt when Hazel left you and then when she disappeared, I’m fairly sure you never thought it would come to this.
“If the whole thing wasn’t so tragic it could be a comedy. But still—I can’t and won’t promise you anything except my best and honest efforts.
“We could find the truth, lay it down in front of the judge with a pretty bow and a DNA sample and a photograph of the guilty person on the top and the DA could fight it. There’s no way he wants to be shown up as being wrong. If he fights everything that we might find out, all the truths that we might have uncovered could be barred from evidence. I know that’s not fair, but that’s how it is sometimes.”
It was Alex’s turn to nod, and he looked slowly at Alice. Her eyes were red, and tears were starting to flow down her cheeks. She reached into her bag and found a packet of tissues which she ripped open and pulled a couple out to dry her eyes and blow her now running nose.
“Bugger,” she said under her breath as she tried to repair the damage. She looked bleary eyed at Alex and nodded her understanding for what he had said, about himself but also about her state as well. One final sniff and she put the tissues away.
