STAMPLER: No, sir.

VAIL: To your knowledge did you kill Bishop Rushman?

STAMPLER: No, sir.

Vail had started early in the trial introducing evidence and testimony implying that Stampler was not alone in the room at the time of the murder. He maintained that his client had blacked out and did not know who the mystery guest was, a contention that was hard to prove but even harder to disprove. William Danielson, the ME, filled in the blanks in his version of the killing, guided by Venable.

VENABLE: Dr Danielson, based on the physical evidence at the scene of the homicide, what is your assessment of this crime?

DANIELSON: That Stampler entered through the kitchen, took off his shoes, removed the nine-inch carving knife from the tray, leaving fibres from his gloves when he did it, went down the hallway to the bedroom, and attacked the bishop. Bishop Rushman fought for his life, as witness the wounds in his hands. He was stabbed, cut, punctured, and sliced seventy-seven times. He had less than a pint of blood in his body after the attack, which is one-twelfth of the normal blood supply in the body.

The first major battle came when Vail tried to keep photographs of the crime scene out of the testimony as prejudicial. He was overruled. The original photographs, unfortunately, were part of the physical evidence that had been misplaced or lost years before, and the copies of the pictures, which were attached with other documents at the end of the transcript, were of poor quality and told St Claire nothing. On the witness stand, Danielson went into detail of all the gruesome aspects of the crime, using a combination of photographs, physical evidence, fibre samples, bloodstains, fingerprints, the number of stab wounds and their locations, the results of certain kinds of wounds, the difference between a stab, a puncture, and an incision, and so on. Venable was painting a mural of horror.

VENABLE: So, Dr Danielson, did you conclude that death can be attributed to several different factors?

DANIELSON: Yes. Body trauma, aeroembolism, cadaveric spasm, several of the stab wounds, exsanguination - that's loss of blood. All could have caused death.

VENABLE: Can you identify which you think was the primary cause?

DANIELSON: I believe it was the throat wound.

VENABLE: Why?

DANIELSON: Because it caused aeroembolism, which is the sudden exit of air from the lungs. This kind of wound is always fatal; in fact, death is usually instantaneous. And this wound was profound. Exsanguination was also a factor.

VENABLE: Loss of blood?

DANIELSON: Yes.

As St Claire read the description, his mind flashed back to the coroner's description of Linda Balfour's body. '… victim was stabbed, cut, and incised 56 times… evidence of cadaver spasm, trauma, and aeroembolism… significant exsanguination from stab wounds… throat wound caused aeroembolism… evidence of mutilation… accomplished by a person or persons with some surgical knowledge…' St Claire's nudge was really kicking in, promoted further by Vail's clarification.

VAIL: The knife entered here, just under the right ear, slashed to just under the left ear, cut through to the spinal column, severed the jugular, all the arteries and veins in his neck, the windpipe, and all muscle and tissue.

Then Vail attacked Danielson's assertion that this throat wound was the one that killed Rushman, once again pursuing the possibility that someone else was in the room with Stampler when the bishop was killed.

VAIL: So… if two of the fatal chest wounds could have been struck by one person and the rest of the wounds by another, it is also possible that one person actually struck the death wound and someone else then stabbed and cut the bishop after he was dead, right?

DANIELSON: I suppose… yes, that's true… but unlikely.

St Claire frequently stopped to scribble notes to himself. He wrote, 'Was another person in the room? Ask Vail? Stenner?' And why was Vail making this point if Stampler was pleading guilty? Was the insanity plea a ploy of some kind? St Claire kept ploughing through the encyclopedia-sized transcripts, skipping occasional exchanges.

VAIL: Aaron, are you familiar with the term 'fugue' or 'fugue state'?

STAMPLER: Yes, sir.

VAIL: What does it mean?

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