failures: like many of his peers, he stopped trying.'
'What other evidence do you have for that?' Pell asked.
'Interviews with the prison guards.' Before continuing, Kuhl returned to the witness stand. 'In their observation, Rennell can count money, write and address cards to his grandmother, and answer questions in a coherent manner. One guard reports seeing Rennell reading a sports magazine.'
He was looking at the pictures, Terri thought. But she could do nothing; against her will, a version of Rennell Price had materialized in the courtroom, and it was not the one she knew.
'Do still other factors,' Pell pursued, 'support your opinion that Rennell Price is not retarded?'
'The crime itself.' Kuhl began rubbing his fingertips again. 'You've already reviewed the facts established at the trial with Dr. Lane. Taken together, they suggest a course of action which was rational, purposeful, and aware . . .'
And a total fiction, Terri thought.
'As well as,' Kuhl continued, 'evincing a fully functional awareness of the need to hide Thuy Sen's body, and the consequences of getting caught.'
Frozen, the Sen family watched and listened, a triptych of grief and loss, pleading with their eyes for Gardner Bond to exact a final measure of justice. 'Payton and Rennell Price,' Kuhl concluded, 'both knew what they had done. That's why they recruited Eddie Fleet. That's why Rennell Price dumped that child's corpse. And that's why —with utter rationality—Rennell denied his own involvement. These are not the acts of a man too dull to cope.'
'Thank you,' Pell said briskly. 'That's all I've got for you.'
TWELVE
BASED ON HER EXPERIENCE, TERRI TENDED TO DIVIDE EXPERT witnesses into three categories—professionals, who formed their opinions with care; ideologues, who testified according to their beliefs about the death penalty; and whores, who said anything for money. She saw Davis Kuhl as a curious combination—committed enough to be an ideologue, flexible enough in his advocacy to qualify as a whore. Her challenge was to reveal both tendencies so plainly that Bond could not dismiss them.
Rising to cross-examine, she asked without preface, 'Do you have your own practice, Dr. Kuhl?'
Kuhl summoned a look of sincere interest. 'If you're asking whether I see patients privately, the answer is no.'
'In other words, every person you examine is either a defendant or a prisoner.'
'Yes.'
Terri rested a hand on the defense table. 'Have you ever testified on behalf of a defendant, or a prisoner?'
'No.'
'Of the over five hundred prisoners on death row at San Quentin Prison, how many have you met—either during the original trial or through a habeas corpus proceeding?'
Kuhl steepled his fingers. 'I'd say between fifty and sixty.'
'In what context?'
'Primarily to determine whether they were legally insane, or mentally retarded.'
'And, in your opinion, how many of those you examined for insanity were, in fact, insane?'
'None.'
'How many instances of mental retardation did you find?'
'None.'
Still not moving, Terri smiled. 'So finding Rennell Price retarded would have spoiled an otherwise perfect record?'
At the prosecution table, Larry Pell stirred, seeming to search for an objection. Kuhl glanced toward him, then answered. 'That's not how I view it, Ms. Paget. In the case of Rennell Price, I could not, as a forensic psychologist, conclude that he was mentally retarded.'
'As a 'forensic psychologist,' do you deal with any potentially retarded people outside the legal system?'
'No.'
Terri cocked her head. 'What is the professionally accepted measure for an average IQ?'
Kuhl began rubbing his fingertips together. 'One hundred is the usual measure.'
'Are you aware that the average IQ among death row inmates at San Quentin falls in the mid-eighties?'
Kuhl paused. 'I've read that. I can't verify it.'
'Really? So you have no opinion as to whether the average IQ on death row is different from that of the population as a whole?'
Kuhl placed his steepled fingers to his chin. 'It may well be.'
'But, presumably, you've never met a single death row inmate you'd consider to be mentally retarded?'
'Not in the cases where I've been asked to evaluate that question.'
'How many of those cases have you had?'
