adverse ruling had never occurred. 'We have at least two key witnesses, Your Honor. The first is a social historian, Dr. Tammy Mattox, who will reconstruct Rennell's life history.'
'Is that necessary, counselor? You have the records.'
'We agree,' Pell said promptly. 'We'll stipulate to the admission of all records concerning Mr. Price, whether from school, doctors, or his incarceration in juvenile hall. We're also amenable to affidavits from Rennell's third- grade teacher, and even from Dr. Mattox herself.' His tone became dismissive, that of someone granting a favor. 'Even though what she has to say is hearsay, entirely derived from other people and sources.'
Bond nodded. 'That seems fair enough.'
'It's wholly insufficient,' Terri countered. 'Dr. Mattox interviewed Rennell Price's mother, who is paranoid schizophrenic, and his grandmother, who's bedridden—'
'Concerning what?' Bond asked with muted incredulity. 'What exactly does the resident of a mental institution—or, for that matter, a sick and elderly woman who never testified at trial—have to offer us?'
'Evidence regarding Rennell Price's childhood and adolescence,' Terri answered. 'Including his mental capacity—'
'According to a lunatic?' Bond shot back. 'Let's hope you have someone more edifying than that.'
'To see Rennell's mother,' Terri said firmly, 'is to be edified. Including, if she's willing to share it, the true identity of Rennell's father.'
Bond raised his eyebrows. 'Who might he be?'
'A boy from the neighborhood who she describes as 'slow.' But she won't give his name, and we haven't been able to track him down.'
'Ms. Paget,' Bond remonstrated, 'I cannot imagine listening to an insane woman testify regarding her liaison with a nameless, and perhaps apocryphal, boyfriend. Spare me, please—except by affidavit.'
Leaning forward, Terri tried to keep the anger she felt from showing in her eyes. 'Rennell Price,' she said, 'grew up in the Bayview, the presumed son of a psychotic and abusive father and a deeply troubled mother. His environment was brutal and chaotic. The witnesses to his life will be found not among the friends and acquaintances of those sitting at this table but among people who are—and whom we like to keep—invisible to us. Either we can bring them here or we can have an expert like Dr. Mattox integrate what they told her.
'What Mr. Pell wants is to reduce this case to a jumble of paper, a dry record to which he can apply the 'presumptions' of AEDPA and the presumptive wisdom of the California Supreme Court. It's a way of sanitizing Rennell's death without ever looking at his life. We believe that the most critical evidence of Rennell Price's retardation can be found not in tests but in his life. Which can be knit together only through the narrative of an expert . . .'
'Is your Dr. Mattox a psychiatrist or psychologist?'
'No. She's a Ph.D. in anthropology, which enables her to interpret the impact of Rennell's family and environment—'
'But not his mental condition, I would think.'
'What she has to say,' Terri parried, 'bears on his mental condition. We also have Dr. Anthony Lane, both a psychiatrist and a neuropsychologist, who examined Rennell extensively and whom we wish to call as an expert witness.'
'Then isn't he enough?' Turning to Pell, Bond inquired wryly, 'What say you, Mr. Pell?'
'That the Court's reservations about Dr. Mattox are well taken, and that it can hear Dr. Lane by means of affidavit. And that the Court is correct in observing that this hearing is not a second trial.' Briefly, Pell paused, listening as Janice Terrell murmured a few brief words. 'We do, however, request leave to conduct our own mental examination of Rennell Price, so that Dr. Lane's affidavit is not the only evidence before the Court. In particular, we'd like to administer a second IQ test.'
'Which won't be accurate,' Terri protested. 'It's called the 'practice effect.' Even the retarded do better with repeated testing.'
Pell leaned forward, offering her a sardonic smile before he turned to Bond. 'Which is no doubt why Ms. Paget seems to have given her client every test of mental functioning known to man. So that when our tests prove him not to be retarded, she can claim it's the result of her personal Head Start program.'
Though Terri could not acknowledge it, the accusation was true. 'Since when is thoroughness merely a ploy?' she objected. 'The State's prison clinicians are hardly objective—they're notorious for cookiecutter findings.'
This, as Pell well knew, was also true. ' 'Sauce for the goose,' ' he quoted easily to Bond.
'Agreed. You may have your examination of Mr. Price.'
'May we be present?' Terri asked quickly.
'Why?' Pell shot back. 'We weren't.' Facing Bond, he said, 'To make Ms. Paget more comfortable, we'll record our examination on videotape, and make it available to her and to the Court.'
Larry Pell, Terri conceded, was even more clever than she had thought: in a videotape, Rennell Price would appear to be a dull but normal man, unremarkable in appearance, plodding through his tests—sullen, perhaps, but not retarded. 'So ordered,' Bond said quickly. 'Anything else, Ms. Paget?'
'Yes. The Court should permit us to call Dr. Lane as a witness, and to cross-examine whomever Mr. Pell selects to administer the tests.'
'Very well.' The judge's tone became faintly arid. 'Judge Montgomery has expressed his preference for a hearing, and we must take cognizance of that.'
This gratuitous remark, with its intimation of distaste for Blair Montgomery, unsettled Terri further. 'In that case,' Pell interposed, 'we'd like the chance to cross-examine Rennell Price himself. Nothing can be more pertinent to retardation than for this Court to see him.'
Startled, Terri shot back, 'He's retarded, Larry. That's the whole point.'
