The Vendetta Defense

the imagination working its wizardry. By the time Dr. Patel was finished, Santoro was pulling out autopsy photos like a proud father.

Judy half rose. “Objection, Your Honor, as to prejudice.”

“Overruled,” Judge Vaughn said. It was by now established law that the Commonwealth had the right to gross out the jury.

“Thank you, Your Honor,” Santoro said, and he moved the exhibits into evidence without further objection. He set the first one before Dr. Patel and broadcast it on the overhead projector. “Dr. Patel, you see before you Commonwealth Exhibit Ten. Is this, in fact, the body of the deceased, Angelo Coluzzi?”

“It is.”

“Dr. Patel, did you form an opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, as to the cause of death of Angelo Coluzzi?”

“I did.”

“What was your opinion, Doctor?”

“I found that it was homicide, and that the cause of death was a fracture to the spinal column, at C3, in the cervical vertebra.”

“And how did you determine this, Doctor?”

“By inspection and by X ray.”

Santoro looked grave, and Judy had the sense that he’d practiced. “What was the mechanism of death, sir?”

“Death resulted from a blunt-force injury, that is, a rapid forward snap that broke the neck. Death was instantaneous.”

Santoro nodded. “Dr. Patel, just so the jury understands, when is this type of injury often seen?”

“This injury is similar to the whiplash type of injury one sees in auto accidents, when a car is struck from behind, or even in child abuse cases, with so-called Shaken Baby Syndrome. In this family of injury, undue stresses are placed on the cervical spine, and it ruptures, as it did in the case of the deceased.”

Judy made a note. She should have objected but she hadn’t seen it coming. She didn’t want Angelo Coluzzi equated with a baby in the jury’s mind.

Santoro changed to a slide of the top half of Angelo Coluzzi’s body, showing the neck and shoulders. The head was hideously askew. The jury reacted instantly. “Dr. Patel, I show you Commonwealth Exhibit Eleven. What does this view tell us?”

“It shows the looseness of the neck, which is clearly at an abnormal angle, as it is now severed from the shoulders. A broken neck can be difficult to detect. There is often little bruising, so X rays are indicated to confirm the conclusion.”

Santoro showed the slide of an X ray, which he moved into evidence, and Judy didn’t object, as repetitive as it was. She would lose anyway, and in fact the X ray was abstract in a way the photographs weren’t, reducing the whole human being to a black-and-white segment. If anything, it was a relief from the autopsy photos, and the jury returned to the fold. Judy bet Santoro wouldn’t have it up there long.

“Dr. Patel, I now show you Commonwealth Exhibit Twelve. What does this teach us?”

Dr. Patel shifted around and lifted a steel pointer from the witness stand. “As you can see, the human vertebrae interlock almost like a thick chain, except that one of the links has been broken.” He pointed to a break in the chain. “It determines positively that the spinal column has been broken.”

“Thank you.” Santoro nodded. “I have no further questions.”

Judy stood up, armed with notes and a report from an expert osteopath she had worked with in preparation for trial. “Good afternoon, Dr. Patel. My name is Judy Carrier, and if you recall, I was present at the postmortem of Mr. Coluzzi.”

“Yes, hello, Ms. Carrier.” Dr. Patel smiled.

“I have only a few questions for you. Dr. Patel, do you recall the age of Angelo Coluzzi at the time of his death?”

Dr. Patel nodded. “He was eighty, I believe.”

“In your opinion, how are the bones of an eighty-year-old man different from those of, let’s say, a thirty- year-old man?”

“Well, the bone mass of older people is, in general, markedly different from that of younger people. Bones become more brittle as we age. They lose mass and resiliency.” Dr. Patel cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably in his chair when he looked in Santoro’s direction. Judy could guess that the D.A. wasn’t happy with the lecture, but Dr. Patel was his own man, a dangerous thing in an expert.

“Specifically, how is the spine of an eighty-year-old man different from that of, let’s say, a thirty-year-old man?”

“Like other bones, the spine weakens with age in general, becoming more fragile. This is because the vertebrae lose some of their mineral content, making each bone thinner. Also, between each pair of vertebrae, the inter-vertebral disk, a gel-like cushion, loses fluid gradually, making these thinner as well. The spinal column therefore becomes curved and compressed. In addition, as we age, the likelihood of arthritis and osteoarthritis increases.”

Bingo. Judy paused. She had hired an expert of her own, a gerontologist she hoped she didn’t have to call, if she could get the evidence now. “And is it true that Angelo Coluzzi’s cervical vertebrae shows these typical signs of aging?”

“It is.”

“And isn’t it also true that he had signs of osteoarthritis in his cervical spine?”

“He did. The deceased had signs of arthritis in his neck and also signs of osteoarthritis, which is not uncommon in that age group. By age sixty-five, most people experience pain and stiffness in their joints. Osteoarthritis occurs with equal frequency in men and women. The hands and knees are more commonly involved in women and the hips in men. But it can exist in the neck, too, as in Mr. Coluzzi’s case.”

“And isn’t it true that these conditions—his age, his arthritis, and his osteoarthritis—would make it easier to break his neck than the neck of a younger, healthier, man?”

Santoro was on his feet. “Objection, relevance,” he said, but Judge Vaughn was already shaking his head over his papers at the dais.

“Overruled.” The judge returned to listening to the testimony, his chin in his large hand.

Judy nodded at Dr. Patel. “You may answer.”

“Yes, Mr. Coluzzi’s age and his osteoarthritis would render his neck fairly susceptible to such an injury.”

Judy decided to press it. “Before, Dr. Patel, you testified that his injury was like a whiplash injury from a car accident or Shaken Baby Syndrome from child abuse. Did I hear you correctly?”

“Yes.”

“But, just so the jury isn’t confused, isn’t it true that it would take far less than both of these examples to break the neck of Angelo Coluzzi, especially given his ailments and his age?”

“Yes, of course.” Dr. Patel turned to address the jury directly, as Judy was praying he would. “I didn’t mean to confuse anyone. I only meant to say this was in the same family of types of injury, not that it was caused the same way. The injury to the deceased could occur with very little force or violence, and it could happen in an instant.”

“As if, in a scuffle?” Judy offered, but Santoro was on his loafers.

“Objection, Your Honor, as to relevance.”

“Overruled,” Judge Vaughn said wearily, and Santoro sat down. It was more than Judy had hoped for. Her karma banks were kicking in. It must have been the pantyhose. Anybody who had to wear pantyhose every day deserved a break from the cosmos.

“You were saying, Dr. Patel. Could this type of injury, on an eighty-year-old man with osteoarthritis and arthritis, have occurred in a scuffle?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, Dr. Patel,” Judy said, and meant it. She wouldn’t even need to call her own expert later. She had gotten what she needed from the Commonwealth’s. “No further questions.” Judy grabbed her notes and sat down as Santoro got up hastily and commanded the podium.

“Dr. Patel,” he asked, “could this injury also be caused by a violent push from the front, as in an