spoken regularly with Renshaw, and worked full-time on parole, she
asked one question too many: 'Isn't it true, Mr. Renshaw, that Mr.
Derringer complied fully with the conditions of his parole?' 'Sure,
counselor. I guess you could say he was a model parolee except for the
fact that he kidnapped, raped,
sodomized, and tried to murder a thirteen-year-old girl.' I think I
saw Lesh smile as Lisa leapt to her feet to object.
Her objection was sustained, but the exchange kept Lisa quiet for the
rest of my case-in-chief.
Ten.
I had spent the week presenting my case to the jury, witness by
witness. Building a prison for Frank Derringer with evidence, each
piece stacking upon the last like bricks. Now I was ready to sit back
and watch Lisa Lopez struggle to save face. I wanted it. I wanted it
bad. I tried not to look smug and amused, which I was, when she stood
on Thursday afternoon for her mid-trial opening.
'Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my point is a simple one.' She put
her hands on Derringer's shoulders. 'This man, Frank Derringer, is
innocent.' A simple statement, but it caught the jury's attention.
Lopez walked to the front of the jury box and continued. 'Ms. Kincaid
has done a fine job of presenting evidence the way she wants you to
hear it. But what I want you to hear, and what you will conclude to be
true, is that Frank Derringer finds himself on trial for a crime he
didn't commit because a troubled and confused young girl who has led a
very sad life mistakenly identified him as she was coming out of a
heroin-induced haze.'
Although Lopez conceded that Kendra 'may have been subjected to
horrendous acts,' she went on to remind the jurors of the presumption
of Derringer's innocence and the oath they had taken to evaluate the
evidence dispassionately. But she wasn't just arguing that there would
be a reasonable doubt about Derringer's guilt. She was using the word
innocent repeatedly. The defense's position wasn't just that Derringer
was not guilty in the legal sense because the State couldn't make its
case, but that he was factually innocent. Jurors feel better about
acquitting someone they believe is innocent, but Lisa's strategy was
risky. It's harder to prove innocence than to establish reasonable
doubt.
Lisa's quiet, contemplative tone became more urgent as she talked to
the jurors about Derringer's alibi. Then she shifted her theme. 'By
the end of this trial, you will realize that Kendra Martin is a victim,
but my client is as well. In fact, I believe that we will prove to you
that both Mr. Derringer and Miss Martin are victims of the same
wrongdoing.'
I tried to maintain my typical trial composure, looking as bored as
possible while the defense presents its case. But for the life of me,
I couldn't figure out where Lisa was going with her statement.
'The wrongdoing that has brought Kendra Martin, Frank Derringer, and
all of us together began about four years ago. Four years ago,
Portland police officers found the body of another troubled young girl
named Jamie Zimmerman in the Columbia Gorge. Jamie wasn't as lucky as
Kendra. She was murdered strangled after being raped and beaten. Like
Miss Martin, Jamie was a drug addict who supported her habit through
occasional prostitution. Like Ms. Martin, she was raped and
sodomized. Police found Jamie's badly decomposed body less than a mile
from where Kendra Martin was located. Ms. Kincaid mentioned that
whoever committed this crime took Kendra's purse. Well, guess what,
ladies and gentlemen? Whoever killed Jamie Zimmerman took her purse
too, and it was never recovered.
'Those are enough similarities that you're probably thinking to
yourself right now that the two crimes might be connected. You'd
certainly think our police would at least look into it, especially when
you learn that the same detectives who testified in this case
investigated Jamie Zimmerman's murder.'
I was seething. How the hell did Lopez think she was going to get away
with blind siding me this way? I didn't know every detail of the Jamie
Zimmerman investigation, but I knew enough to recognize that Lopez was
trying to take advantage of that case's recent revival in the media to
confuse the jury. I also knew that she had never bothered to mention
to me that her defense had anything to do with the Zimmerman case.
There was nothing I could do, though, without playing into Lisa's hand.
Any outburst from me would only add dramatic emphasis to her opening
statement. So I sat there quietly while Lisa told the jurors about
Margaret Landry and Jesse Taylor and their protestations of innocence,
the recent letter to the Oregonian confessing to Jamie Zimmerman's
murder, and a supposed conspiracy among Portland police to conceal the
truth.
'Because a jury didn't hear the truth about that case three years ago,
innocent people were convicted. I don't want you to make the same
mistake. I don't want you to convict an innocent person. So I'm going
to make sure you get all the evidence. You're going to hear not only
how the police messed up the Zimmerman case, but also how those same
detectives have bungled this investigation. They don't want to admit
that they missed a killer four years ago, and they don't want to admit
that they've got the wrong person again now.
