this case clearance was purely utilitarian.
'Maybe it's not too late for you to get the look,' I told him. 'Is
Jackson talking?'
'Doesn't look like it. He's the type who would have, but once the mom
was done giving Johnson the black-pride trip, she started in on Melvin
about a lawyer.' Walker slipped back into his Mama Jackson routine.
''Don't you be talkin' to that Uncle Tom and his cracker-ass police
buddies. You get yo'self a public defender.' Before you know it,
Melvin's lawyering up.'
'How clear was it?' I asked. Thanks to the Supreme Court, the police
are allowed to ignore a suspects reference to an attorney if it's
ambiguous.
'Couldn't get any fucking clearer: 'I want a lawyer.' '
The four magic words. We couldn't touch him. If we were going to get
anything else out of him, it would have to be through his
court-appointed lawyer.
'It's all right,' I said. 'We don't need it. The statements he made
before he invoked will come in, and they look bad, especially with the
threats. Assuming the crime lab finds the vies blood on the hammer,
he's done.'
'I got to say, given our fuckup earlier, it felt good to nail the
bastard. Johnson's down there now booking him at MCDC, and I'm writing
up the reports.' Jackson would spend the night in the Multnomah County
Detention Center so he could be arraigned tomorrow morning. 'We're
both running on empty right now and have a back load of comp time. Call
us tomorrow if you need follow-up, but I don't think either of us will
be at the precinct. My wife's gonna leave me if I don't eat a meal
with her and the girls soon.'
'She'd rather have you at the house than the OT? Must be true love,
Walker.' And it was, too. Take a look around a detective squad, and
the cubicles are filled with comically enhanced mug shots, doctored rap
sheets, and the occasional pinup. Walker's is filled with photographs
of his wife, Sandy, and their houseful of daughters. I'd never met
them, but I'd followed their lives through pictures from the wedding
day to their Six Flags vacation last August.
'Still don't know how I got so lucky.' I was touched that Walker would
express that kind of sentiment to me. Then came the follow-up. 'From
what I hear, I could've wound up with a prick like Roger
Kirkpatrick.'
'Just for that, Walker, I'm starting a list of tomorrow's follow-up
work. Some for you for saying that, and some for Johnson for telling
you about it.'
We both got a laugh out of it. 'See?' he said. 'I wouldn't have said
it if I didn't think you could handle it.'
'Sure you would.' These guys think I don't know what they put some of
my coworkers through. 'Now get some sleep and enjoy your day off.
We've got more than enough for arraignment tomorrow. Just tell the
crime lab to call Chuck or Mike with the lab results, OK?'
'Done. You're going Agg Murder, right?'
With what we had, proving Jackson killed Clarissa wouldn't be hard. But
to get an aggravated murder conviction, I'd need to prove that the
murder occurred under one or more special circumstances.
I knew what Walker was really asking, but answered the question
narrowly to avoid the discussion. 'I'll plead it tomorrow as an agg,
probably based on the vic's status as a judge.'
Walker wasn't interested in legal theories. He knew you could file
aggravated murder charges without seeking the ultimate sanction. 'But
will your office go for the death penalty?'
'I'm sure that will be discussed. Whatever happens, it won't be my
decision.'
It was the same cop-out I used whenever I wondered what would happen if
I ever got a death penalty case, and I tried to find comfort in it as I
hung up the phone. As opinionated as I am, this issue is one of the
few that leaves me scurrying up the nearest fence.
When I finally fell back asleep, it was only because I convinced myself
that Jackson's sad circumstances and lack of a prior criminal record
would limit the stakes of the case to a life sentence.
Seven.
It was there in the pile of custodies the next morning. My first Major
Crimes Unit call-out had been cleared and was ready for issuing. Unit
rules be damned; I grabbed the file off Alice Gerstein's desk so I
could prep the complaint against Melvin Jackson before turning to my
screening cases.
For now, I kept the complaint simple, one count of aggravated murder
and one alternative count of plain old garden-variety murder. Pleading
the case as an agg murder requires a special circumstance. If Jackson
killed Clarissa during the commission of either a kidnapping or rape,
