Free Bear Is Broken by Lachlan Smith

down and open my
eyes. I had to take a deep breath. I had to swim.
    “Ladies and Gentlemen,” I began, “I want to thank you for your
service in this difficult case.” I had to pause for breath. “I’m not going
to tell you how this case should come out. It’s not my job to do your
thinking for you. You heard the evidence, you saw the witnesses. Often
in these cases we have expert witnesses who come in and tell the jury
all about some technical aspect. Forensics, fingerprint analysis, that
sort of thing. But in this case you are the experts. This case does not
hinge on chemical analysis or accident reconstruction or any of those
things. This case hinges on human nature, on basic questions like who
has a motive to lie and what that person stands to gain. And every one
of you, based on your lifetime of experience as a human being, is an
expert in human nature.”
    My pants had not fallen down. My voice had not cracked. I was
starting to feel as if I could breathe again. “The night before last I had
a chance to listen to my brother practice the closing statement he was
planning to give.” I waited half a beat for an objection, since I was
arguably appealing for personal sympathy from the jurors, but Melanie
kept her seat. “Yesterday afternoon he was planning to stand where I’m
standing now and tell you that the one of those two women, either
Lorlee Bradley or Sharla Johnson, sat in that witness stand, took an oath
to tell the truth, and then immediately began to tell the most fabulous
lies. Now, I don’t know about you, but I cringed when I heard that. I
like to think the best of people. When a person’s story doesn’t square
with the truth I like to tell myself that human memory is uncertain, that
my fellow citizens make mistakes and don’t intentionally lie, especially
not in a courtroom when they’ve taken an oath to tell the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth, under the penalty of perjury.
    “In this case, however, it simply isn’t possible that we’re dealing with
just a mistake, given that the testimony of these women is diametrically
opposed.” I gave a summary of the differences. “With the contradictions
between these women’s stories, there are only two possible conclusions.
    Either Lorlee invented the rape accusation to get back at Ellis
and get custody of her kids, lying about it when she called the police
and lying again here in court. Or Sharla Johnson came in here in a
matter in which she has no direct stake in the outcome, took the oath,
and lied about those phone conversations with Lorlee in which Lorlee
admitted making up the rape.
    “Now, I’m not going to tell you who lied and who told the truth.
I’m sure you can guess what I think, but that’s beside the point. The
point is what you think, what you heard, what you saw, and what you
know. You heard those two witnesses testify. You listened to their words
and you listened to the sound of their voices. You watched their faces,
and you noticed the way they held themselves. With all your lifetime’s
knowledge of human nature, you know in your heart of hearts which
one was lying and which one was telling the truth. That knowledge
may sit well with you, or it may not. You may feel in your mind that
my client is a scoundrel for having an affair with his wife’s best friend,
and it would be hard not to agree with you. But that’s not what you’re
here to decide today, whether Ellis Bradley is a scoundrel. What you’re
here to decide is whether the DA proved beyond a reasonable doubt
that he raped his wife and beat her on those specific occasions named
in the charges.
    “It’s the DA’s burden to prove her case beyond a reasonable doubt.
This means that if at any point in the DA’s chain of proof you have a
doubt, and a reason for that doubt, you must vote to acquit Mr. Bradley.
In that sense your job is easy. If you have a doubt, and you have a
reason, you’re finished. That’s the safeguard that’s built into