Free The Advocate's Devil by Alan M. Dershowitz Page A

it over with. I certainly did. And I was out of there
     like a bat out of hell.”
    “Did she ask you to stay?”
    “No, but I think she wanted to talk about it. I sure as hell didn’t.”
    “Did she accuse you of anything before you left?”
    “No, except with her eyes. Her eyes accused me of insensitivity, and my eyes admitted guilt.”
    “I think that’s enough for now,” Abe said, again looking at his watch. “We have a busy day tomorrow. Not on your case. On
     a death row case we have in New Jersey. On our way back, we’ll drop by to see you in New York. We can go over the next steps
     in the case. In the meantime, think of anything else that could be helpful. Investigative leads, witnesses, anything. When’s
     your next game?”
    “Saturday night. Cleveland. Tough team. Great city.”
    With that Campbell seemed to turn off his concern about the case. When the waiter brought the food the three men rehashed
     the game. What a kick to be reviewing an NBA game with one of the players, Abe thought. He couldn’t wait to fill Emma in on
     Campbell’s analysis of the third quarter. That pleasant task would have to await his return from his morning visit to New
     Jersey’s death row.

Chapter Five
    T RENTON —F RIDAY, M ARCH 17
    The sight of a prison housing death row always sent shivers down Abe’s spine. The idea of a state deliberately taking a human
     life was incomprehensible to him, especially in light of his skepticism about the accuracy of the criminal justice system.
     Now he knew for sure that at least one innocent man was scheduled to be strapped onto a gurney and injected with an infernal
     chemical concoction designed specifically to snuff out life. The prison in this instance was an imposing gray building surrounded
     by bright silver barbed wire. When the morning sun reflected off the glistening metal, it created the appearance of a heavenly
     halo, masking what Abe knew was a hellish reality inside the walls.
    Death row, Abe thought as he contemplated his visit with Charlie O., was more alive than Haskel’s house. At least there was
     hope that some of the young men would survive. New Jersey had a fairly liberal supreme court, and although state law authorized
     capital punishment for murderers, the courts had deprived the executioner of his designated victims several times in recent
     years. In fact, no one had actually been executed in New Jersey for several decades.
    Charlie’s case was different. He had killed a black man. Since the opponents of capital punishment had long argued that no
     one in America was ever executed for killing blacks, Charlie made a good case for the state. Almost everyone who believed
     in capital punishment wanted Charlie Odell to die. It would make an important statement.
    Even Charlie wanted to die—or he had before he started taking his medicine. Now he wanted to live. He wanted Abe to keep him
     alive until he could prove his innocence.
    Charlie had never once deviated from his original story, a case of mistaken identity. He was doing a drug deal downtown in
     Newark at the time of the Williams murder. He was blocks away. Of course, the guy he was selling drugs to—his alibi witness—would
     never come forward. Charlie wanted Abe to look for another skinny black kid with an overbite like his.
    And Abe had done just that. He had hired a black private investigator from Newark to comb the city. No luck. Newark was a
     place where people came to hide for a while—to blend into the neighborhood—and then leave. There were lots of transients,
     especially in the world of crime. If there were another skinny black kid with an overbite who’d actually killed Williams,
     the PI finally reported to Abe, he was probably gone by now.
    After they parked, the two attorneys locked their valuables in the car they had rented at the Philadelphia airport. This was
     mandatory for visitors to death row. No one was allowed to carry anything into the prison. Guards even searched