Just Cause Page #2

I've read it.

I'm impressed.

Good.

I've always been that climb-out crab.

My mother OD'd on heroin

when I was 13 up in Newark.

Grandma got me and brought me here.

I was high school valedictorian.

I got a full scholarship to Cornell, but...

...they treated me like an outsider.

How do you like Grandma?

She's something else.

She's very determined.

But why did you send her up to see me?

Because you are from a small town,

like me.

Fife, Scotland. First in your family

to attend a university.

Magna from Cambridge. Columbia Law.

Youngest assistant DA, 1960-69.

Joined a law firm, 1970.

1980 to the present...

...Harvard professor of law...

...author of Process and Law,

and six books since.

I've read them all.

Enough.

Let's start.

Joanie Shriver.

The victim.

Eleven years old. White girl.

Snatched from the Ochopee

Elementary School, March 4, 1986.

Found a day later, raped and cut up

in the Glades.

A teacher ID'd the car

as somewhat like mine.

Officer Tanny Brown come and lock me up.

- I read the transcript.

- I'll tell you this:

Down here, if the chief head-banger

takes a dislike to you...

...your ass is his.

He's a n*gger who likes being a big fish...

He's black?

Yes.

In the new South, they've got black cops

to torment your black ass.

It's called affirmative action.

Tell me about your confession.

My confession?

I was slapped.

I was punched.

Beaten with a phone book.

Made to piss myself, kicked.

Then Officer Brown...

...walked in.

Tanny, wait.

J.T., I need you to back me up

on this one here.

Pretty Robert Earl.

I want to ask you...

Last time.

I told you. I swear.

I don't know this girl.

I have no reason to lie. I don't know her.

Come on, talk to me.

Come on, stop.

What did you say to her?

How'd you get her in the car? Say, "Ah."

Talk to me.

Talk to me.

I hate pretty motherfuckers like you.

I don't know no Joanie Shriver.

Pretty motherf***er, talk to me.

Ain't so pretty now, are you?

They had me in there 22 hours.

No food, no water, no sleep.

No bathroom.

You drove her...

...to an isolated section of the Everglades...

...approximately two and a half miles

southeast of her home.

Yes.

Did you drive her to that location...

...with the full intent to kidnap, rape...

...sodomize and kill her?

Speak into the microphone.

Yes.

You feel better now, don't you?

You're a strange fruit, Robert Earl.

Strange fruit, indeed.

I'd have confessed to anything.

They spoon-fed me to the Row.

It's your word against theirs.

I didn't do it.

She's a pretty thing, but you couldn't tell it

when they brought her in.

Bobby Earl was a very angry boy.

Parts of her chest and abdomen were

so badly damaged...

...hard to tell how many times

she was stabbed.

The cuts were...

...long, shallow at the ends,

deep in the middle.

The wounds curved upward.

- A half-moon shape.

- Like a scimitar?

Yeah.

But miniature.

I'd say six inches, hilt to tip.

Your autopsy report...

...states that the girl was raped.

But there's no record of any semen.

There wasn't any.

There wasn't?

No. She was penetrated.

With no semen, how did you establish

the O-positive blood?

We got that from the teeth and gums.

You said you examined Bobby Earl's hand...

...and found cuts that could be attributed

to teeth marks.

That's right.

You never matched the dental plate

to the cuts.

I didn't need to, once he confessed.

Did you know he was beaten for 22 hours

before he gave his confession?

So he says.

The cuts on his hand could have been

from the beating.

How convenient.

Armstrong?

Yes.

I'm Detective Wilcox.

Spoke on the phone about hooking up

with Tanny Brown?

Yes. J.T. Wilcox.

That's right.

Tanny said he'd hook up with you

this afternoon if you're still around.

Anything I can do?

If you have time later, thank you.

You got a busy afternoon lined up,

Mr. Armstrong.

Some people to see, yes.

Ever been here before?

No.

Come on. It's a nice little town.

How's old Bobby Earl doing?

He's holding it together.

"Holding it together."

I'd expect he would be

"holding it together."

Cold-hearted son of a b*tch.

Stayed right frosty to the end.

Get that vehicle back in the street, Charlie.

That's the last time I'll tell you.

Sorry, J.T.

Then he just started spitting it out,

like a goddamn machine.

Scared me to death.

Scared you to death?

What did Bobby Earl tell you?

About the bare-assed light bulb

at 4:
00 a.m.?

I beat on him with a rubber hose?

How about a phone book?

White pages or yellow pages?

Mr. Armstrong?

Now, you listen to me.

Do you think if I'd gotten physical

with Bobby Earl...

...he wouldn't be wearing my anger

all over him at that arraignment?

What do you think, Professor?

I'm impressed.

You have a nice day now.

Harvard University. Do tell.

I'm a graduate of Florida State.

Bobby Earl Ferguson.

Change of venue, denied.

Motion to suppress a confession, denied.

Objection to an all-white jury, overruled.

Noted for the record.

I said, "You'll have to plead guilty,

take a 25-year hit.

"You'll have a life left when you come out."

He says, "But, sir, I didn't do it."

So he made you go to trial?

This matching blood statement

by Dr. Doliveau...

...why didn't you challenge it?

Even us backwoods

Florida State Law School alumni know...

...that an O-positive match

doesn't mean anything...

...unless you get genetic screening

or an enzyme-base analysis.

You just narrowed it down

to 40 million suspects.

How did this testimony

survive cross-examination?

Half the people in the courtroom knew

that woman well.

She's known here as a very fine physician.

And a doctor is a god.

You know that.

Pathetic.

Jury didn't care.

I'll tell you, worst thing in that courtroom

was Bobby Earl himself.

He sat there, day after day,

looking guilty as hell.

It's not a popularity contest.

I find that a naive statement, Counselor.

Is that what you teach your law students:

"The truth will prevail"?

When's the last time you tried a case?

It's been 25 years.

Does that make you feel better?

Hell.

Hang dog, show dog,

I don't think it'd make any difference...

...if Bobby Earl was

a 6'4" golden-haired Caucasian...

...who just quarterbacked Florida State

past Miami, 62-0 in the Cotton Bowl.

That jury won't disregard

the boy's own words.

His confession was coerced.

Why didn't you get an expert

to analyze his voice on tape?

I tried, sir.

Truly, I tried.

I know my job, Mr. Armstrong.

What you're not hearing is the fact...

...that people were sick with grief

over that poor little girl.

They wanted their revenge!

The end.

Mr. McNair.

Many thanks for your time.

No matter what you think...

...I defended that boy pro bono because

everybody has a right to legal counsel.

I paid for it dearly. I've lost half

my business because I tried to defend him.

And he got the chair.

Imagine what it'd be like for me here

if I'd gotten him acquitted.

We always have a teacher here

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