The Star Chamber Page #4

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is sufficient reason

to suspect the presence of contraband.

Mr. Hingle,

the Deputy District Attorney is correct.

I wasn't referring to the search.

If the Deputy District Attorney had

taken the time out to check her records...

she would have found

that the outstanding warrants...

for the unpaid traffic tickets were invalid.

Mr. Monk paid those tickets

more than a month ago.

Since the state was forced to lay off

a number of clerical employees...

the vehicular records have been way behind...

as much as 60 days in some cases.

Now the District Attorney's office knows it.

Your Honor,

those officers were acting in good faith.

They were told that a warrant existed.

It doesn't matter whether

they were acting in good faith or not.

The simple fact of the matter

is they had no warrant.

My clients were illegally detained.

The result of that detention

was the search of the van.

Your Honor,

the police did everything properly.

You can't suppress this evidence because of...

of a clerical error.

I'm gonna take this under submission.

And if either of you have case authorities

that you feel are relevant...

I'll be very glad to hear them

in my chambers.

I'm gonna rule on this motion tomorrow morning

at 10:
00 a. m. Until then, court is recessed.

Your Honor,

the principal piece of evidence is that shoe...

a child's sneaker

that belonged to Daniel Lewin...

covered with Daniel Lewin's blood.

It's the major link

between the defendants and the crime.

And if we aren't allowed to present it...

the people may not have a strong enough case

to secure a conviction.

If Your Honor grants the motion to suppress...

that would be the same thing

as dismissing this case.

The motion from the defense

concerns itself with police procedure.

There is a question here

whether or not this was a proper search.

Your Honor,

this is a case involving the torturing...

the sexual molesting...

and the murder of a little boy.

There is reason to believe

that this case also involves...

similar horrors

committed against other children.

I know how serious this is.

Maybe you should have realized how

serious it was when you presented your case.

You've done fairly sloppy work here.

You've hinged everything on a piece

of evidence obtained in a shaky search...

and now you drop it in my lap. Terrific!

I will not allow something that I know

is gonna be overturned by the appellate court.

Now, Mr. Hingle here is doing his job,

I'm trying to do mine...

and I would suggest

that you do yours a little bit better.

- Your Honor, I...

- Do you have a case authority to bring me?

Do you? Because if you don't...

I'm not gonna sit here and listen to you

tell me how serious this is.

Now, I'm gonna try to find

some precedent, some case...

some decision that could

possibly justify this evidence.

And I'll give you my answer

tomorrow at 10:
00.

- Thank you, Your Honor.

- Your Honor.

Judge Hardin!

Judge Hardin, please, can I talk to you?

- I have something I want you to see.

- What is it?

It's a photograph of a boy.

He's a 10-year-old fourth-grader.

His front teeth are too big

and his hair falls on his face.

Are you Dr. Lewin?

I was Dr. Lewin. I'm not anyone now.

The school sent us these pictures.

They wanted to know

how many we were gonna order.

How many 5-by-7's, how many wallet-sizes.

We took 'em all. I want you to have one.

I'm sorry. I can't take this.

Why not? Might help in your deliberations.

Might help you decide

whether these men go free or not.

Dr. Lewin, please try to understand this.

I am not deciding how guilty

or not guilty these two men are.

Now, I'm sure your son was a wonderful boy.

And I know how you must fe...

No, I don't.

I don't have any idea how you must feel.

Could we sit down for a minute, please?

I have to rule on a point of law...

that has nothing to do

with these two defendants.

It's only concerned with how

a particular piece of evidence was obtained.

My wife, uh,

she has to be sedated all the time.

She says she can hear Danny screaming.

We had to move out of the house.

She kept going into Danny's room.

I had to get her away from that.

How can someone torture a child?

How do you erase that sound from your head?

Those two are creatures.

They're not human beings.

Look at the photograph.

That was my little boy,

not a plaintiff or a statute.

That is my little boy.

He's not a point of law.

Look at the goddamn photograph!

I understand how you feel.

I really do.

But I only deal with the law.

What about justice?

Do you ever deal with that?

Does that ever fit into this little

crossword puzzle that you call the law?

You're so worried about the rights

of those two monsters!

What about my little Danny's rights?

You don't escape so easily.

You don't run and hide so easy.

You take this photograph and you look at it!

That's what this is all about.

Nothing else.

Nothing else.

- He's a lightweight.

- I don't agree.

- A lightweight.

- I grant you that Harvard Law School...

doesn't wait with bated breath

for his next decision.

But he's a solidjudge who does his homework,

and he's a stable man.

I'm sure he's very nice to his cocker spaniel,

but that's not good enough.

Now look, we can argue all night long.

It's not gonna do us any good.

It also won't erase the fact...

that we have a vacancy

created by Culhane's death.

It won't go away...

and we're not a full court till it does.

Now, we have to find a man.

Granted, it must be the right man.

However, we have an obligation to find him.

What about your friend, Hardin?

- He's good.

- Is he ready?

He's close.

Uh, when will you talk with him?

- Soon.

- What does "soon" mean?

It means not in the next 10 minutes

and before late.

- You will talk with him?

- Yeah.

Yeah. He's very close.

It's not working anymore.

All the catch phrases,

all the bromides that get you through the day.

It's just not working anymore.

I feel like I'm on the wrong side.!

Jesus Christ! It's all upside-down.

My first day in law school,

I went to the library, you know?

And there were all of those books,

and they were tan and red...

and they had gold writing,

and they smelled so good.

It was... It was like

I was looking at the truth...

right up there in all those rows.

The truth.

The law.

You even got to say it in a deep voice...

like you're in, uh,

some kind of echo chamber.

"The law. " Nothing is right or wrong!

It's either the law or it's not the law.

Well, we got a problem here, because, uh...

it's... it's not working anymore.

It turns out that right and wrong count.

He's Max's age.

The last thing he ever felt was torture.

I got five women shot through the head.

I got bodies piling up all around me.

I'm passing out the ammunition.

See, the bad guys...

they get hold of one of those books...

they find something and...

and I give 'em the prize.

It doesn't matter

that it wasn't put there for them.

It was put there for that little kid

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