The Murderer Son
“He did not drink in weekdays. He said drinking would made him slow and as a cop he could not afford to be slow. Otherwise he would make a mistake or people would suffer”, said David and closed his eyes. After a while he chuckled and said, “and the fact that he was a cop , just made it impossible to get help and calling them will only make him come down harder on her later.”
“what about the night your father was killed?”,asked Mrinalini.
“he was normal”
“then?”,Mrinalini’s eyes flashed while asking this. She was aware of the fact that this is where the interesting part would begin.
David let out a sigh and began, “he started yelling as soon as mom walked in and…..I don’t know. I guess I couldn’t do nothing anymore. So I barged into his bedroom , pulled his closet wide open, got his gun, and the next thing I remember is the gun in my hand. It was still hot and dad on the floor. He wasn’t yelling anymore. Things are so better now that he is dead.”
“David , please don’t say, I beg of you.”,said his mother with a shaking tone as tears rolled down her cheeks.
But David just couldn’t hold himself any longer and blurted out, “ I’m glad I shot him.”
Mrinalini took a deep breathe and said, “we are not only fighting a murder charge, we are fighting the police. They have used politics and the media to fuel public outrage and turn David , a boy who spent his entire life witnessing his mother’s abuse, into a sociopath who murdered his father. ”
“please save my little boy, miss sen.”, pleaded David’s mother.
“this is a murder case with rock solid evidence, how do we win this? We have only two grounds ,one, David’s age and two, trying to win this case not based on evidence but the emotions of the jury. In a emotionally driven case, jury selection isn’t a science, it’s the art of human study. Leave that onto me I will take care of that in court. ”
Mrinalini sat down with her notebook and went on scribbling for about half an hour and also interviewed David and his mother . almost an hour later, she got up and went on to the other side of her study table and took out a case file which was almost a year old and flipped through the pages and then kept it back. “now this case is tough and we only have today to make our grounds strong to overrule the prosecution. But your testimony alone would make the prosecutor question it’s validity given that you are the mother of the defendant and have every reason to fabricate the abuse claim in a desperate attempt to save your son.”
Mrs. Clair’s jaws dropped, after a while she said “so is my testimony against domestic abuse not enough to prove my husband guilty and prove that it was not a murder but a mere act of helping the people you love, saving them from being hit by a drunken and abusive husband? ”
“Mrs. Clair, have you filed any report earlier to the police about such behaviour of your husband?”
“How can I when the people that I would call for help were the drinking buddies of my husband”
“I can understand, but law does not work like that. We need evidences and there aren’t any. Not even a mere written statement or a piece of video or a recording to prove the abuse in the slightest possible way.”
“I did think that I would have to share it till today, miss sen, but I have an online diary, a blog ,sort of. Not many people have access though, but I can show you”, said David thinking it might be of some use. David could not maintain his anger and mental stability, so he used the method of writing to vent out his feeling. This idea was given to him by his English teacher , who also promised to support him with her testimony at court, if needed.
“but, the court will overrule any written or recorded testimonies from both the defendant and his mother.”
“but I had written how my dad used to beat my mom and then hit me.”
“since you request, let’s give it a shot. But if I find it useless we are going to present the case my way.”
“sure mam.”,with an expectation of hope, said David.
David and his mother sat there just in case something comes up magically to save David. They sat there blankly staring at Mrinalini , waiting for the victorious smile to emerge. But Mrinalini face was like a cold, stagnant, pond scum. After three long hours of reading through David’s blogs, which felt like an eternity sitting there in a closed room, the silence of the room was suddenly shot with Mrinalini’s heavy tone. “why did you write a disturbing song like this with the lyrics which states – I want to put a hot lead in my fathers brain , and run away with mom and hide in a drain?”
“I played this song in my school fest and from then almost everyone knew about my problems with my dad”
“but this entry was made way back from the day of the murder. It’s even before year ending, but generally schools do not host any fest in that time.”, asked Mrinalini.
“no it did not. I wrote it three months prior to that. ”
“and that’s a bonus.” clapping her hands Mrinalini got up leaving her clients to utter shock. She had a widespread smile when she went over to her kitchen and brought in three cups of coffee. She then went over to her white board and picking up the marker started to explain the case.
The fact that the blog had an entry which was entered long back can make all the blogs be brought into as an evidence and therefore the blogs where David had vividly described his mothers abuse could be a bomb against the prosecution. Now prosecution will try to suppress the defendant by bringing in police and making them testify against David, and they can and will lie to make David guilty and not mess with the police department. Now a request for a re-entry of Mrs. Clair’s testimony can be given. Which when considered, gives one firm ground. The second one is the jury selection which will be done in court ,where if the juror is emotionally attached to the case, like a pregnant woman, persons who had lost their faith on police, and black people who were looked down upon , will give a strong ground to fight upon and also while the last briefing requesting the jury to make a revised decision on the base of a minority, saving the person he loves, which is definitely not a crime and request them not not make it as one.
After making all the points on the white board and making the clients understand them , mrinalini told them , “if by all these we can satisfy the jury and the court, we might be happy to get the case off the high court and bring it down to juvenile court, which will definitely leave David with a probation, community service and counseling .”
The Clair’s joy knew no bound.they couldn’t thank Mrinalini enough . after a few discussions about court presentations on the next day, Mrinalini walked them to the door.
