No Way Out

‘Oh, Andi’s good. But I don’t know if she’s fully—’

The phone rang. Juanita picked it up.

‘Alex Sedaka’s office…oh hallo, Ms Phoenix…I’ll put you through right away.’

She put the call on hold.

‘I could have taken it here,’ said Alex.

‘I need this line free for other calls,’ said Juanita in her sharpest tone. ‘This is an office.’

‘Okay boss,’ he said, with a smile, as he rose from his chair.

Juanita put the call through to his office before he got there, making sure that his phone was ringing by the time he went through the door.

‘Hi, Andi,’ he said into the handset.

‘Hi, Mr Seda—Alex. Listen, I’ve been working here with the demographic department at my firm and we’ve been trying to figure out which are the best counties to try the case. We’ve come up with a list of counties based on demographic analysis and some public prejudice questionnaires.’

‘And which counties are they?’

‘Well the best is Alameda. I emailed a file over to you. Take a look at the demography. It has about 300,000 Hispanics to 200,000 African-Americans and half a million white non-Hispanics. It’s also got 350,000 Asians, who may or may not be friendly to Claymore. We’ll have to run some surveys to check that out.’

‘Okay. But the 200,000 African-Americans won’t necessarily be too friendly to Claymore.’

‘No, but I was thinking about this white liberal issue.’

‘What about it?’

‘Well, you can cherry pick the liberals at the voir dire.’

‘Yes, but whatever cherry picking we try and do, the prosecution will do the opposite. And they’ve got ten peremptories too.’

‘I know that. But it’s a question of how many liberals there are on the panel.’

‘Yes, but like you said, Andi, there’s no such thing as a white liberal county.’

‘By and large there isn’t. But I was thinking: Berkeley’s in Alameda and at Berkeley you’ve got the liberal academic contingent. And they tend to live around that area. So with that and the Hispanics and the Asians as well as the blacks, you might just be able to cherry pick a sympathetic jury.’

‘You could be onto something,’ Alex conceded. ‘The trouble is, the prosecution will fight us every inch of the way.’

‘Only if you let them know what you want. If you make it look like you’re afraid of a black jury and wary of Asians, they might just go for it themselves. The trick is to let the judge suggest it as a compromise.’

‘Andi, if you were here right now, I think I’d kiss you.’

Friday, 26 June 2009 – 11.20 (#ulink_e28e7624-67f4-587a-8d32-eda5dcad8599)

‘In addition to the unfavorable comments on the talk radio stations, an opinion poll has shown that ninety-six percent of the women and seventy-eight percent of the men in the county believe my client to be guilty.’

The judge in Court 12 at the Ventura County Superior Court appeared to be listening attentively to Alex.

‘Clearly,’ Alex continued, ‘it would be impossible for my client to receive a fair trial in Ventura County under these circumstances. On the other hand there have been no such signs of prejudice in Sacramento.’

Andi was watching Alex as he spoke. Sacramento was eleven per cent black and eighteen per cent Hispanic.

‘Any addition to your earlier response, Ms Jensen?’ asked the judge, looking over at the prosecutor. Sarah Jensen rose, sweeping a strand of her black hair out of her eyes. She paused for a moment, as if trying to assess the judge’s current state of mind. This was a tricky matter, and one so sensitive that the entire outcome of the trial could hinge upon it. What happened here today could render everything that followed largely irrelevant. So the A.D.A. had to pitch it just right.

‘My only argument is what I said in response to the defense counsel’s earlier argument, namely that the voir dire should be sufficient to weed out any prejudiced jurors, as long as the panel is large enough. However, I would also point out that defense counsel appears to be trying to relocate the trial to a venue with more favorable demographics.’

‘Are you suggesting that the demographics of Sacramento are likely to be pro defense?’ the judge prompted.

‘Not necessarily. But it does have a higher percentage of bla—of Mr Claymore’s own ethnic group.’

Alex knew that the A.D.A. had to choose her words carefully. She wanted to accuse the defense of trying to get more blacks onto the jury, but by opposing it, she was effectively saying that prosecution wanted the opposite.

‘But there’s nothing constitutionally improper about the demography of Sacramento is there?’

The judge was smiling as he said this. Sarah Jensen’s embarrassment was palpable.

‘I…we…that is, the prosecution accepts that there is a case for a change of venue. And obviously it should be away from the south and possibly in the Bay area. But Sacramento would not be the best choice.’

Alex saw his opportunity and pounced. ‘If the A.D.A. is concerned about the demographics of Sacramento, the defense is quite amenable to a county where the demography is more to their liking, like Santa Clara.’

Sarah Jensen blushed. They both had the stats in front of them and Sarah knew that while Santa Clara County – Silicon Valley – was 2.7 per cent black and 62 per cent white, many of those white people were working in the computer industry, where there was a high proportion of liberals and libertarians, unlike the traditional conservatives of Simi Valley in Ventura. But Sarah Jensen could hardly use this in her argument.

‘We would prefer San Mateo or Marin County – or even Napa.’

‘What do you say, Mr Sedaka?’ asked the judge.

Alex knew that he had succeeded in the first part of his objective: getting the A.D.A. and the judge to accept relocation to the Bay area. Now he had to get the judge to choose the county he wanted. That meant making it look as if he wanted somewhere else.

‘Your Honor, we believe that many of the people who are most prejudiced against my client are actually those who the prosecution seems to think are biased in his favor.’

‘Does that mean you agree to Ms Jensen’s suggestions?’

‘Well we’d prefer San Joaquin or Solano. Maybe Contra Costa.’

‘What about Alameda?’ asked the judge. Sarah Jensen looked as if she was about to say something, when Alex spoke up quickly.

‘Sidebar, Your Honor?’

The judge nodded. Alex and Sarah approached the bench.

‘Your Honor,’ Alex said putting on his most embarrassed tone of voice. ‘Alameda County is 20 per cent Asian. It’s a well-known fact that a lot of Asians are prejudiced against blacks and this would deny my client a fair trial.’

‘Oh, do me a favor!’ said Sarah. ‘There may be some limited residual prejudice against working class blacks. But Claymore is hardly working class. Besides, Mr Sedaka can use the voir dire to weed out any biased jurors.’

The judge turned back to Alex. ‘That makes sense doesn’t it?’