death penalty cases, just the cases Jack Tobin was working on, isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“You became his right-hand man?”
“Yes.”
“You were a team?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Tobin is your best friend, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“You would do anything for him, wouldn’t you?”
Henry was about to say, “I wouldn’t lie for him,” but he knew that wasn’t true. He’d kill for Jack. He already had.
“Yes.”
“No further questions.”
“Redirect?”
“No, Your Honor.”
“Okay, folks, we’re going to break for lunch. Remember the admonitions I have given you. Do not talk among yourselves about the case.”
* * *
As usual, Tom and Jack stayed in the courtroom for lunch. Tom brought the Snickers bars.
“Jesus, Merton is good,” Jack said. “I don’t know what he’s doing hiding in Apache County as a prosecutor. He could make millions as a criminal defense attorney on the big stage.”
“He doesn’t seem to be the type who is in it for the right reasons, either,” Tom added.
“No. He wants to win no matter what the cost. Maybe he wants to be the governor or something like that and this is his path.”
“Whatever the reason, he’s doing a job on us.”
“I’d have to agree with you so far, Tom, but it’s not over yet.”
“I was going to call Ron next to talk about the night you were drinking and said you were going to kill Felton, but I think I’m going to let him go. Merton will just do the friendship cross again and it will backfire in our faces.”
“I agree. Just put me on. Let’s get it over with.”
There were definitely a few more press people in the room for the afternoon session, and it seemed like the gallery was even bigger as well. They all knew what was coming. You could taste the anticipation in the air.
“Call your next witness, Mr. Wylie.”
“The defense calls Jack Tobin.”
Jack stood up, walked over to the clerk, swore to tell the truth, and climbed up into the witness chair.
Tom first took Jack through his long and illustrious career as a civil trial lawyer. He wanted the jury to know not only how successful Jack was but how rich he was as well.
“So you started the firm and built it up, is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“And how many lawyers did the firm have when you left?”
“Right around one hundred.”
“Did the partners buy you out of your interest in the firm when you decided to leave?”
“Yes.”
“What was the buyout figure?”
“Twenty million dollars.”
“And was that in addition to your retirement package?”
“Yes.”
“What were your plans at the time?”
“I was going to retire to the small town of Bass Creek and fish. I’d work part-time as a country lawyer but nothing too serious.”
“So what happened?”
“An old friend of mine died in New York—my best friend when I was growing up. When I went up for the funeral, I found out that his son was on death row for a murder he had supposedly committed in Bass Creek. The fact that I was living in Bass Creek made me think that maybe I was supposed to get involved in my friend’s son’s case, so I took a look at it.”
“And?”
“And I became convinced that his son—Rudy was his name—was innocent. So I undertook to represent Rudy.”
“Was that representation successful?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“What did you do after that?”
“I became a prosecutor for a while and I successfully prosecuted the detective who had arrested Rudy and whose testimony convicted Rudy.
“And then I started to represent people on death row. Representing Rudy gave me a different purpose in life as a lawyer. I found that I wasn’t ready to just sit back in the rocking chair.”
“Is that when you went to work for Exoneration?”
“Yes.”
“Now, Mr. Tobin, I want to talk to you particularly about your representation of Thomas Felton. Why did you take that case?”
“Ben Chapman asked me to come to Tallahassee. He didn’t tell me what it was about, he just asked me to come. When I got there, he told me about the Felton case and asked me to look at it. I didn’t want to even look at it.”
“Why?”
“Felton was a serial killer. A lawyer has an obligation when he or she takes a case to do the absolute best job he can. There is always a possibility that you could find a technical error in the prosecution’s presentation of its case that could result in the defendant’s being released. I did not want that on my conscience.”
“But you eventually did represent Felton?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Henry Wilson, my friend and my investigator, convinced me to just look at the file. Henry said I shouldn’t