Unintended Consequences - By Marti Green Page 0,60
subject the prosecution’s witnesses, especially Sallie, to meaningful cross-examination. However, the clearest evidence of Wilson’s failure to provide effective assistance of counsel was not in the written record, so Dani needed to introduce those facts at this hearing.
“Do you have any witnesses?” Smithson asked.
“I do.”
“Go ahead and call your first witness.”
“I call Robert Wilson to the stand.”
Wilson lumbered up to the witness box, clearly unhappy to be there. Dani walked over to him. “Mr. Wilson, you represented the defendant”—she pointed to George—“on charges of murder in the first degree, did you not?”
“I certainly did. And at substantially less than my usual fee.”
“Have you represented other defendants in capital cases?”
“Sure have. Plenty of them.”
“So you were familiar with the amount of work involved in a capital case when you accepted Mr. Calhoun as a client.”
“Well, some cases take more work than others. Depends on the circumstances.”
“And when you decided to take Mr. Calhoun’s case, did you have an idea of how much work would be involved?”
“I made my estimate. Not much you can do when your wife confesses and implicates you.”
“And in fact, you expected to enter into a plea bargain with this case, isn’t that so?”
“Objection,” Getty called out. “Leading.”
“Let me rephrase,” Dani said before the judge could rule. “When you agreed to take his case, did you have any expectations of the outcome?”
Wilson hesitated. “Well, I certainly thought it made sense to try and get a plea, take the death penalty off the table.”
“And was an offer made by the prosecution for a plea agreement?”
“They sure as heck made one, but my client insisted he wanted to go to trial. Over my strong counsel to the contrary, I might add.”
“Did he tell you why?”
“Said it wasn’t his daughter they found in the woods.”
“Would you tell the court what you did about his claim?”
“What I did? There wasn’t anything to do. His wife had already said it was their daughter and that George there killed her and left her in the woods, where the police found her.”
“Did you question Mrs. Calhoun as part of your preparation for trial as to whether the girl found was her daughter?”
“I had a copy of her videotaped confession. There wasn’t any need to speak to her.”
“Did you request any psychiatric testing be done on Mrs. Calhoun?”
“I asked around her neighbors, where she worked. Nobody thought she was crazy.”
“You didn’t order a DNA test on the body found in the woods, right?”
“Didn’t seem to be any point to do so. Like I said, Mrs. Calhoun had already admitted it was their daughter.”
“DNA tests are expensive, aren’t’ they?”
“A lot more than the Calhouns could afford.”
“Did you apply to the court for funds to pay for a DNA test?”
Wilson sighed. “I keep telling you. There wasn’t any point.”
“What pretrial investigation did you undertake, then?”
“I spoke to his neighbors and his employer. I got them to testify to his good character.”
“That was for the penalty phase, though, right?”
“Well, the trial outcome was pretty obvious. I tried to get some mitigating factors before the jury so they’d sentence him to life in prison, like his wife.”
Dani returned to her table and looked through some papers before walking back to the witness stand. “You said Mr. Calhoun denied that the girl they found was his daughter. Did he tell you what happened to his daughter?”
“That’s the thing. He wouldn’t say a word. You can see how my hands were tied when he wouldn’t explain his daughter’s disappearance. After that, there wasn’t much that any lawyer could do.”
“You represented Mr. Calhoun on all his appeals, didn’t you?”
“Everything up till you folks stepped in last month.”
“And during all that time that you represented Mr. Calhoun, did he ever explain what happened to his daughter?”
“Never.” He caught himself. “Wait. He did say one time, maybe about five years ago—he said something about his daughter being sick. About nobody helping her. I don’t remember the details. It didn’t make much sense. I thought I put the letter in his file, but I guess it got thrown away by mistake.”
Wilson had changed his story to avoid reprimand by the judge. He knew all correspondence from his client should have been placed in his file, not wantonly discarded as he’d admitted to Dani when she first met him in his office. She let it pass. She didn’t want to crucify Wilson.
“Did you ever follow up with Mr. Calhoun about his claim that Angelina had been ill?”
Wilson looked down sheepishly. He’d been told about Tommy’s conversation with