So there was no blood, just a small hole in his overalls, and then a small sealed hole in his chest. He looked as though he could have fallen asleep and slumped over, or passed out drunk on the porch, like Lucien. It was not a spectacular scene, and Buckley had not been proud of those photo-
graphs. They had not been enlarged. He had just handed the small Polaroids to the jury and looked disgusted because they were so clean.
But most murder pictures were grisly and sickening, with blood splashed on walls and ceilings, and parts of bodies blown free and scattered everywhere. Those were always enlarged by the D.A. and entered into evidence with great fanfare, then waved around the courtroom by Buckley as he and the witness described the scenes in the pictures. Finally, with the jurors fidgeting with curiosity, Buckley would politely ask the judge for permission to show the photographs to the jury, and the judge would always consent. Then Buck-ley and everybody else would watch their faces intently as they were shocked, horrified, and occasionally nauseated. Jake had actually seen two jurors vomit when handed photos of a badly slashed corpse.
Such pictures were highly prejudicial and highly inflammatory, and also highly admissible. "Probative" was the word used by the Supreme Court. Such pictures could aid the jury, according to ninety years of decisions from the Court. It was well settled in Mississippi that murder pictures, regardless of their impact on the jury, were always admissible.
Jake had seen the Cobb and Willard photographs weeks earlier, and had filed the standard objection and received the standard denial.
These were mounted professionally on heavy pos-terboard, something the D.A. had not done before. He handed the first one into the jury box to Reba Betts. It was the one of Willard's head and brains taken at close range.
"My God!" she gasped, and shoved it to the next juror, who gawked in horror, and passed it on. They handed it to one another, then to the alternates. Buckley took it, and gave Reba another one. The ritual continued for thirty minutes until all the pictures were returned to the D.A.
Then he grabbed the M-16 and thrust it at Ozzie. "Can you identify this?"
"Yes, it's the weapon found at the scene."
"Who picked it up at the scene?"
"I did."
"And what did you do with it?"
"Wrapped in a plastic bag and placed in a vault at the jail. Kept it locked up until I handed it to Mr. Laird with the crime lab in Jackson."
"Your Honor, the State would offer the weapon, Exhibit S-13, into evidence," Buckley said, waving it wildly.
"No objections," Jake said.
"We have nothing further of this witness," Buckley announced.
"Cross-examination?"
Jake flipped through his notes as he walked slowly to the podium. He had just a few questions for his friend.
"Sheriff, did you arrest Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Wil-lard?"
Buckley pushed his chair back and perched his ample frame on the edge, poised to leap and scream if necessary.
"Yes I did," answered the sheriff.
"For what reason?"
"For the rape of Tonya Hailey," he answered perfectly.
"And how old was she at the time she; was raped by Cobb and Willard?"
"She was ten."
"Is it true, Sheriff, that Pete Willard signed a written confession in-"
"Objection! Objection! Your Honor! That's inadmissible and Mr. Brigance knows it."
Ozzie nodded affirmatively during the objection.
"Sustained."
Buckley was shaking. "I ask that the question be stricken from the record and the jury be instructed to disregard it."
"I'll withdraw the question," Jake said to Buckley with a smile.
"Please disregard the last question from Mr. Brigance," Noose instructed the jury.
"No further questions," said Jake.
"Any redirect examination, Mr. Buckley?"
"No, sir."
"Very well. Sheriff, you may step down."
Buckley's next witness was a fingerprint man from Washington who spent an hour telling the jurors what they had known for weeks. His dramatic final conclusion unmis-
takably linked the prints on M-10 to those of Carl Lee Hailey. Then came the ballistics expert from the state crime lab whose testimony was as boring and uninformative as his predecessor on the stand. Yes, without a doubt, the fragments recovered from the crime scene were fired from the M-16 lying there on the table. That was his final opinion, and with the charts and diagrams, it took Buckley an hour to get it to the jury. Prosecutorial overkill, as Jake called it; a debility suffered by all prosecutors.
The defense had no questions for either expert, and at five-fifteen Noose said goodbye to the jurors with strict instructions against discussing the case. They nodded politely