A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) - John Grisham Page 0,170

potential jurors solely on the basis of race. “Still doesn’t seem right,” she said.

“What’s your take on Della Fancher?” Jake asked Libby.

“I’d stick with her.”

“She should’ve raised her hand,” Portia said. “I think she wants to be on the jury.”

“Then I’d be worried,” Lucien said. “I’m suspicious of anyone who wants to serve on a capital jury.”

“Morris?” Jake asked.

“She’s our ringer, right? I sort of agree with Lucien, but, dammit, we have a battered wife who refused to speak up. She has to have sympathy for Josie and her kids.”

“I don’t like her,” Carla said. “She has a hard look, bad body language, doesn’t want to be here. Plus, she’s hiding something.”

Jake frowned at Carla but didn’t respond. He reminded himself that his wife was usually right about most things, especially when sizing up other women.

“Portia?”

“I don’t know. My first impulse is to take her, but something in my gut says no.”

“Great. We’ll lose Rodney Cote and Della Fancher, two of our three ringers. That leaves Joey Kepner with his drug conviction.”

“And you’re assuming Dyer doesn’t know about it?” Lucien asked.

“Yes, and I freely admit that all of our assumptions could be wrong.”

“Good luck, ole boy,” Lucien said. “It’s always a crapshoot.”

* * *

—

WITH HIS ROBE off, his tie loosened, and his pill bottles put away, His Honor fired a torch into the bowl of his pipe, sucked hard on the stem, let loose a lethal cloud of smoke, and said, “Any challenges for cause, Mr. Dyer?”

Lowell had three names he wanted to get rid of. For twenty minutes they went back and forth and it was obvious the prosecutor considered them unfit because they seemed soft on capital punishment. Jake argued forcefully to keep them and preserve his peremptory challenges, which could be used to strike any juror but not to keep one. Noose finally said, “We’ll strike the organ player, Mrs. Reba Dulaney, because it was obvious that she would struggle with the death penalty. Mr. Brigance?”

Jake wanted to strike Mrs. Gayle Oswalt because she was a friend of Dyer’s, and Noose agreed. He asked to strike Don Coben, number three, because his son was a policeman, and Noose agreed. He asked to strike number sixty-three, Mr. Lance Bolivar, because his nephew had been murdered, and Noose agreed. He asked to strike Calvin Banahand, because his son once worked with Barry Kofer, but Noose said no.

With no more challenges for cause, Dyer used seven of his peremptories and submitted a list of twelve—ten older men, two older women, all white. Jake’s assumptions were correct. He huddled with Libby and Portia on their side of the table, and challenged six of them, including Della Fancher. It was tense work, reviewing the names they had memorized, trying to remember their faces, their body language, trying to guess Dyer’s next move, and anticipating how deep into the pool the selection might go. And the clock was ticking as His Honor waited and Dyer schemed and pored over his own well-worn lists. Jake used six of his prized challenges and kicked the ball across the table.

The prosecutor submitted his second list of twelve and stuck with his game plan of excluding blacks and preferring older white men. Ten of his peremptory challenges were gone, but he had used one for Rodney Cote. Jake cut three of them. Dyer saved his last two for two younger women, one white, one black, and in doing so revealed that he did not know of Joey Kepner’s drug conviction. To get to Kepner, Jake was forced to exclude two women he really wanted. Kepner was the last juror chosen.

Twelve whites—seven men and five women, ages ranging from twenty-four to sixty-one.

They haggled over the selection of two alternates, two white women, but doubted that they would be needed. The trial, once it began, would not last more than three days.

43

Tuesday morning arrived with dark skies, a line of storms, and eventually a tornado watch for Van Buren and the surrounding counties. Heavy rains and winds began pounding the old courthouse an hour before the trial was to resume, and Judge Noose stood at his window with his pipe and wondered if he should delay matters.

As the courtroom filled, the jurors were guided to the box and given a round tin badge with the word JUROR stamped in bold red letters across it. In other words: No contact, keep your distance. Jake, Libby, and Portia deliberately waited until 8:55 to enter the courtroom and begin unpacking their