“Yes,” Steve said, unsurprised by the question. “I actually went there for the first time yesterday.”
“What was that like?” the girl asked, not missing a beat.
Steve did his best to describe his trip to death row in a schoolfriendly way; he decided to leave out the part about writing the wrong letter and Scottie being in handcuffs.
Another hand shot up. This time, the hand belonged to a black boy sharing the green beanbag with the girl who had asked the first question. They weren’t being too obvious with their body language, but the way the boy had his other arm relaxed behind the girl’s back told Steve that the two were in a romantic relationship.
“Hello, Mr. Hanson,” the young man said. “My name is Dominick Harrison. Thank you for being our guest lecturer today.”
Steve nodded and smiled. Although the young man was more reserved than his girlfriend, they both seemed to be considerate and curious students.
“What if the jury doesn’t think the defendant committed the murder?” asked Dominick.
“Well, he or she would be acquitted of murder; they would be released, and the criminal case would be over. From a criminal law standpoint, that’s the end of it, whether the person is in fact innocent or guilty. They can go home and will never be tried for that crime again,” Steve explained. “For the purposes of this discussion, we will assume the jury finds the person guilty so we can move to the second stage of a capital murder trial—the sentencing stage.”
Steve looked around the room. All of the students now seemed engaged in his presentation. The students’ attentive expressions gave him more confidence as he continued.
“Once a jury sentences a defendant to death, that defendant goes through the state appeals process. If they lose at all levels in the state, then they have the right to go to federal court. Their federal appeal begins at the district court level.
Steve took a moment to explain, “Generally speaking, there are three federal court levels. There is the district court. Every state has at least one district court, and larger states have several. Then, there are courts of appeal which are mostly regional. Oklahoma, Kansas, and other nearby states are covered by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Finally, there is the U.S. Supreme Court, which gets to pick and choose which cases it wants to hear. You can’t just take a case there.
“Now, the federal district court is where I come in,” Steve said, returning to his explanation of the sentencing stage. “I am appointed by the federal court to represent these people on their federal habeas petition. If the case is lost at all levels of the federal court system, ending with the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., the defendant will most likely be executed, though the final outcome always depends on the state’s decision of whether or not to keep the case moving forward to a conclusion in the death chamber.
“Some states execute faster than others, Oklahoma and Texas being fairly quick about it,” Steve said dryly. “In California, it can take many years for the execution to occur, if at all.”
Another student raised her hand. “Hello, Mr. Hanson. My name is Maria Hernandez, and I appreciate you visiting our class today. What do you do once you are appointed?”
“I read the entire state court record, looking for constitutional error. The record includes every document filed and transcripts of all of the testimony. I then point those errors out to the federal district court, and if I don’t win there, I point out the errors to the Tenth Circuit, then eventually to the US Supreme Court.”
“So, you basically look for a loophole to get the guy off?” she replied.
“Well, some people might look at it that way, but I believe the U.S. Constitution is the bedrock of our society, and protecting it is more important than executing any one person, even if that person is a murderer. But as long as the police do their job correctly in the investigation, the judge and district attorney follow the law at trial, and the defense counsel does an adequate job representing their client, then the habeas petition will likely be unsuccessful.” Steve tried not to think of Scottie’s case as he gave this explanation. “The purpose is to ensure that all the rules were followed, and the accused’s rights were honored. It is not to retry the case. If all the rules were followed, the appeal will probably fail.
“There can even be what is called ‘harmless error.’ Harmless error is when a constitutional violation occurs, but the appellate court believes it did not affect the jury’s final decision, so the appeal is denied even though there was mistake.
“In summary, the only time a new trial will be ordered is when an error occurred that is so egregious the court believes the jury might have decided differently if the error had not occurred. I think everyone would agree that, in those cases, anybody and everybody should get a new trial. I know that if I am ever accused of something, I pray my trial will be held in accordance with constitutional standards.”
The student who’d asked the question nodded her head slowly, accepting and processing Steve’s words.
Dominick then asked, “What if everything was done constitutionally, but it turns out the person clearly didn’t do it? Not just that he could be found not guilty, but that, with new evidence, he could be proven innocent?”
“In those rare cases, the person is released from prison. To be clear, if I win an appeal on constitutional grounds, that just means my client gets a new trial, a trial where a new jury could still give him the death penalty all over again. The only way someone would actually be released, and the charges dropped, is if new evidence showed they didn’t do it at all.”
When the class period came to an end, the students thanked Steve for all of the insight he had given them on Oklahoma’s death penalty system. He drove back to his office afterward to take care of a few things before his meeting with Dr. Babbage.
Just as Steve was about to wrap things up and head out the door, he heard a fellow lawyer rushing down the hall. The young attorney stuck his head in Steve’s office as he passed and said, “You need to come see this.”
Steve got up and followed several other lawyers to the break room. All around the small room, he heard snippets of quiet, somber conversation. “Just a teenager… African American boy… was shot… was killed by… a white cop in Claremore. They think the kid was unarmed.”
On the television, local newswoman Sandy Shores was reporting live from the front of the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office.
“That’s right, Tom. We do know the incident occurred at a trailer park outside of town, and the young man is dead. I’ve been informed there are no witnesses other than the possible victim’s sister. She claims it was unprovoked, and the young man was unarmed. At this point, we do not know if the young man was armed or not.”
The television cut to a video of a young African American woman screaming hysterically at the several television cameras aimed at her. “That cop shot him! He shot my brother. He killed him dead in front of my trailer! He didn’t have no gun or nothin’.
That cop just shot him.”
“What was your brother doing?” a reporter asked.
“Nothin’, he wasn’t doin’ nothin’. Just standing there, and that cop just shot him.”
The young woman broke into sobs again.
The station cut back to Shores live. “The officer involved was Deputy Sheriff Andrew Blackburn. The sheriff’s department has not issued any statements other than to say the incident is under investigation, and Deputy Blackburn has been suspended with pay until completion of the investigation.”
“Thank you for your report, Sandy,” said the news anchor. “We have also just received notice from the Black Lives Matter organization that they are planning a protest in front of the Rogers County Sheriff’s Department tomorrow night at six.”
The anchor then put his hand to his ear and said, “I have just been told the family of the victim has been informed of his death, so we can release his name. The victim was Dominick Harrison, a student at Booker T. Washington High School. We will have more information about him later tonight.”
Steve fell back and put his hand down on the counter he was standing near. He bowed his head and put his other hand over his eyes and face.
As soon as he got back to his desk, Steve called Davis to see how he was dealing with the news. As he rode the elevator from his office to the parking garage, he thought about Alex, the greeneyed girl who had shared a beanbag chair with Dominick just a few hours ago. As he started his car to head to his meeting with Dr. Babbage, Steve wondered how Harrison’s family was dealing with the news.
CHAPTER 9
Steve pulled into a spot outside Dr. Babbage’s office a little after 4:15 p.m. Her office was in a small strip mall and he parked under one of the many trees lining the street. While he sat in the parking lot, he called Hamilton to let his client know what was about to happen.
“Jordan, I’m sitting in the computer forensics expert’s parking lot and am about to go in and see exactly what evidence she has uncovered.”
