Wrongful Death: The AIDS Trial

by Stephen Davis

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  All three voices are coming through the speaker at once.

  “Hey,” Messick shouts. “One at a time!”

  “Well, I just can’t believe how much help we’re getting,” the speakerphone says.

  “No shit! How about Keating’s exposé on Gallo? My god! We couldn’t have asked for anything more,” another voice chimes in.

  Messick is excited, too, but still cautious. “What’s that old saying, the truth shall set you free? I think the truth has finally caught up with our Dr. Gallo. But remember that the jury didn’t see that TV show, and I just hope I presented enough of the story for them to reach the same conclusions that GNN did.”

  “Oh, hell yes, Ben, you did! And it’s about time the world found out who Gallo really is!”

  Messick is a little surprised to hear the familiar third voice express such optimism and emotion; he was usually the most conservative of the four.

  “Besides, they’ll have all the supporting documents and printed reports to review in their deliberations,” one of the other voices adds.

  But Messick knows this trial is a long way from being over. “Okay, guys. Let me check with everybody. Do you think I’ve made the point with the jury that HIV is not, cannot be, and could never be the cause of AIDS?”

  “I think so.”

  “Frankly, I can’t imagine anything else you could do at this juncture that you haven’t done already. If they can’t see that HIV is just something Gallo invented for his own glory, then something’s wrong with our jury system.”

  “I want to bring Harrison back from the CDC later, to get more statistics on the record about HIV, and whether or not it’s contagious and infectious, and so on. But I was thinking it might not be bad to do that near the end, as a kind of summation, and a reminder to the jury. What do you think?”

  “I think that’s a great plan.” Okay, that’s one.

  “Sounds like a winner to me.” That’s two.

  Messick wants to make sure it’s unanimous. “And how about you, Tom?”

  “Yeah, Ben, I think so. I also think it will help when you get to the point of offering evidence of what is the cause of AIDS, if it’s not HIV. But I know we have to wait a little for that.”

  “Okay, if we’re all agreed, tomorrow I start on AZT.”

  “Onward and upward.”

  “Go get’em, Ben.”

  “We’re behind you all the way, my friend.”