the Onion Field (1973)

by Wambaugh, Joseph

  "That's my baby," said Gregory Powell.

  "That is the child you have a tremendous amount of concern for, I presume?"

  "Yes sir."

  "That is the child that has been brought here into this courtroom throughout the course of this trial?"

  "I don't quite appreciate that statement, Mr. Schulman," said Greg. "The baby is receiving the very best of care."

  "Really?"

  "Pardon me," said Moore. "Once again the little remark of 'really' crept out. I will once again cite the district attorney."

  "The objection is sustained. The jury is admonished to disregard the use of the word 'really' by Mr. Schulman. The citation of misconduct is denied."

  "You told the robbery detective, did you not," said the prosecutor, "that during the time you were committing the robberies you were drinking and having a ball?"

  "No sir, I wasn't having a ball."

  "Were you having a ball when you shot the officer down in that onion field?"

  "No sir."

  "The baby was born in the hospital in Camp Pendleton, wasn't it?"

  "That's right, sir."

  "The charges for that birth were something like twenty-five dollars and were sent to her husband who is a serviceman overseas, isn't that right? As a matter of fact, three lovely children were taken away from Maxine, the girl you were so concerned with, by court order. Isn't that right?"

  "I object to this as being outside the issues," said Moore.

  "He's claimed he's concerned about children," said Schulman.

  "Right here we have to stop while I cite this gentleman, so called, for misconduct," said Moore. "He stands in this court making his side comments through eight weeks of trial and I ask for a mistrial at this time."

  "Did Officer Hettinger tell you about his family," asked Schulman when permitted to proceed.

  "I don't recall him doing so."

  "The officers didn't give you any trouble?"

  "No sir, nobody would under those circumstances."

  "I imagine not, Mr. Powell."

  "Pardon me, Mr. Schulman is making side statements again," said Moore.

  "You were snapping out the commands, weren't you?" continued Schulman.

  "No sir, I was not snapping out commands," said Greg.

  "Oh yes, you were thinking about getting home to Maxine? When you came around and shot Officer Campbell right in the face were you thinking about Maxine then?"

  "I have already testified as to what. . ."

  "Were you thinking about Maxine then, yes or no?"

  "I wasn't thinking about anything."

  "Were you thinking about your unborn child then?"

  "I wasn't thinking about anything, sir."

  "Were you thinking about Officer Campbell's wife and family?"

  "I have already testified as to what . . ."

  "You testified earlier how they finally allowed you to make a phone call. Did you allow Officer Campbell to make a phone call to his wife so she would know he wouldn't be coming home that night?"

  "I don't ... no, sir."

  "I object!" said Moore. "You're getting prejudicial misconduct into the record. I will cite the district attorney for misconduct."

  "The citation is denied. The objection will be sustained to the question on the ground it is argumentative," said the judge.

  "When you took the officer's body and flipped him into the ditch, were you thinking about his wife and family?"

  "I have already stated what my state of mind was."

  "When you were looking for Officer Hettinger to kill him, were you thinking about his wife? Were you?"

  "I don't think I was consciously thinking about killing or doing anything."

  "You felt it needed to be done, isn't that right?"

  "Yes sir."

  "That you needed to kill Officer Hettinger?"

  "You used the word 'kill' in such a way . . . but I imagine this is the truth."

  "I don't know any other way to use it."

  And then Gregory Powell, not Marshall Schulman, showed his coolness under fire. "Is there a question pending, sir?" asked Greg calmly.

  "So you remember telling Sergeant Brooks that the Lindbergh Law was mentioned but you don't recall who said it at the time just before the shooting?"

  "I think I heard that there had been talk about the Lindbergh Law, sir, but I don't recall exactly what it was."

  "Well, what kind of stance were you in when the gun went off accidentally?"

  "I was moving sir. I was just stepping around the car."

  "That accidental shot was real accurate, wasn't it?"

  "That's a question? Well, it wasn't accurate, sir, because it wasn't aimed at anybody."

  "Did you say anything to Jimmy or to Hettinger at the time? 'Oh my God, it was an accident. I didn't mean it.' Anything like that?"

  "No sir."

  "Why not?"

  "I didn't get a chance. I was stunned and then Officer Hettinger screamed and started running."

  "Did you think that when you accidentally shot a man that you have to go ahead and kill somebody else to cover it up?"

  "Well, I wasn't thinking, sir, but being an ex-convict and knowing the kind of trouble I was in, and one officer shot, yes sir, I felt it was necessary to try to get the other officer."

  "What was Jimmy Smith doing when he was at the circle indicated on the chart?"

  "Well, he was firing a weapon, sir."

  "Where was Officer Campbell's body?"

  "I don't know. I told you that about half a dozen times, sir."

  "You aren't losing your temper now, are you?"

  "No sir, I am not."

  Pierce Brooks sat at the counsel table, watched the witness and agreed that he was indeed not losing his temper.

  "What is your feeling toward Jimmy Smith today?" asked Schulman.

  "I sort of pity him."

  "And what do you think Jimmy Smith's feeling toward you is?"

  "I imagine hostility, sir."

  And that was indeed the truth. During the next recess after the defense rested, Jimmy Smith kicked his chair halfway across the room, but offered no resistance when uniformed deputies ran forward to restrain him.

  "Your Honor," said Ray Smith, "he wants to call your attention to my incompetence throughout this trial."

  "If there are any improprieties, you can call them to my attention at the proper time," the judge said when Jimmy was once again returned to his chair.

  "I don't want this man to continue!" Jimmy shouted. "This man is only sentencin me to my death, and I haven't did anything."

  "The case has been concluded," said the judge. "The district attorney has started his argument to the jury. I will hear everything you have to say, but that is after the arguments are concluded."

  "After I'm in the gas chamber, then you'll listen to me! When it's too late! After, not before!"

  On August 23 Marshall Schulman addressed the jury:

  "It is just a plain, outright, cold blooded killing. The physical evidence shows you that Officer Hettinger was outright cold blood- edly killed at the scene of the ..."

  "Not Hettinger," said Ray Smith. "You used the wrong word."

  "Officer Campbell. Thank you. Officer Campbell," said Schulman. "I think you know who I mean."

  But Karl Hettinger was to wonder if Schulman's slip of the tongue was not prophetic.

  When it was Ray Smith's turn to argue he did it in the way he knew best: intimate, personal, homespun. The old lawyer smiled often, and looked each juror in the eye, addressing the juror as a close friend, and sought to place all blame on his client's partner.

  "Gregory Powell is, beyond doubt, the most colossal liar you will ever see or hear in a lifetime, and I mean that sincerely. You will have to live a hundred years to see a bigger liar than Gregory Powell."

  John Moore talked to the jury of many things, not the least of which was his adversary.

  "As the district attorney said to you: The individual who fired t
he shots into the chest of Officer Campbell as he lay on the ground in Kern County is without doubt a frightening example of a human being.'

  "Mr. Schulman has a trait that is valuable to prosecutors if your only concern is that of conviction. He has the ability by tone or voice or by manner to make whomever or whatever he desires sound dirty or obscene. He can say the words 'wife,' 'mother,' or 'baby,' and if he so desires, they sound dirty and obscene.

  "He repeated the threats to kill that Powell made to a number of employees during the robberies. His tone of voice in reading lines of transcript made your skin crawl.

  "If you had a verdict of kidnapping, and death were to result during that, you would be tempted to find them guilty of murder in the second degree. Mr. Schulman would not like that. Even if it be true, he would not like that."

  On August 30 an incident occurred involving juror number four which both the defense and prosecution thought exceedingly strange.

  "Did you receive certain information from Deputy Sheriff Margaret Decker concerning comments made by one of our jurors?" the judge asked the clerk that day out of the jury's presence.

  "Yes, I did, your Honor," said the clerk.

  "Miss Decker, as part of your duties you have been admitting females into the courtroom?" asked the judge.

  "Yes, your Honor."

  "Do you know Mrs. Bobbick, juror number four?"

  "Yes."

  "Who started the conversation?"

  "I started the conversation by saying to Mrs. Bobbick that I had hoped that the judge would instruct the jury on Tuesday rather than Friday because I had planned a three-day fishing trip in Mexico. Mrs. Bobbick stated that her husband also had the three-day weekend and she too hoped that it would not go out. By this time we were out of the elevator, and I started to go to my office. Mrs. Bobbick paused and put her hand up-to her mouth and stated: 'I have smelled a rat through this whole thing,' and that lawyer Ray Smith had either 'uncovered,' or 'brought to light,' or 'hit the nail on the head.' Now, it was one of those three expressions."

  At 10:00 a. M. Mrs. Bobbick was ushered into the judge's chambers.

  "Mrs. Bobbick, I want you to feel completely at ease," said the judge to the frail, middle aged housewife with the darting eyes. "Miss Decker, who is a deputy sheriff, testified under oath . . ."

  "I would like to be under oath, too, before I say anything."

  "Yes, I am going to put you under oath. Anyway, the two of you were in the elevator. There were some other people in the elevator. And the two of you just passed the time of day?"

  "She followed me, I think, because she never did that before. But this particular morning, this Miss Decker followed me out and she said to me, well, she said, 'I think it will be tomorrow. You'll have to bring your bags.' And then she said, 'Oh,' she said, 'I don't know how it will go,' she said, 'the evidence is so overwhelming.' That's what she said, and I'm saying this under oath. And I thought it was a little bit out of order for a deputy to say that to me, and I don't know why she followed me out. She never did this before. It seems that there're other people that kind of follow you out from the courtroom, but I never noticed. I couldn't understand why she did that. It was impressed on my mind because she did that.

  "And she was telling me that the evidence was overwhelming. That's what shocked me. And I say, 'Well, I don't know,' because it was just an impulsive reply. I mean, it was like a psychological bombshell that she should say that to me. And I said, 'It seemed to me that I smelled something for a long time,' and that is what I said. I don't know if I mentioned Attorney Ray Smith's name.

  "After all, I'm sitting in the jury box and I'm under oath, and why she did that to me, I don't know. She simply got a psychological impulsive statement."

  "Well, Mrs. Bobbick, the court certainly will make inquiry into this alleged misconduct on the part of Miss Decker."

  "Yes sir, I would like to say one more thing. I want to say what happened in the jury room."

  "I don't want to discuss what happened in the jury room."

  "I would like to say one more thing. I feel that because this has happened now and what she did, I'm probably disqualified as a juror, because that is brainwashing. I mean, that is saying something to a juror that shouldn't have been said. I purposely avoid having lunch with people and doing anything improper, and she comes up to me and says that. I feel that because of what is going on now, perhaps I'll be antagonized. I feel that I should be relieved of jury duty because this is important as far as my conscience is concerned. It's a psychological brainwashing thing that is like a snowballing that has been going on and perhaps maybe I'm . . ."

  "Mrs. Bobbick, if I may, we certainly will make an investigation into the alleged statement of Miss Decker," said the judge.

  "In other words, all these things have an effect on the human brain," said Mrs. Bobbick. "I'm just like anyone else. My brain is like a sponge. If something happens to it, it has a reaction. I'm not dead or anything!"

  "No, Mrs. Bobbick," said the judge, glancing toward the court reporter who was taking the testimony.

  "Perhaps it was an impulse on her part. Perhaps a psychological thing. I'm a living human being and I'm influenced like other people are, but I try to go off by myself, to keep away from people. I have lunches myself. I don't know what it does to me."

  "Mrs. Bobbick, we have no intention whatsoever of disqualifying you as a juror."

  "I mean, now, see, this is another incident, and it has a psychological reaction on me. I can't help it. I am one of those human beings. I am very level-minded and I am very conscientious."

  "We know that you are because you listened very attentively to the evidence and you took copious notes throughout the trial."

  "I know." Mrs. Bobbick smiled. "And I would like to ask another question. If at the end of your instructions I still feel as if I'm disqualified, could I get up and say I am disqualified?"

  "No."

  "If I don't get up, in other words, I will feel that everything is leveled off."

  "There should be no reservations in your mind. All we are interested in is having a fair and impartial jury."

  "Do you feel I'm leveled off? I feel I am. But I'll ask your opinion."

  "As long as you feel that way about it. Your state of mind is the important thing."

  "I am leveled off. It probably was just one of those things."

  "Thank you very much," said the judge.

  At a later in-chambers hearing the judge sat before the woman deputy.

  "How long have you been a deputy sheriff, Miss Decker?"

  "Sixteen and a half years, your Honor."

  "And knowing you and your exemplary record, the court won't question your conduct in connection with this matter. However, since Mrs. Bobbick is one of our regular jurors the court would suggest that you confine your activities to assisting in meeting the needs of the jurors."

  "Yes, your Honor," the deputy replied.

  Judge Brandler sighed and ran his fingers through his fine pale hair, and his sleepy lids dropped slightly and he wondered if this trial would ever end with the record intact, with not only the defendants, but now the jurors themselves behaving in such a way to threaten mistrial.

  The judge had little reason to feel reassured. The next day the court was given a handwritten note:

  Juror No. 4, has requested disqualification as a juror in this matter. Juror No. 4 has made this request because of what she, the juror, says is unnecessary dissension, thus possibly causing her to become ill and thereby not be able to fully concentrate and render a proper and just decision.

  The judge then instructed Dr. Crahan, the court psychiatrist, to examine Mrs. Bobbick, but was advised by the doctor that the juror refused. The doctor however did have the opportunity of observing her and ventured an opinion that she appeared to be a schizoid personality with attendant suspicions of hostility, but at that time he found nothing to warrant the court excusing her as a juror by reason of conditions of health. However, Dr. Crahan
did warn the judge that if the court was advised that the juror became hysterical or showed any other signs of breaking down, to let Dr. Crahan know so that the doctor could again attempt to examine her to ascertain whether there was any change in the condition.

  The judge decided to proceed with the juror and hope she could endure. However, on September 3 he received another note:

  I, Mrs. Bobbick, Juror No. 4, would like to make a request of the court to be relieved of further duty because of extreme hostility which appears to border on coercion and force.

  This time the doctor did examine the juror and the judge wrote:

  The court was advised by Dr. Crahan of the following facts based upon his physical observations of Juror No. 4: She appeared to be hysterical, her eyes were popping, she was gesticulating with her hands, she was rambling in her conversation, she couldn't sit still, and she appeared nervous and tense. The doctor advised the court that continuing on as a juror might well seriously impair her health.

  If Marshall Schulman was distressed by the news, the defense was elated and saw a chance for a mistrial at least.

  Pierce Brooks shrugged wearily and privately expressed confidence that Judge Brandler could work things out. In his years as a detective he had seen a thousand jurors who were not merely crazy but were incredibly stupid to boot. It was all a chancy thing, after all, this whole jury business. That's what the detective muttered privately, but publicly he controlled his disgust. He revered the courts and the law and was the kind of man who had always served without question.

  The defense wasted no time in calling the doctor to challenge his recommendation to excuse the juror.

  "What is your field of specialty?" asked John Moore.

  "Internal Medicine and psychiatric diagnosis. I have practiced medicine for some thirty-five years, and have examined between five and ten thousand people for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County as medical director of county jail."

  "Have you ever examined a juror who was holding out as a minority in a jury room?"

  "Objected to as assuming facts not in evidence," said Schulman.

  "Objection sustained."

  "What were the statements she made about the other jurors?" continued Moore.

  "That they were abusing her, cursing her, and they were suspicious of her. She had made the statement that she had cried for the first time in forty years. And she told the judge in chambers that she saw a rattlesnake up near her home and she called the police and the police came and the juror said, 'Do you know, Judge, the police shot that poor rattlesnake?' "