Читать книгу No Way Out - David Kessler - Страница 32

‘So what’s this weakness you’ve found in their case?’ asked Claymore.

They were in a meeting room at the Ventura County pre-trial detention facility, where Elias Claymore was being held. Alex was taking the lead this time, while Andi sat in almost total silence.

‘She changed her story…about the attacker’s age.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well, initially she told the police that her attacker was in his twenties. They did a photo line-up – they even had a suspect tucked in there with the pictures – but she didn’t choose him.’

‘I don’t understand. When they said she picked me from a photograph, I thought that meant she picked me from a book of mug shots.’

‘No, they don’t do that anymore. They discovered a long time ago that after looking at hundreds of pictures, the witness’s vision becomes so blurred, they can’t tell a stranger from their own mother. It actually led to erroneous arrests in the past and also let guilty people slip through the net. They sometimes use an artist’s impression or e-fit picture when they’re planning on asking the public to help find an unknown suspect.

‘But in this case they used mug shots as a cheap alternative to a line-up as they already had a suspect. It’s called a “photo line-up.” Instead of hauling a suspect in and risking a civil rights suit, they use photographs of suspects mixed in with pictures of law-abiding citizens that match the description. In fact they can even use out of date pictures. As long as the picture of the suspect is up-to-date and as long as the faces in all the pictures matched the description of the suspect given by the witness, then the identification is valid.’

‘But can they do that without my knowledge? Without an attorney present?’

‘Sure can. US versus Ash, 1973. But we can challenge it before the jury.’

‘But if she told them I was in my twenties, then what picture of me did they put in there? As I am now or when I was in my twenties?’

‘When you were in your twenties.’

Claymore looked confused.

‘Doesn’t that invalidate the whole thing?’

‘No, you don’t understand, Elias. She didn’t pick anyone.’

‘So what was all that bullshit about her picking me from a photograph?’

‘That was later. After lunch she went back and told them that she’d had second thoughts and that the man who attacked her was older than his twenties.’

‘But I’m fifty-eight. How’d she get from twenties to fifty-eight?’

‘Good question. I think they were probably skeptical too, although their reports don’t make it obvious what they were thinking. You have to read between the lines.’

‘But what did she say? I mean did she just come out with something like, “He was twice as old as I said at first”?’

Alex handed Claymore a copy of the statements. Claymore picked it up and started reading through it as Alex spoke.

‘She said she now thought that he was in his fifties. But she explained that the reason for the change of heart was because she had actually seen him again.’

‘What do you mean seen him again?’

‘I mean saw you. Not in the flesh, but on the TV. She said she was passing an electronics store and she saw you on a TV screen in the display window. It was your show. And that was when she realized – so she said – that it was you.’

‘But didn’t they notice the age difference? Didn’t they ask her to explain the discrepancy?’

‘They did, but she just said she was mistaken. She claimed that she was under stress. Which is reasonable.’

‘But how can stress make her mistake fifties for twenties?’

‘That’s the question they don’t seem to have asked. Or if they did, they didn’t receive any answer, as far as I can determine. And that’s the question that we’re going to ask if this case goes to trial.’