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Sherman introduced himself to the jury, his hands-in-pockets demeanor and easy charm captivating them with his first sentence.
“Folks, everything the prosecutor told you is true,” he began. It was a daring declaration, Yuki thought. In fact, she’d never heard opposition counsel take that position before.
“You all know what happened on the Del Norte on November first,” Sherman said. “Mr. Brinkley did in fact bring a loaded gun onto the ferry. He shot those people without regard for the consequences to them — or to himself.
“He was surrounded by two hundred fifty people, some of whom witnessed the shooting. Mr. Brinkley didn’t throw his gun away after he fled the Del Norte. He didn’t get rid of the evidence.
“This was not what you’d call a perfect crime. Only an insane person would do these acts and behave in this way.
“So what happened is no mystery.
“But why it happened is what this trial is about.
“Mr. Brinkley did not understand his actions because when he shot those unfortunate people, he was legally insane.
“Since the issue of ‘legal insanity’ will be the basis for your judgment of Mr. Brinkley and his actions, this is a good time to define the term,” Sherman said.
“The issue is this: Did Mr. Brinkley understand the wrong-fulness of his acts when he committed the crimes? If he didn’t understand that those acts were wrong because he suffered from a mental disease or defect at the time the crimes were committed, then he was ‘legally insane.’ ”
Mickey Sherman paused, shuffled his notes on the lectern, and began speaking again in a tone of voice that Yuki admired and feared. It was soft on the ear, personal, as if he trusted that the jurors wouldn’t need theatrics, that his reasoning was not only credible but true.
“Mr. Brinkley has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder,” Sherman told the jury. “He has an illness, like cancer, or diabetes, a disabling disease that came to him genetically and also through childhood trauma.
“He didn’t ask for this disease, but he got it.
“It could have happened to you or me or anyone in th
is room. And what disease could be worse than to have your own brain turn against you and cause you to have thoughts and take actions that are completely against your character and nature?
“I want to say right now that our hearts go out to all the victims of this tragedy. If there was some way we could turn back the clock, if Fred Brinkley could take a magic pill or an injection that would heal him on November first and restore those people’s lives, he would do it in a second.
“If he had known that he was mentally ill, Mr. Brinkley would have gotten treatment. But he didn’t know why he felt the way he did.
“Mr. Brinkley’s life brings true meaning to the expression ‘living hell.’ ”
Chapter 66
MICKEY SHERMAN FELT THE NICE, STEADY FLOW of adrenaline that came from knowing his stuff and from believing in his client. Brinkley, the poor schmuck, was just waking up to the real world after fifteen years of slow decompensation as his illness had progressed.
And what a sorry world it was. Going on trial for his life under a thick blanket of antipsychotic medication.
It was a damned tragedy all the way around.
“Mr. Brinkley heard voices,” Mickey Sherman said as he paced in front of the jury box. “I’m not talking about the ‘little voice’ we all hear in our own heads, the interior monologue that helps us figure out problems or write a speech or find our car keys.
“The voices in Mr. Brinkley’s head were directive, intrusive, overwhelming, and cruel.
“These voices taunted him unrelentingly, called him derogatory names — and they goaded him to kill. When he watched television, he believed that the characters and the news anchors were talking directly to him, that they were accusing him of crimes, and also that they were telling him what to do.
“And after years of fighting these demons, Fred Brinkley finally obeyed the voices.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, at the time of the shooting, Fred Brinkley was not in touch with reality.
“He didn’t know that the people he shot on the ferry were made of flesh and blood. To him they were part of the painful hallucinations in his own mind.
“Afterward, Mr. Brinkley saw the TV news report of himself shooting people on the ferry, and because the pictures were on TV, he realized what he had done. He was so overcome with remorse and guilt and self-hatred that he turned himself in to the police of his own volition.
“He waived all his rights and confessed, because in the aftermath of his crimes, the healthy part of his brain allowed him to understand the horror of his actions.
