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“Why you?”
“They said I fit the description, which is another way of saying I’m Black.”
“Were you the only Black student in your class?”
“There were two Black girls. But that’s not what you were asking, is it?”
“So they came to your house and arrested you. They questioned you at the station?”
“They did. For about eight hours.”
“Let’s just do the highlights.”
He shrugged. “They asked a lot about why I left class early the night the girl was raped. They tried to get me to say I was getting ready to rape her.”
“But her class let out after yours and she stayed late.”
“I didn’t say it made sense. None of it made sense.”
“Why did you leave class early?”
“My mother wasn’t well. I hadn’t wanted to go to class in the first place, but she made me. My going to college was important. She had dreams for me.”
“What else did they ask you about?”
“They told me a lot about what happened to that poor girl. Tried to get me to repeat it. I told them I’d gone home to my mother already, but they just called me a liar.”
“Tell me about them taking your picture.”
“The mug shot?”
“No, they had another picture. Could they have gotten it from your mother?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The witness, Selma, she said she identified you from a photograph. That it wasn’t a mug—”
“No. That’s not right. They did a lineup. Just like on TV. Two-way mirror.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if they did that kind of lineup or not. It was on TV all the time, but that didn’t mean anything. Selma had talked about a photo lineup. The discrepancy might end up being important.
“During the trial, did Selma identify you?”
“Oh yeah. That’s the first thing they did. Had her point at me.”
“Did they ask her about the lineup?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What about Detective Wellesley? Was she asked about the lineup?”
“Yes, I remember that.”
“And did she talk about it being a photo lineup? Or an in-person lineup?”
“Well, I remember being in the lineup so she couldn’t have talked about photographs, I would have known that was wrong.”
“When you were at the lineup, did you see Selma there? In the hallway, or anywhere?”
