Thursday, Day of Outrage

This might have been the most infuriating day we ever spent in the courtroom
since we've been coming to Rule 37 hearings. One reason was that—we heard
this was going to happen even before yesterday's hearings and didn't believe
it could be true—the state is purposefully dragging out Dan Stidham's cross
examination in an effort to prevent Jason and Jessie's lawyers from calling
their expert witnesses to the stand. Today they *might* call psychologist,
Dr. Derning, today because Judge Stidham has a speaking engagement this
morning.

The other reason for our rage, after a day of Davis' flabby noodle
questioning such as "was calling Ricky Deese a trial strategy on your part?,
was that Judge Burnett allowed an audio tapes of Jessie "confessing" after
he'd already been convicted. It had nothing to do with ineffective counsel
which is what he said these proceedings must be restricted to and Jessie's
attorney, Michael Burt, and his Arkansas lawyer, Jeff Rosensweig,
strenuously objected and cited many cases of the inadmissibility of immunity
induced-statements when the statements were not used.

In the end it turned out to benefit Jessie tremendously, in the future I
believe that Davis will listen to a tape in it its entirety before entering it
into the record. Then again, he's tagged to take Judge Burnett's place when
he retires on December 31 so that probably won't be a necessity. This
particular tape was recorded on February 8, 1994. On the stand, Dan offered
"I'm delighted this tape is being played because it proves my client wasn't
there." And how.

The tape also completely contradicts nearly all the details from another of
Jessie's "confession" tape from August 19, 1993 that we heard on Thursday
morning. You will recall that the tape from February '94 was already hotly
contested: Stidham and Crow thought Jessie was in lock up when they got a
call from Deputy Prosecutor Joe Calvin saying their client was in his office
in Rector! This was an abuse of Jessie's fifth and sixth amendment rights but
what the heck, he was "ready to give a statement."

I don't know who anyone who listened to this yesterday could possibly think
that Jessie was there, it was the most ludicrous free-styling of incorrect
information yet. And obviously poorly cobbled together from nonsense
testimony from state's witnesses he heard at his trial that were just as
false then as they are now. First off he said he was wearing a grey t-shirt
when in August he said he was wearing a white t-shirt, so Dan was right in
that every detail would change whenever Jessie was asked specifics.

Jessie said that there was indeed a black clubhouse with the top open on the
other side of the bank, something alleged by Aaron Hutcheson months
earlier. He said the drainage pipes were about as big in diameter at his
thigh. He said there was a wheat field leading up to the "driveway" to Robin
Hood Hills. When asked how deep the water was, Jessie replied "over his
head." He had no idea where the bodies were found. He said they were tied up
after they were murdered, though he wasn't there when that happened.

And Dan was skeptical about a COMPLETELY incorrect answer, Jessie say it was
his first time to Robin Hood Hills so he really wasn't paying
attention. He said Damien choked one of the boys yet we always knew none were
choked; this was an original theory by the wizards at the WMPD. He said
Jason threw either a penis or a gun to the other bank, he couldn't really
tell what it was. He said there was ejaculate on one of the boys' jeans,
something DeGuglielmo alluded to but Brent Davis stated as fact in his
closing argument at Jessie's trial, though it's 100% false.

When Dan asked why this time Jessie wanted to "tell the truth" it was
because his hand was on the bible. And here we go again… More later.