The Credibility Crisis

• Author: David M. Paciocco
• Pages: 3-15

CHAPTER

1

The

Credibility

Crisis

myself

for

the

moment.

Still,

those

two

words,

"Not guilty,"

had

more

the

impact

of a

rude assault than

a

reasoned verdict.

For me, it was

an

assault only

on my

sensibilities;

its

sole physical trace

was

that

dryness

you

get in

your mouth that makes

you

think

you

might become ill.

For

the

mother

and

sister

of the

dead

man it was far

worse.

The

verdict struck

like

the

rude stomp

of a

boot-heel.

It had as

great

an

impact

as the

pho-

tos of his

body, lying sprawled

and

lifeless

on a

cold

floor.

Those

two

words,

transient sounds

uttered

with calm inflection

by a

kindly judge,

forced

air

from

their lungs

as if

they

had

been kicked

in the

gut. Along

with their breath,

any

faith

they

may

have

had in the

criminal justice sys-

tem was

driven

from

them

as

well.

Slowly,

they gathered themselves

up.

With dignity they dried

the

corners

of

their

eyes

and

steadied

each

other

as

they made their

way to the oak

doors. They thanked

me

politely

and

shook hands with

the

investigators.

It was the

kind

of

salutation

that

occurs

at the

door

of a

funeral

home, sincere

but

somehow detached,

warm

but

somehow despairing,

no one

really knowing what

to

say.

I

could

see in

their

faces

that these women

had

accepted

the

inevitability

of the

result,

but not the

result itself. Theirs

was the

resigned

and

dispirited

acceptance

of

people

who had

given

up on the

justice system. "Justice will

have

to be

done

by

God,"

one of

them said.

These words displayed

an

enviable faith,

but the

woman

who

spoke

them

was

only partially right.

If

there

is a God who

extracts retribution,

she was

right that punishment would have

to be

done

by

God.

But as for

"justice,"

it was

done

that

day —

much

as it

pains

me to say so. The

evi-

dence

was

simply

not

there

to

prove

that

the

accused

was

guilty.

The

case

I

prosecuted

had

disintegrated.

It

would have been unjust

for the

judge

to

have

convicted

the

accused

on the

evidence

I

managed

to

present.

In

part

the

proof

was

lost because

of

technicalities,

but for the

most part

it was

because

the

witnesses were

afraid

and

would

not

tell

the

judge

in

front

of

I

knew it was coming. I had prepared the family for it and steeled