Sycamore Row - John Grisham

doubt it. Think about it, folks. A man shrewd enough and clever enough to amass such a
fortune in ten years does not throw together a handwritten document that will cost his
estate $3 million. That’s absurd! That’s unusual and unreasonable!”
With his elbows he leaned on the podium and tapped his fingers together. He looked
into the eyes of the jurors as they waited. He finally said, “Let me wrap things up here,
and I must say you’re pretty lucky because neither Jake Brigance nor I believe in long
speeches. Nor does Judge Atlee for that matter.” There were some smiles. It was almost
funny. “I’d like to leave you with my opening thought, my first visual for this trial.
Think of Seth Hubbard on October 1 of last year, facing certain death and already
determined to speed it up, racked with pain and heavily medicated with painkillers, sad,
lonely, single, estranged from his children and grandchildren, a dying, bitter old man
who’d given up, and the only person near enough to hear him and console him was
Lettie Lang. We’ll never know how close they really were. We’ll never know what went
on between them. But we do know the outcome. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a clear
case of a man making a terrible mistake while under the influence of someone after his
money.”
When Lanier sat down, Judge Atlee said, “Call your first witness, Mr. Brigance.”
“The proponents call Sheriff Ozzie Walls.” From the second row, Ozzie hurried to the
witness chair and was sworn in. Quince Lundy was seated at the table to Jake’s right,
and though he had practiced law for almost forty years he had aggressively avoided
courtrooms. Jake instructed him to glance at the jurors occasionally and make
observations. As Ozzie was getting situated, Lundy slid over a note that read, “You were
very good. So was Lanier. The jury is split. We’re screwed.”
Thanks, Jake thought. Portia shoved forward a legal pad. On it, her note read, “Frank
Doley is pure evil.”
What a team, Jake thought. All he needed was Lucien whispering bad advice and
irritating everyone else in the courtroom.
With Jake asking the questions, Ozzie laid out the scene of the suicide. He used four
large color photographs of Seth Hubbard swinging from the rope. These were passed
through the jury box for shock value. Jake had objected to the photos because of their
gruesomeness. Lanier had objected to the photos because they might evoke sympathy for
Seth. In the end, Judge Atlee said the jury needed to see them. Once they were gathered
up and admitted into evidence, Ozzie produced the suicide note Seth left behind on his
kitchen table for Calvin Boggs. The note was magnified on a large screen set up across
from the jury, and each juror was given a copy. It read, “To Calvin. Please inform the
authorities I’ve taken my own life, with no help from anyone. On the attached sheet of
paper I have left specific instructions for my funeral and burial. No autopsy! S.H. Dated,
October 2, 1988.”
Jake produced the originals of the funeral and burial instructions, got them admitted
without objection, and displayed them on the big screen. Each juror was handed a copy.
They read: