Excerpt
How It Ended
I have on my desk at this moment twelve five-by-seven ruled index cards. On each
of them the same two words appear: "not guilty." Eight are written in
pen, four in pencil. On eight of them the words appear along a single line, on
two the words are perpendicular to the ruling, and on two they are scrawled
diagonally (one of these last has been written on an inverted card, turned so
that the red top line and margin are at the bottom). Three are in all caps,
three have only the initial letters capitalized, three are all lowercase, two
others show the "N" capitalized but not the "g." In the last
of them the word "not" appears in all caps, but the word
"guilty" is all lowercase.
By dint of these varied inscriptions, made in silence in a few tense moments,
Monte Virginia Milcray walked out of Part 24 of the New York State Supreme
Court, got into the elevator, and descended to the cold wetness of Centre Street
a little before noon on February 19, 2000. I preceded him by several minutes,
getting into a cab with my duffel bag and riding the dozen blocks home to my
wife, with whom I had not spoken in four days. The cards were folded in the
breast pocket of ... read full excerpt from: A Trial by Jury ebook
