Perfect Murder, Perfect Town (79 page)

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Test results can take from several days to weeks using the PCR method of testing. RFLP typing takes months. In some cases it can take up to ten months to obtain test results because the lab is so backlogged.

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A D1S80 test is a PCR-based test that measures the genetic marker known as D1S80 on the DNA strand.

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A
prima facie
case is one where there is sufficient evidence to shift the burden of proof to the other party. The amount of evidence needed to make a
prima facie
case varies with the context: in some settings, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is required, in others only proof by a preponderance, or probable cause.

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When a defendant pleads guilty, the prosecution may consent to a deferred sentence; in such cases, the defendant is ordinarily placed on probation, with conditions to be negotiated between the prosecution and defense. The probation may last as long as four years. If the defendant completes the probationary period successfully, the guilty plea is withdrawn and the original charges dismissed. If he fails to complete the probation successfully, his earlier guilty pleas will allow the court to enter a judgment of conviction and sentence him to any sentence authorized by law.

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A deferred prosecution is a more generous arrangement in which the defendant is not required to plead guilty. As with a deferred sentence arrangement, a period of probation is agreed to, with certain conditions attached. If the probation is successful, the charges are dismissed. If the probation is unsuccessful, the defendant must then go to trial, but since he has not pleaded guilty, he still has an opportunity to win acquittal. (C.R.S. 16-7-401 and 16-7-403.)

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Colorado law recognizes a privilege that can shield from disclosure the things that some crime victims say to a “victim’s advocate, ”such as a community-based rape crisis or domestic violence counselor, but that term is expressly defined not to include a person employed by a law enforcement agency. C.R.S13-90-107 (I) (k).

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In
Escobedo
v.
Illinois
, Danny Escobedo was questioned several times without the presence of his lawyer. The final time, he made a self-incriminating statement. His eventual conviction was overturned when the court ruled he’d been denied his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

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The law demands that a defendant receive the names and addresses of all likely witnesses, all written and recorded witness statements, all police and scientific reports, notes and test results, tangible evidence, incidentals like crime-scene logs and telephone records, fingerprint lifts, records of blood swatches or pictures thereof, and any other results of all law enforcement investigations. The process by which this is accumulated and passed on is called
discovery.

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Ron Brambila also came to court to give moral support to Danny Arevelo, who was convicted of felony child abuse in the death of Elizabeth Manning’s son, Michael, and sentenced to ten years.

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A removable computer disk, similar to a floppy disk, with the capacity to hold information that would fill a hundred floppies.

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This is not Colorado law. The successful prosecution of an accessory does not require the charging of a principal.
Howard
v.
People
, 51 P.2d 594(1935);
Britto
v.
People
, 497 P 2d 325 (1972).

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The floor plans to the Ramsey house appear in Appendix A.

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Cement floors unprotected from an underlying earthen foundation will “dust”—that is, the unsealed concrete will start to disintegrate, and a powdery substance will appear on the surface. Cement floors in a low-traffic or poorly ventilated location are particularly prone to this phenomenon.

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An attorney who accepts a case without payment, to fill a perceived social need to offer legal representation to the poor, is said to be working
pro bono publico
(literally, “for the public good”), or more commonly, pro bono.

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Fred Goldman is the father of Ronald Goldman, the second victim in the O. J. Simpson double-murder case.

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Cellulose is a carbohydrate of high molecular weight that is the chief constituent of the cell walls of plants. Raw cotton is 91 percent cellulose. Other important natural sources are flax, hemp, jute, straw, and wood.

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Narcotics officers’ lingo: to sacrifice one person for another.

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Terms used by police officers: A grazer is someone who has come up through the ranks in the Boulder system. A meat eater is an officer who came from outside Boulder and had learned a tougher approach to crime.

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At this point, the Ramseys had not been explicitly advised by the police of their right to silence. In such a case, if they were later to offer some explanation of events that seemed to be the sort of thing one would naturally bring up early on (for example, that one of them had heard noises in the night indicating an intruder), the prosecution could prove that they had not offered the explanation during their long months of “lawyered-up” silence. This proof would be entirely proper and possibly persuasive. The question is a subtle one, and Beckner’s inquiry might have prompted a more nuanced reaction in a less gun-shy prosecutor.

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The common term
indictment
is an abbreviation of the document’s formal name, a bill of indictment. Ordinarily, a bill of indictment is prepared for the signature of the foreperson by the prosecutor working with the grand jury. If the grand jury votes to indict, the foreperson and the prosecutor must both sign what is called a true bill of indictment.

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A decade and a half ago, expert testimony about handwriting comparisons was almost universally accepted, but DNA evidence was viewed with suspicion. In the intervening years, some judges (notably Judge Richard Matsch, from the Oklahoma City bombing trials) had expressed skepticism about the scientific validity of handwriting analysis, while during the same period DNA evidence became overwhelmingly acceptable. A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1993 made an effort to clarify the standards for the validity of scientific evidence but succeeded only in emphasizing the discretion of the trial judge to allow or disallow it. There was no way to predict whether a judge would find that a convincing scientific basis could be laid down for the kind of linguistic analysis Foster performed, and so no way to be sure that his testimony could, or could not, be used at a trial.

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Koby’s faith in the power of the grand jury to preserve testimony is questionable. In Colorado, there is little difference in admissibility between a witness’s signed statement and that same witness’s grand jury testimony under oath. Either one would be admissible if the witness later testified at trial and said something different. Most likely, neither one would be admissible if the witness disappeared before trial or refused to testify.

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Use immunity assures that neither the resulting testimony nor any fruits of that testimony can be used against the person to whom it has been granted. A witness who has been granted use immunity is therefore not vulnerable to self-incrimination and must answer all questions put to him.

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There was no impropriety in what the police were suggesting. In a 1983 case that got national attention, Alex Hunter had entered into an agreement with an attorney for a suspect in the murder of Sid Wells (a student who was dating the daughter of Robert Redford) that a grand jury would investigate the crime but would not return an indictment. The grand jurors investigating the Wells homicide were not made aware of this agreement. (As reported by the
Daily Camera
, November 22, 1998, p. C1.)

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This statement may have resulted from Boulder County’s infrequent use of grand juries and Hofstrom’s consequent unfamiliarity with their workings. In fact, using a grand jury to investigate a crime is a venerable and entirely proper practice.

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In Colorado and most states, a criminal prosecution may commence without a grand jury consideration, simply by the prosecutor’s creating and signing of a document called an information. In cases begun by this method, the defendant is entitled to a proceeding called a preliminary hearing, at which the prosecutor must present enough evidence to satisfy the presiding judge that there is probable cause to support the accusation. Unlike a grand jury proceeding, a preliminary hearing is usually public and is always adversarial, with defense counsel present and entitled to cross-examine and present witnesses.
      When there has been an indictment, the defendant is not entitled to a preliminary hearing, on the theory that the grand jury has already made a determination of probable cause. Most defense attorneys vastly prefer their clients to be charged by information rather than by indictment, because the adversarial preliminary hearing offers them opportunities to discover portions of the prosecution’s case.

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Under Colorado law the court supervising a grand jury may appoint an investigator to assist it, and the individual may be “an existing investigating law enforcement officer who is presently investigating the subject matter.” Once appointed, the grand jury investigator may be permitted to sit in on a grand jury’s proceedings. In the Sid Wells murder case, Alex Hunter’s office had police detective Dave Hayes, who headed the police department’s investigation of the murder, serve as the grand jury’s investigator.

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The thyroid gland, situated in the neck, regulates the body's metabolic rate. Thyroid tissue is made up of millions of tiny saclike follicles that store thyroid hormone in the form of thyroglobulin, a protein containing iodine. When secreted into the bloodstream, thyroglobulin is converted to thyroxine and small amounts of other similar hormones. Sufficient dietary iodine and stimulation by the pituitary gland are necessary for proper thyroxine production. Metabolic disorders result from oversecretion or undersecretion by the thyroid gland.

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A disease caused by partial or total failure of adrenocortical function, which is characterized by a bronzelike pigmentation of the skin and mucous membranes, anemia, weakness, and low blood pressure.

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The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that no person may be compelled to incriminate himself, and it gives all criminal defendants the option to refuse to testify at trial or before a grand jury. At a trial, the prosecutor is not allowed to call the jury’s attention to the defendant’s failure to take the stand, or to suggest that an innocent person would have offered some explanation for incriminating evidence. But evidence of a voluntary statement made before trial may be put before a jury, as long as the defendant was not compelled to make it and (if in custody when the statement was made) was advised of his right to remain silent.

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Voir dire (a corrupted pairing of the French words for
to see
and
to speak
) is the law’s name for the process of questioning prospective jurors or grand jurors to determine their qualifications and eliminate the unqualified, such as those who are acquainted with the litigants or have formed fixed opinions about the matters the jury will be hearing. In trial jury selection, most jurisdictions also offer lawyers the opportunity to exercise
peremptory challenges
(to eliminate a certain number of jurors without giving a reason), and the voir dire process gives the lawyers an opportunity to amass information they will employ to exercise their peremptory challenges.

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Tim Talkington was a deputy DA in Hunter’s office whom the writer wanted to interview about the history of the DA’s office.

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John Ramsey may have hoped that he could create an indelible record of Shapiro suggesting that the
Globe
had printed material harmful to the Ramseys with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity. In most American jurisdictions proof of such reckless claims, if they are not true, would subject the publisher to liability for defamation. Any statements by Shapiro would be admissible against his employer.

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This letter is excerpted here. It appears in its entirety in Appendix B.

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Colorado law allows for the appointment of “special deputy district attorneys” by a district attorney who requires such assistance to “properly discharge the duties of his office.” The special deputies may be drawn from the state attorney general’s office, from the offices of other district attorneys or city attorneys in the state, or from federal prosecutors based in Colorado. C.R.S. 20-1-201.

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The common term
indictment
is an abbreviation of the document’s formal name, a bill of indictment. Ordinarily a bill of indictment is prepared for the signature of the jury foreperson by the prosecutor working with the grand jury. If the grand jury votes to indict, the foreperson signs and the indictment becomes a “true bill.” If the grand jury declines to indict, the document becomes known as a “no true bill,” or (more commonly) a “no bill.” In the event that a prosecutor refused to sign a true bill of indictment returned by the grand jury, the indictment would not be legally sufficient as an accusation. The only remedy provided in Colorado law for this uncommon situation is contained in C. R. S. 16-5-209, which provides for the substitution of a special prosecutor in the event of a regular prosecutor’s “unjustified refusal” to prosecute a crime.

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The letter is abridged here. It appears in its entirety in Appendix C.