Capture (Butch Karp Thrillers) by Robert K. Tanenbaum Page A

called all those experts and suddenly I wasn’t so sure anymore.”
    “It was the old spaghetti defense,” former federal prosecutor Dennis Hall said.
    “Spaghetti defense?” Moishe asked, having just wandered over.
    “Yeah, throw it all against the wall and see what sticks,” Hall explained. “Just how many ‘expert witnesses’ did the defense call, Butch, a dozen?”
    “Something like that,” Karp agreed, sitting down. The others knew that as a rule he didn’t comment much about ongoing cases. He trusted these men, but someone might innocently let something slip in the wrong company, and it’d be in the newspapers by morning. He didn’t believe in trying his cases in the court of public opinion, nor did he want something he said to be used by a defense attorney.
    “It’s ridiculous,” Hall complained.
    “Au contraire,” replied Epstein, who as a former defense attorney was Hall’s counterpart in these philosophical legal debates. “The defendant has the right to produce any and all evidence that might throw doubt on what the prosecution alleges, or demonstrate his innocence. It’s up to the state to prove its case and counter the defense experts if it can. That’s our system of justice.”
    “The spaghetti defense has nothing to do with justice or the search for the truth,” Hall retorted. “It has everything to do with trying to befuddle the jury. Defense attorneys hope that if theythrow enough nonsense in the air, Susie Housewife, Joe Plumber, Bernie Businessman, and Miguel Mechanic on the jury will be too confused to convict their client beyond a reasonable doubt.”
    “Ah, but the so-called search for the truth is the role of the district attorney,” Epstein pointed out. “The role of the defense attorney is to zealously represent his client and force the state to prove its case.”
    “Which means the state has to call its own dozen witnesses to match up against the defense’s hired guns.”
    “Why?” All eyes turned to Karp, who then rephrased his question. “Why does the state have to match the defense experts?”
    Hall and Epstein both shrugged. “If for no other reason, juries expect it these days,” Epstein said. “They’ve all been watching CSI and Forensic Files . They think that both sides are supposed to call experts to battle it out.”
    Karp nodded as if something had just occurred to him, but instead of saying anything, he turned to Moishe. “So Moishe, what do you think about this debate over expert testimony?”
    Moishe waved his hand. “I’m just a baker. What do I know of these things?”
    “Humor me,” Karp replied. “We have these august attorneys—two of the best in the business—who say that the prosecution and the defense ought to call as many experts as they deem necessary and then let the jury sort out who’s telling the truth.”
    The little baker thought for a moment. “Well, in baking—and, I have found, in life—usually less is more. Too much sugar and the flavor is lost in the sweetness. Too much fruit and you can’t taste the pastry. If something is good, don’t mess it up by adding to it…. Maybe it is the same in the courtroom. Sometimes it compounds a lie to repeat it, even if it’s to counter the lie. It is like these people who claim that the Holocaust never occurred. They have a thousand small lies that they claim proves their point. These lies add up to the one big lie. A lie so big that even good people begin to wonder if there is at least some truth to it.”
    “So you’re saying too many experts cloud the picture?” Hall said, shooting his friend and adversary Epstein a smile.
    “In a way,” Moishe agreed. “The one big lie is like a giant ragingbeast and throwing small rocks can’t bring it down; they only give it substance—otherwise, why throw?”
    “So how do you bring down the one big lie?” Karp asked, intrigued by how the turn in conversation mirrored his discussion in the Jewish role model classes just a few