no way around it. He simply could not let certain things Wilson said go unchallenged.
“Mr. Wilson also mentioned that one of the friends who testified suggested the defendant had a death wish; but remember that under cross-examination, that witness admitted it was he and not the defendant who said that to Mr. Johnson, and not the other way around. This alleged ‘death wish’ was the best the State could do to come up with a motive of why the defendant would murder Beth Ann Brooks. No other motive has been suggested; in fact, there’s no evidence of any motive at all – no testimony about problems between Mr. Johnson and Miss Brooks, and no psychiatric testimony that Mr. Johnson is mentally disturbed enough to harbor such a death wish and want to take others with him when he dies. Without a motive, we have no murder. In your sadness for the death of Beth Ann Brooks, you may want there to be a motive; but are you positive there really is one?”
It’s time for what Campbell hopes will be the deciding factor for the jury, if for some reason they are still wavering at this point.
“Ladies and gentlemen, by far the biggest decision you have to make is whether the defendant, Tyree Johnson, is actually HIV-Positive, and possesses and used the only murder weapon possible in this trial – a virus known as HIV. You heard almost three weeks of testimony from a lot of our expert witness questioning the validity of the tests that diagnosed the defendant with HIV infection. Mr. Wilson praised his own expert witnesses, but he didn’t seem to like mine very much. But I would remind you that they were accepted by this court as experts, as Mr. Wilson’s were, and should enjoy equal standing with them. Mr. Wilson also chided me for calling a logic expert, and a statistical expert, claiming that we should be dealing with science instead. I’m not entirely sure why he would have such a problem with that; as far as I know, science has always
“Mr. Wilson also mentioned that one of the friends who testified suggested the defendant had a death wish; but remember that under cross-examination, that witness admitted it was he and not the defendant who said that to Mr. Johnson, and not the other way around. This alleged ‘death wish’ was the best the State could do to come up with a motive of why the defendant would murder Beth Ann Brooks. No other motive has been suggested; in fact, there’s no evidence of any motive at all – no testimony about problems between Mr. Johnson and Miss Brooks, and no psychiatric testimony that Mr. Johnson is mentally disturbed enough to harbor such a death wish and want to take others with him when he dies. Without a motive, we have no murder. In your sadness for the death of Beth Ann Brooks, you may want there to be a motive; but are you positive there really is one?”
It’s time for what Campbell hopes will be the deciding factor for the jury, if for some reason they are still wavering at this point.
“Ladies and gentlemen, by far the biggest decision you have to make is whether the defendant, Tyree Johnson, is actually HIV-Positive, and possesses and used the only murder weapon possible in this trial – a virus known as HIV. You heard almost three weeks of testimony from a lot of our expert witness questioning the validity of the tests that diagnosed the defendant with HIV infection. Mr. Wilson praised his own expert witnesses, but he didn’t seem to like mine very much. But I would remind you that they were accepted by this court as experts, as Mr. Wilson’s were, and should enjoy equal standing with them. Mr. Wilson also chided me for calling a logic expert, and a statistical expert, claiming that we should be dealing with science instead. I’m not entirely sure why he would have such a problem with that; as far as I know, science has always