One week, that was all it took for this to become a firestorm issue. No matter what channel I flipped to, there was at least one segment on the Ben Walton case. Levi had an interview with KWNN coming up in the next few minutes, and it was going to be broadcasted globally.
“What? You think just because I’m a democrat my views on this would magically change?” he asked, when I sat back down at the conference table. “I don’t think this is a race based case. I think anyone who had been involved in an affair with her would have suffered the same punishment.”
He prepared himself for my comeback, but instead, I nodded my head, “I agree.”
“You what?”
“I agree. All the evidence we have points to this being a series of disastrous events.”
“The public defender is an alcoholic!” Vivian ran in waving a paper above her head. Tristan came up behind her, and took the paper out of her hands.
“How did you get this?”
“There wasn’t much information about the public defender, so I thought I would go down to his office and see if he still worked there. He didn’t. He was “let go” six months after the case. Since he wasn’t officially fired, there was no write up. However, when he went looking for a new job, his former boss wrote a letter detailing his drunk stupors saying, ‘that man should not be allowed to practice law.’ ”
“Where is he is now?”
“He died five years ago due to an alcohol-related liver disease.”
“How sad. But dead men refute evidence. They just gave you this letter?”
“The new boss apparently is sympathetic to this case. She only asks we do not make too many connections between their office and him.”
“Keep this up, and we might have to save a spot for you when you graduate,” Tristan said as he glanced up at us. “Do you two have anything useful to add, or are you going to keep braiding each other’s hair?”
Luckily, we didn’t have to answer that question. Levi came on the screen, and I hated the fact that his tie was slightly crooked, and I wanted to be the one to fix it. Its off-green color made his emerald green eyes stand out even more.
I want to touch him again.
Even with everything that was going on, and the fact that my life had changed overnight even more so than I ever would have thought possible, I still longed to touch him.
“Thank you for taking the time to speak to us Mr. Black.”
“No, thank you for bring up this case. For so long we’ve only heard one side to it.”
“So. Do you truly believe that Ben Walton is innocent?”
“I do.”
“But you were married to Odile Van Allen, were you not? Why would you even consider taking on this case?”
“I was, and my marriage to Odile Van Allen has no bearing on this case. I understand that it must hurt her, but that was never my intention. People have been asking me why would I take this case and it confuses me. There is an innocent man on death row. I know that. I can prove that. I’m not demanding that the state release him, all I’m asking is that they revisit his case.
“The law states that the motion for a new trial can be sought if the correction of an injustice is needed, and when I look at Ben Walton’s case, all I see is injustice. Whether or not that injustice has been inflicted upon him because he’s black, I don’t know, and I don’t care… the fact remains; a grave injustice has been done and he is entitled to a legal defiance against the man who sat next to him; he was an alcoholic who was fired six months after Mr. Walton had been convicted. We have in our possession, a letter from his former employer, which states that he shouldn’t have been allowed to practice law. To me, this is a perfect explanation as to why he couldn’t challenge one single witness.”
How did he know that? We’d only just found that information out ourselves!
“Text messages are great, aren’t they?” Tristan kicked his feet up. “He’s in full fighting form right now.”
“If the state truly believes that he is guilty, then granting a new trial should not be a problem. We have tipped our hand. All of our cards on the table. With these types of mistakes, mistakes not even my students would have made, a man’s life is on the line, so I ask you here today, how can you turn your eyes from such an injustice? Ben Walton had a life, two beautiful daughters, an amazing career as the chief writer and editor at the Boston Noble, under the pseudonym Law Bonnet—”
“Law Bonnet was Ben Walton?” The reporter said in shock.
Law Bonnet was the master of breaking news. He wrote about everything and one from presidents to politicians and called them out, to exposing headline stories. If you wanted to know what people were going to say on the news on Monday, you had to read Law Bonnet on Friday.
“Yes, and the moment Ben Walton was arrested, the Boston Noble hid all ties that connected them to him, and gave the name he had created for himself to a ghost writer. If this had been brought up in court, the Jury would have known that Savannah Van Allen was given not one, but two feature articles that year. The first one was offered to her, and the second one she personally requested. She knew him. She was involved with him. The more you pull on the string, the more evidence there is that falls out of the closet.”
“I can’t wait to read the Boston Noble in the morning,” Atticus snickered to himself.