When he gave his half-cocked apology, obviously meant to further embarrass the State and its star witness, proving that she was not a credible witness, he said gently, “I’m sorry if I sound like an insensitive blithering idiot, going at you hammer and tongs like this. It’s just that my over zealousness to get the truth, to get to the bottom of this so that we can aid this court to arrive at a just verdict, sometimes gets the better of me. So can you please explain to this court who amongst my clients was the first to touch you in a, how can I put it, unwelcomed manner, because throughout your testimony you have been saying they, and I was made to believe in the beginning of the trial that we have accused number one, two, and three. Which, in other words means, we have no idea they. Am I correct, Mrs. Ngcobo?”

A snort of laughter erupted from the gallery, and the judge had to hit her gavel on her desk and warn them that whoever found the hearing to be so funny and amusing must excuse themselves from the court room because such behaviour would under no circumstances be tolerated.

Mrs. Ngcobo stammered. Her insides churning over, she looked at the prosecutor and moistened her lips by rolling her pink tongue over them with her mind already racing.

She said, “I was so shocked and unfortunately I can’t remember who it was, but it was them nonetheless.”

Mr. Shapiro said, “So, in other words, what you are admitting is that you don’t know who did what, Mrs. Ngcobo?” Mrs. Ngcobo couldn’t say it, but she just nodded in agreement with him and he said, “Thank you, Mrs. Ngcobo. I am inordinately pleased to hear that, for I never took you to be a creature who would mislead this court.”

From then on, her bravura mood got jolts whenever Mr. Shapiro opened his mouth, and she said to herself, “I get bad vibes from that guy. There is something that doesn’t ring true about him, and sadly it seems everyone is eating out of the palm of his hand. And you know what makes me even sicker to my stomach? It’s that even the judge seems to hang on his every word.” She could feel that her temper was beginning to simmer, but she was determined to play it cool so she had to summon all her coolness from her reserves.

When he was done with her, Mr. Shapiro indicated that he would not cross-examine any of the other prosecution witnesses, but would, instead, make a statement. He advised the court not to deal in shadows of suspected truths when they might have light – and the light according to him was that, since there was no Deoxyribonucleic acid – DNA to those unenlightened – linking them to the scene, his clients were not guilty; as simple as all that. He said that his deep sympathies were with the Ngcobo’s, whom he believed without any shadow of doubt were indeed attacked, but, he had to say, fortunately or unfortunately, not by his clients.

“My lady,” he said, “it is natural, of course, to assume that boys in bad or so-called bad neighbourhoods are especially prone to being rascals, as the state would surely like us to believe. But to condemn these good poor kids, who did absolutely nothing, because of their misfortunes of being born into poor families, would be a travesty of justice, and I believe this honourable court will not exacerbate that sad trend. After all, I have been made to believe that this court serves the interest of justice.”

Mr. Shapiro looked and felt handsome as the devil, and supposedly as wicked, and every woman over the age of twelve is able to note the difference, but still people, male and female alike, are unable to resist the deliberate charmer. He also wore an air of authority in his bearing and on his hard, no-nonsense, handsome face.

When the moment that every paparazzi was waiting for finally came to fruition, he turned a bit, looked at the prosecutor and said, “You know, it’s damn true what they say about you lot”.

He pointed to the prosecutor. He knew it would capture the public imagination and it did. “You gentlemen really don’t care who you go after, just as long as you believe that you will get a conviction and in the process earn a few stripes on the hats of your careers, but I never took you to be one who would want to advance one’s cause at the expense of innocent kids.”

The court room went silent, and he proceeded and said, “It would be prudent to note that, either by your over-zealousness or whatever you call it, some very important steps in the investigation and preparation of the State’s case were not followed. To name just one, the identity parade regulations were not followed. In this case it was not done at all, and who knows the reasons and why they feared doing it in the first place, because I know for a fact that the investigating officer and prosecution team are no novices in this field. So the question is, why was it not done?”

Now he turned to the judge. “My lady, surely fact has it that if they were sure that the victims could identify the accused as the assailants they would have done it without second thoughts? I mean, my lady, with maximum rapidity and minimum hesitation? But for some weird and wonderful reason, which eludes me, it was never conducted at all, and I reckon the State would not care to explain why.”

When Mr. Shapiro said, “My lady, there is nothing worse than being accused of something you didn’t do, nothing worse than being punished when you are innocent,” Jennifer felt her insides turning and it took something special to stop her from vomiting right there in the court. Wife and husband exchanged the briefest of glances for the third time that day.

“I am afraid it’s not a matter of truth and lies being told here, my lady, but of mistaken identity. The witnesses were, or let me say are, right about a lot of things that I need not elaborate on, but I am afraid they are wrong on material things like the identity of the culprits, and the failure by all the experts to pin any of my clients to the crime surely speaks volumes and attests to my assertion that my clients are not guilty.”

He had got them by short hairs, and he knew it as much as they did. He knew which switches to flick and which buttons to press. He smiled a genuine smile, that seemed to come from the bottom of his heart, but which was ruthless nonetheless. For what he wanted to achieve was unfair and unjust to the Ngcobo’s and all the law-abiding citizen who had come to give support to the Ngcobo’s, who had endured so much pain that their family was breaking apart in the hands of those boys he called his innocent clients.

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