Beyond Terror: A Battered Wife on Trial for the Alleged Murder of Her Husband - Softcover

REVORD, RAOUL D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1462048641 ISBN 13: 9781462048649

Verlag: iUniverse, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

She would be severely beaten and likely killed if she stayed, but certainly killed if she tried to leave. Was it self-defense, or was it murder? To defend his client, one lawyer from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula must find the truth in forensic evidence and through a sensational trial, portray to the jury a drama of the life of Jean and John Davis. Revord’s  Beyond Terror tells readers this gripping story of a battered wife who suddenly is left no choice but to end years of domestic violence by killing her abusive husband.

Attorney David Chartier was spending quality time with his family in their cabin near the Upper Twin Lake when a phone call from a highly distressed woman broke the peace and serenity of that evening. It was Jean Davis, David’s longtime client, calling from the Michigan State Police Post where she is being held for her husband’s murder. After years of physical and emotional abuse, Jean abruptly realized that her only chance of staying alive was to kill her husband.

So begins David’s investigation, examination, gathering and analysis of forensic evidence that will provide a defense for his client. Beyond Terror follows the proceedings of the trial, beginning with David’s investigation at the scene until the final verdict from the jury and appellate decision of the Court of Appeals. A shocking and unexpected end to the novel awaits readers.

A trial lawyer for forty-eight years himself, Revord delivers this fictional story—inspired largely on real events—with much precision, capturing the technicalities and the drama involved in criminal proceedings. For more information on Beyond Terror, log on to :

Visit my website www.RaoulDRevordEsq.com

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Raoul D. Revord, Esq. received his bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a JD from the Michigan State University College of Law. He served as a trial lawyer for forty-eight years. Now retired, Revord lives in the Hiawatha National Forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Beyond Terror is his first novel.

Visit my website www.RaoulDRevordEsq.com

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Beyond Terror

A Battered Wife on Trial for the Alleged Murder of Her HusbandBy Ralph Thornton

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Ralph Thornton
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-4864-9

Contents

Dedication................................................................viiAcknowledgments...........................................................ixPrologue..................................................................xiChapter 1: An Interruption at Upper Twin Lake.............................1Chapter 2: Investigation at the Scene.....................................14Chapter 3: An Early Arraignment...........................................20Chapter 4: Private Investigator's Investigation...........................26Chapter 5: The Theories of the Case.......................................30Chapter 6: The Preliminary Examination....................................35Chapter 7: A Search for Experts...........................................54Chapter 8: Discovery......................................................59Chapter 9: Pretrial Motion Regarding Voir Dire............................66Chapter 10: Jury Selection................................................74Chapter 11: Opening Statements............................................89Chapter 12: The Prosecution's Case........................................101Chapter 13: The Case is with the Defense..................................105Chapter 14: Rebuttal Witnesses............................................170Chapter 15: Closing Argument for the Prosecution..........................173Chapter 16: Closing Argument for the Defense..............................181Chapter 17: Prosecution Rebuttal..........................................196Chapter 18: Judge Roode's Instructions to the Jury........................200Chapter 19: The Verdict...................................................213Chapter 20: Sentencing....................................................218Chapter 21: The Appeal and Court of Appeals Decision......................221Chapter 22: Jean's Release from Prison and Homecoming.....................224End Notes.................................................................227About the Author..........................................................229

Chapter One

An Interruption at Upper Twin Lake

Two hours later that evening, Ann called from the kitchen, "David, there is a client on the phone wanting to speak with you."

"Thank you," he replied, as he reached for the phone on the end table next to him in the living room of the cabin.

Ann was just about to clean up the table on the porch, overlooking the Upper Twin Lake, and start washing dishes, while David had begun playing his guitar, sitting in his favorite chair, near a blazing fire in the stone fireplace, his father-in-law singing "Old Shep." The family was just beginning to relax with music and song after a dinner of grilled steaks, baked potatoes, salad, and corn-on-the-cob. In addition to David and his wife, both their parents, and their three children, were at the cabin. David expected that the telephone caller might be a client who wanted to talk to him about drafting a will, or perhaps a drunken-driving arrest or some mundane real estate matter.

"This is Attorney David Chartier, who is calling?"

In a barely audible, but highly distressed voice, a woman replied, "This is Jean Davis ... I'm ... (sobbing) at the State Police Post, I had to shoot that son of a bitch (sobbing loudly), he was going to kill us."

"What ... John? Is he alive?" David inquired.

"No!" she stated.

"I've been arrested for murder."

David paused for a moment, not knowing what to say. What a shock! He finally got command of his thoughts and his voice and he barked over the phone. "Jean, I'll be right down; don't speak to the officers, except to tell them that you do not want to be questioned further, and that you want counsel. Do you understand?" David asked.

"Yes," she said.

David grabbed a pen and a yellow pad that was on the end table near the phone, leaving his guitar, the cabin, and his family, amid questions about who and what the telephone call was about, telling them only, "I have to see a client who has been arrested for murder."

"Do you have to go now?" inquired Ann.

"Yes, Ann ... my client is being held by the Michigan State Police for murder; she has asked for me, as her attorney," David replied, really feeling badly about leaving the whole family, when he had been looking forward to spending the entire evening with them.

David had defended several clients facing the charge of domestic violence. With this call, however, the tables have turned. He thought about that phrase—domestic violence—and did not recall ever hearing those two words used together, prior to ten years ago. It is not that there was not such a thing as domestic violence, but the label—domestic violence—just did not seem to David to have been a familiar phrase to describe Dick kicking the shit out of Jane, during the 1970s. It must have been when the abused wives and domestic partners began standing up for themselves, refusing to live in a hostile home environment.

"Domestic violence" was in recent times on the front pages of newspapers every other day, it seemed; the public sees it on the television and they read books about it. People who did not live with violence in the home did not hear much about it. People, who did live with violence in the home, did not talk about it. It is like an elephant in the living room—everyone knows it is there, but no one wants to talk about it.

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.) has vast regions of total forest and lakes with only a sprinkling of small towns, bordering the north shore of Lake Michigan and the south shore of Lake Superior. Most of the U.P. towns are separated by about twenty-five to forty miles distance from its nearest neighboring town. Many old-timers say that was about the distance a horse could travel in a day. Persons born and raised in the U.P. are sometimes referred to as Yoopers, while people from downstate coming to the U.P. are referred to as Trolls—living in Michigan's Lower Peninsula, below the Mackinac bridge, at the Straits of Mackinac, the connecting waters between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. David and Ann's cabin, built in the early 1930s from hand-hewn pine logs—having a small kitchen, with a wood-burning cook stove, living room with a stone fireplace, two bedrooms, and a glassed-in porch, overlooked the Upper Twin Lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan's Hiawatha National Forest. The cabin had neither running water, nor an indoor toilet—it had a picture pump in the kitchen and there was an old outhouse, just fifty feet east of the cabin—it was David's favorite place to be, offering a real repose from the stress of a busy law practice. It had been a perfect autumn day, sunny; all of the trees—except the evergreen—were in full color.

David left the cabin knowing that Ann would be upset at his leaving, his heart palpating, driving down the sandy drive, through the mixed red and white pines, to the Buckhorn Road, and on to Federal Forest Highway 13, heading north toward the Michigan State Police Post, in the city of Pictured Rocks, Michigan. That evening, David did not look much like a trial lawyer; he was wearing shorts, a sweatshirt, and sandals.

Pictured Rocks is a small town—approximately 3500...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1462048641
• ISBN 13: 9781462048649
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 244
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Deutschland