“Ken, I want you to dig up everything you can on Judge Stevens.”
“Judge Stevens? He’s as straight as an arrow. He—”
“I know he is. Do it, please.”
The federal prosecutor who was handling the case was an old pro named Carter Gifford.
“How are you going to plead him?” Gifford asked.
Jennifer gave him a look of innocent surprise. “Not guilty, of course.”
He laughed sardonically. “Judge Stevens will get a kick out of that. I suppose you’re going to move for a jury trial.”
“No.”
Gifford studied Jennifer suspiciously. “You mean you’re going to put your client in the hands of the hanging judge?”
“That’s right.”
Gifford grinned. “I knew you’d go around the bend one day, Jennifer. I can’t wait to see this.”
“The United States of America versus Paul Richards. Is the defendant present?”
The court clerk said, “Yes, Your Honor.”
“Would the attorneys please approach the bench and identify themselves?”
Jennifer and Carter Gifford moved toward Judge Stevens.
“Jennifer Parker representing the defendant”
“Carter Gifford representing the United States Government.”
Judge Stevens turned to Jennifer and said brusquely, “I’m aware of your reputation, Miss Parker. So I’m going to tell you right now that I do not intend to waste this court’s time. I will brook no delays in this case. I want to get on with this preliminary hearing and get the arraignment over with. I intend to set a trial date as speedily as possible. I presume you will want a jury trial and—”
“No, Your Honor.”
Judge Stevens looked at her in surprise. “You’re not asking for a jury trial?”
“I am not. Because I don’t think there’s going to be an arraignment.”
Carter Gifford was staring at her. “What?”
“In my opinion, you don’t have enough evidence to bring my client to trial.”
Carter Gifford snapped, “You need another opinion!” He turned to Judge Stevens. “Your Honor, the government has a very strong case. The defendant has already been convicted of committing exactly the same crime in exactly the same manner. Our computer picked him out of over two thousand possible suspects. We have the guilty man right here in this courtroom, and the prosecution has no intention of dropping the case against him.”
Judge Stevens turned to Jennifer. “It seems to the court that there is enough prima facie evidence here to have an arraignment and a trial. Do you have anything more to say?”
“I do, Your Honor. There is not one single witness who can positively identify Paul Richards. The FBI has been unable to find any of the stolen money. In fact, the only thing that links the defendant to this crime is the imagination of the prosecutor.”
The judge stared down at Jennifer and said with ominous softness, “What about the computer that picked him out?”
Jennifer sighed. “That brings us to a problem, Your Honor.”
Judge Stevens said grimly, “I imagine it does. It is easy to confuse a live witness, but it is difficult to confuse a computer.”
Carter Gifford nodded smugly, “Exactly, Your Honor.”
Jennifer turned to face Gifford. “The FBI used the IBM 370/168, didn’t it?”
“That’s right. It’s the most sophisticated equipment in the world.”
Judge Stevens asked Jennifer, “Does the defense intend to challenge the efficiency of that computer?”
“On the contrary, Your Honor. I have a computer expert here in court today who works for the company that manufactures the 370/168. He programmed the information that turned up the name of my client.”
“Where is he?”
Jennifer turned and motioned to a tall, thin man seated on a bench. He nervously came forward.
Jennifer said, “This is Mr. Edward Monroe.”
“If you’ve been tampering with my witness,” the prosecuting attorney exploded, “I’ll—”
“All I did was to request Mr. Monroe to ask the computer if there were other possible suspects. I selected ten people who had certain general characteristics similar to my client. For purposes of identification, Mr. Monroe programmed in statistics on age, height, weight, color of eyes, birthplace—the same kind of data that produced the name of my client.”
Judge Stevens asked impatiently, “What is the point of all this, Miss Parker?”
“The point is that the computer identified one of the ten people as a prime suspect in the bank robbery.”