Blinded by Stephen White Read Free Book Online Page B

testify against each other. Well, she’s willing to testify. Eager even. Her testimony would be voluntary.”
    “Like I said, it’s not that simple. He could assert his privilege and prevent her from testifying. But there are some circumstances that would allow his privilege to be overridden.”
    “Teach me.”
    “There are statutory exceptions to the spousal privilege evidence rules. Every state I’m aware of has a battering and child-abuse exception. If one spouse batters the other or injures a child, the injured spouse is free to testify about that against the batterer. But the case you’re describing is the murder of a third party, not domestic violence. Take Colorado. If the homicide you’re talking about had happened in Colorado, spousal privilege wouldn’t apply at all, because the case that’s in question involves a serious felony and in Colorado all spousal privilege is waived for serious felonies. Other states have different spousal privilege statutes, with different exceptions. Some have felony exceptions, like Colorado, some don’t. Ultimately, a lot is going to depend on what state this homicide of yours happened in.”
    “Please go on.”
    “In many states, including ours, spouses can’t testify against each other without the consent of the other spouse. But in some states there’s no felony exception to that rule. If your client is from one of those states, unless her husband granted his consent-which I think we can agree is unlikely if she’s about to accuse him of murder-she wouldn’t be allowed to testify against him, even for an alleged homicide.”
    Emily walked over, wanting her ears scratched. I obliged. “Do you know how the law works in any other states?”
    “Any one in particular?” Lauren teased.
    “Sorry, I can’t tell you which state this is about. I wish I could. What other ones do you know?”
    “I passed the California bar, remember?”
    Lauren and I were both on our second marriages. Her first had taken her briefly to California. We didn’t talk about our exes much, so her reference to her time in California hung in the air like the scent of burnt garlic.
    “Okay, what’s California ’s spousal privilege statute? Do you remember that kind of detail?”
    “It was a lot of years ago, but my memory is that it’s one of the more conservative laws, or liberal laws, depending, I guess, on whether you’re a prosecutor or a defense attorney. I think there’s a mutual consent rule in California, but I don’t believe that there’s a felony exception.”
    “Which means that, hypothetically, if this old murder took place in California, my client couldn’t testify against her husband without his consent.”
    “If I’m right, that’s exactly what it means.”
    I figured she was right; my experience was that Lauren was usually correct about matters of the law. I thought about the complications that her facts presented and explained, “I was going to run it by Sam today. To see what this would be like from a police point of view-you know, to get a call like the one I’m about to make. But I decided that it wasn’t a good idea.”
    “No, it wouldn’t be a good idea for him. Not now, given his condition. I’m not sure it’s even a good idea for you. You may not want to be in the middle of this, Alan. Think it through carefully.”
    “Why? What do you mean?”
    “Let’s say it turns out that your client is right about… everything that she believes her husband did. If that’s the case, then you know three things about her husband. One, that he’s a killer. Two, that he’s a batterer.”
    She raised her spoon to her mouth.
    “And number three?” I asked.
    Lauren swallowed, sat back, and sipped some Riesling before she answered. “That he’s not going to be happy with you for turning him in to the police.” She reached across the table and took my hand. “And Emily and Grace and I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
    “Anvil too,” I