Capitol Murder Read Free Page B

of which he was accused. Spurred on by love and the knowledge that she was serving Justice by righting a great wrong, Millie had put together the best brief she had ever written, and everyone said she had been brilliant during the hearing. Clarence had brought out the best in her, and she was so certain she’d win that she had started fantasizing about further victories at Clarence’s retrials, ending with the star-crossed lovers united with no bars or bulletproof glass to keep them apart.
    Millie lived in an old brick apartment house just off Twenty-third Street. It was a little pricey because of the location, but it was one of the few luxuries she allowed herself. The furniture was secondhand and the art on the walls was reproductions or posters. There was a dining area, but Millie rarely entertained, and she ate her meals at a table in the small kitchen. Tea and toast was all she could handle this morning, but she enjoyed reading the paper because the Oregonian had a special feature about Clarence’s case in the Metro section, and she was mentioned several times.
    Millie had bought a new outfit for court and had gone to the beauty parlor to have her hair straightened to take out the frizz. After she applied her makeup, she rehearsed the speech she would make to the reporters after her victory, watching her facial expressions in her bathroom mirror to make sure they were just right. Then she dressed in a black business suit and sky blue silk shirt. She hoped she looked professional for the cameras, but more important was looking good for Clarence when she met with him at the penitentiary in the afternoon to tell him that he was one step closer to freedom.
    T he Marion County Circuit Court heard all postconviction cases because the state penitentiary was in Salem, Oregon’s capital, and Salem was in Marion County. The Marion County courthouse, a dull white steel-and-glass building, was an example of fifties functional government architecture, and Judge Case’s courtroom was as sexy as a DMV office, but Millie couldn’t care less about her surroundings. The spectator section was packed with reporters and the curious, and every eye, including Millie’s, was focused on the overweight, gray-haired man in the black robe who was seated behind the bench.
    “The issue before me is whether Clarence Little’s convictions for the murders of Winona Benford and Carol Poole must be reversed because evidence concerning the murder of Laurie Erickson was introduced by the prosecution at those trials,” Judge Case began.
    “This is an extremely troubling matter. I would say that it is the most troubling case I have handled in thirty-two years on the bench. The person responsible for the murders of these innocent young women is no common criminal; he is a monster and deserves the most severe punishment the law permits. But our Constitution requires that all trials be fair, no matter who the defendant is, and my job is to study what happened in these two trials to make certain that they meet the requirements of the constitutions of Oregon and the United States.
    “In my written opinion, I have set out in great detail the evidence in Mr. Little’s trials. There are great similarities in all of the crimes in the way these women were abducted, the method of torture, and of course, there is the signature removal of the victim’s pinkie in each case. Yet the state concedes that Mr. Little is unquestionably innocent of murdering Miss Erickson.
    “Laurie Erickson’s case was one of the most highly publicized cases in recent history. Not only did it attract local interest, but it was reported nationally and internationally. Miss Erickson was abducted from the Governor’s Mansion while Christopher Farrington was the governor of this state. Mr. Little’s separate trials for the murders of Winona Benford, Carol Poole, and Miss Erickson took place while Mr. Farrington was the vice president of the United States.
    “Mr. Little was