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That, of course, was precisely what the defense wanted. Price cited for Burnett a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said that witnesses other than the accused had “no right” to refuse to take the stand. Moreover, the opinion read, once reluctant witnesses were on the stand, if they did not wish to testify, they had to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights “to each question” that was asked.282

Jason’s other lawyer, Robin Wadley, jumped in, arguing that so far, Morgan’s lawyer had not shown any reason why he was entitled to claim the Fifth Amendment privilege. “There’s been talk from his lawyer about the fact that there’s some drug charges in Memphis which this may, in some way, impact,” Wadley said, “but there’s been no showing as to why or how. Until that’s done, I don’t believe we can make a determination as to whether or not he is even entitled to make the Fifth Amendment claim.”

“Anything else?” Burnett asked.

Morgan’s court-appointed lawyer, Scott Emerson, spoke up. In highly veiled language, he noted that the drug charges Morgan faced might somehow relate to the murders, and that they represented part of the reason Morgan did not want to testify. As Emerson cryptically told Burnett:

There are charges pending against this gentleman in the federal court in the State of Tennessee. I have been on the telephone and I have talked extensively with his attorney from Memphis on the charge, who was shocked and appalled that Mr. Morgan did not have some counsel appointed when he requested an attorney being appointed…. I’ve been advised by my client, and I’ve been advised by the attorneys that there may be also—in addition to possibly incriminating himself pertaining to these events—that there are some overlapping facts regarding the federal court charges.

Jason’s lawyer Robin Wadley could hardly contain his frustration. “Judge,” he said, “they talk about these federal charges in Memphis. We don’t know what the charges are, when the charges were filed, what the allegations in the charges are, when the alleged contact that he has been charged with was contended to have happened.”

Then Price spoke up again, citing Arkansas case law, which plainly stated that a trial court “should not accept a witness’s blanket assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege.”283

“Anything else?” Burnett asked again.

Now it was Fogleman’s turn. “Your Honor,” the deputy prosecutor said, “what the state objects to is them wanting him to get on the stand in front of the jury and the whole world and exercise his Fifth Amendment rights, which, as the court knows, even though they’ll be advised of the privilege, it will appear to the general public and probably to the jurors that that means he must have done something, for him to exercise that Fifth Amendment right, and we object to that being done in the presence of the jury and in the public.”

Fogleman also raised another matter rather delicately for Judge Burnett. That was that when Morgan had been questioned during the earlierin camera hearing, “he was compelled to be here. He was under subpoena. He was not free once he took the stand to get down and walk off the stand. He was not advised of his rights. He asked for a lawyer during that—”

“He asked for a lawyer when he took the stand,” Burnett interjected, “and after about the second or third question. And I directed him to answer the question. It was for that reason I decided he needed to have a lawyer appointed.” Burnett then left the issue at hand and lashed out at the defense attorneys. “This has been the most bizarre case I have ever seen in my life,” he fumed. “There’s every kind of little, incidental matter that’s come up throughout it…. I’d also want to point out that the defendant’s lawyers—Mr. Echols’s lawyers—violated one of the rules by disclosing the identity of a confidential source. The court instructed the parties that no mention of—is it Byers?—Mr. Byers’s cooperation with the Memphis Police Department, West Memphis Police Department, or the drug task force would be mentioned, and yet it was mentioned. That’s just one example of