Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [141]
Moneypenny elaborated.
What happened with him is he went inward. He withdrew. And as he grew up, he created in his own mind sort of a fantasy world. This withdrawal, I think, was an effort to pull away from this—what I think he perceived as a—very dangerous, unnurturing, unsupportive world out there…. But he was bright enough, and he’s very thoughtful, and in his own mind he started answering—or attempting to answer—a lot of the kinds of questions that all children ask. You know: Who am I? Why am I here? What am I going to do? Where are we going? And I think, importantly, asking the kinds of questions such as, you know, why is there unfairness? How come things don’t always work the way they’re supposed to? How come people get disappointed? And ordinarily, children get what we call corrective messagery. You know, you explain things to your children and you tell them how it can be okay, and you tell them how to survive and get along despite the world’s imperfections. I think Damien missed a lot of that kind of thing….
As a result, the psychologist said, Damien had developed some irrational and delusional ideas.
But the doctor predicted that Damien could be “treated successfully” in prison, where “there would be a sense of stability.” He explained that he’d once asked Damien what he would teach his son, if he had a chance to raise him. “I would teach him that he was special,” Damien had replied, “and I would teach him that he may not be the same, but that don’t mean you’re wrong.” Moneypenny considered that to be “a real reflection” of Damien’s needs as well.
When Fogleman rose to cross-examine the psychologist, Lax sank in his seat. His fears had been justified. “In your review of the records,” Fogleman began, “did you review his records from the East Arkansas Mental Health Center?” Moneypenny said that he had. Fogleman pointed to the folder in the psychologist’s lap. “Could I see that, please?” he asked.
Theoretically, these were confidential records—records that the prosecution should not have seen. “Of course,” Fogleman later said, “we didn’t know what was in the records.” But now that Damien’s own defense attorneys had introduced the records, and the prosecutor was free to explore them, Lax expected the worst. He shuddered, wondering only how effectively Fogleman would use the information contained in the files. Fogleman later said that he had never seen the files before, but as the prosecutor flipped through the pages Moneypenny had handed him, it appeared to Lax that the prosecutor knew precisely what he was looking for.
“Are these in chronological order?” Fogleman asked the doctor. Moneypenny said he did not know.
While Fogleman searched, Jason’s attorney asked for another consultation with Judge Burnett. He objected on Jason’s behalf to what was transpiring. Noting that Damien’s medical records had been privileged until “the mental capacity of the defendant was placed at issue” here in the sentencing phase of the trial, Ford argued that the records had the potential to be “extremely prejudicial” to his client. “Jason Baldwin’s life is on the line,” Ford told Judge Burnett, “and these statements that are going to be brought out may, in fact, take his life without any opportunity whatsoever by counsel for Jason to have ever obtained these records…. We are totally and completely handcuffed…. We did not know that the psychology of Damien would be placed in issue. We’ve never had an opportunity to review these records. We are totally and completely helpless, yet his life hangs in the balance.”
Ford asked Burnett to instruct the prosecutors “to make no reference to these records,” but Burnett declined, though—again—he told Ford that he would instruct the jurors that the records were to apply only to Damien. Again, Ford moved for a severance, and again he was