Final justice - W.E.B. Griffin [12]
One was an "Activities Sheet," which listed every move detectives of the Homicide Bureau had made in the case, including a listing of every interview conducted. The Activities Sheet was a "discoverable document," which meant it would have to be made available to the defense counsel of anyone brought to trial in the case. Attached to it was a teletype message known as a "white paper," which was a less formal, less precise report. As an unofficial, internal memorandum, the white paper was not "discoverable." The two documents together presented the details of the case as it had so far developed.
According to them, Officer Charlton had, at 11:26 the previous evening, responded to a radio report of a robbery in progress at the Roy Rogers restaurant at South Broad and Snyder Streets in South Philadelphia. That was a fact and was listed on the Activities Sheet. It was also a fact that Officer Charlton had not waited for backup to arrive before going into the restaurant.
The white paper theorized that Officer Charlton had been close to the scene when the call came, and had probably decided that he would have backup within a minute or two, but that waiting for it before entering the restaurant would give the robbers a chance to escape. It was further theorized that the doers had probably seen his patrol car coming. Charlton had been on the job seventeen years, and if he had used his siren and flashing lights at all, he was experienced enough to have turned them off before getting close to the scene. One of the doers had then ducked behind the cashier's counter, waited until Officer Charlton started to come behind the register, then grabbed him and held him while the other doer had shoved a pistol under Charlton's body armor and fired and shot him in the spine.
After the doer who had grabbed Charlton had paused long enough to fire two shots at Charlton's body, both doers had then fled from the restaurant. An autopsy might be able to determine if the first shot had killed Charlton, or whether he had still been alive when the second doer had shot him twice again.
It was splitting legal hairs.
Under Paragraph 250l(a) of the Criminal Code of Pennsylvania, Criminal Homicide is defined as the act of intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently causing the death of another human being.
Paragraph 2502(b) of the Criminal Code of Pennsylvania further defines Criminal Homicide to be Murder of the Second Degree when the offense is committed by someone engaged as the principal, or an accomplice, in the perpetration of a felony. Armed robbery is a felony.
So if it was determined that Officer Charlton died immediately as a result of being shot by Doer Number One at the cash register, Doer Number Two was guilty of the crime of Murder in the Second Degree because the act occurred while he was an accomplice in the commission of a felony.
If Officer Charlton was still alive when Doer Number Two shot him twice again, killing him, then Doer Number Two was guilty of Murder in the Second Degree because he was the principal, and Doer Number One was guilty as the accomplice.
The Activities Sheet reported that by the time other police arrived at the scene, both Doer Number One and Doer Number Two had disappeared into the night and that a very poor-quality photograph had been taken of them as they left the scene by a citizen, and turned over to the Homicide Bureau.
Both Commissioner Coughlin and Captain Hollaran were familiar with all the details in the report on Coughlin's desk. They had been at the Roy Rogers before Officer Charlton's body had been taken away by the coroner.
There was a standing operating procedure that Commissioner Coughlin--who exercised responsibility for all the patrol functions of the department--would be immediately notified in a number of circumstances, whatever the hour. Those circumstances included the death of a police officer on duty.
There was an unofficial standing operating procedure understood and invariably applied by the police dispatchers. Whenever a call came in asking to