From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [301]
“You can imagine what that did to them. It got me more publicity than the fencing championship did. None of them, not even the profs, could break the logic of it. You can see that yourself. The way to get recognition in this world is to startle people. Somebody once said that bad publicity was better than no publicity. But I say, bad publicity is better than good publicity. Shock people and they remember you. Any dumb son of a bitch can get good publicity.”
“I bet you felt good about it,” Prew said.
“Good!” Lt Culpepper said. “Why Prewitt, it was the thing that made me at the Point, thats all. After that paper, I was a made man. But thats what we’re working with here, you see? The same damn thing.”
Lt Culpepper took a deep breath. “And thats why I want you to plead guilty. Why, its a thing that I dont think has ever been done in the history of courts martial. Nobody ever pleads guilty at a court martial because the court never makes concessions for clemency.”
“Then it wont do much good, will it?” Prew said. “I——”
“You wait a minute. Let me lay it out for you before you go off half cocked. You dont see the implications yet.”
“In the first place,” Prew said, “I wasnt drunk. Not drunk enough that I dint know what I was doing.”
“Thats my whole point,” Lt Culpepper grinned triumphantly. “Whether you were really drunk or not doesnt matter. What matters is the witnesses say you were drunk. And by pleading guilty and admitting that you were, you merely turn around and use their own testimonies against them.”
“In other words,” Prew said, “you mean I can prove they were lying by admitting what they say is true.”
“Well,” the lieutenant said, “you can put it that way, yes. But I didnt say they were lying. Maybe they’re telling the truth.”
“How can they be telling the truth if I’m telling the truth when I say I wasn’t drunk?”
“Well in one sense they are lying, if you werent drunk. But in another sense they may be telling the truth, in that they really believe you were drunk. So actually, you both may be telling the truth, as you see it, and still disagree. See?”
“Yeah,” Prew said. “Its deep, aint it?”
Lt Culpepper nodded. “And a lawyer has to take all those things into account for you. Thats why they appoint one. But all that is beside the point. The point is what is in the testimonies. The court wont believe you if you say you werent drunk. They may not come right out and say it, but in their minds they will. Because every criminal always protests he is innocent. Thats SOP. That only helps convict you, you see? What you’ll really be doing is only trading a worthless fiction for three or four months in jail. The truth has nothing to do with the legal code a court martial runs by, or with the human relations that run the legal code. You see?”
“I guess so,” Prew said. “But I——”
“Now wait a minute. I had this typed out, saying you were drunk and didnt know what you were doing.”
Lt Culpepper opened the new yellow leather briefcase with the zipper on three sides and hunted in it and pulled out a paper and handed it to him. Then he closed the zipper lovingly.
“You read it over, to see its not putting you in a hole. I wouldnt want you to sign anything without reading it. Never sign anything without reading it, Prewitt. It’ll get you in trouble someday, if you do. And then after you’ve read it and signed it, we’ll turn it in out of the blue at the trial and I’ll ask for clemency with the court. Then they cant honorably give you more than a month and two-thirds, maybe only the two-thirds fine with no jail time.”
“I was always told military courts never accepted appeals for clemency,” Prew said.
“Thats it,” Lt Culpepper said enthusiastically. “Now you’re getting it. I bet its never been done before in the history of courts martial. If it has, I never heard of it. We’ll floor them.”
“But I dont——”
“Now wait,” Lt Culpepper admonished.