Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [17]
But it was still going to be a tough road to a conviction. The judge had addressed the jurors and informed them that the case involved a murder charge and that including jury selection and allowing for jury deliberation, the trial would probably take about four weeks.
Emily looked over her right shoulder. There were several report?ers in the front row of the courtroom, and she was aware that there had been television cameras and photographers filming Aldrich and his attorneys as they entered the courthouse. She also knew that once the jury was impaneled and she and Moore were giving their opening statements, the courtroom would be packed. The judge had ruled that the trial could be televised, and Michael Gordon, the anchor of the cable show Courtside, was planning to cover it.
She swallowed to combat the sudden dryness in her throat. She had over twenty jury trials under her belt and had won most of them, but this was by far the highest-profile case in which she had ever been involved. Again she warned herself: This is no slam dunk.
The first potential juror, a grandmotherly lady in her late sixties, was being questioned at the bench. The judge asked her out of the hearing of the rest of the panel if she had formed any opinion about the defendant.
“Well, Your Honor, since you're asking me, and since I'm an honest person, I think he's guilty as sin.”
Moore didn't have to say anything. Judge Stevens did it for him. Politely but firmly, he told the obviously disappointed juror that she was dismissed.
Just Take My Heart
13
The tedious task of selecting and swearing a jury took three days. At nine a.m. on the fourth day, the judge, the jury, the attorneys, and the defendant were assembled. Judge Stevens told the jurors that the attorneys would now be presenting their opening statements. He gave them general instructions and explained that since the prosecu?tor had the burden of proof, she would proceed first.
Taking a deep breath, Emily rose from her chair and walked over toward the jurors. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As Judge Stevens has told you, my name is Emily Wallace and I am an assis?tant prosecutor in the office of the Bergen County Prosecutor. I have been given the responsibility of presenting to you, for your review and your consideration, the evidence that the state has gathered in the matter of State versus Gregg Aldrich. As Judge Stevens has also told you, what I say now and what Mr. Moore may say in his opening statement is not evidence. The evidence will come from the wit?nesses who will testify and from the exhibits that are marked into evi?dence. The purpose of my opening statement is to give you an overview of the state's case so that as each witness testifies, you will have a better understanding of where that testimony fits within the total scheme of the state's case.
“After all of the testimony is completed, I will have another op?portunity to speak to you —in my summation—and, at that time, I respectfully submit to you, I will be able to say to you that the state's witnesses and the physical exhibits have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that Gregg Aldrich brutally murdered his wife.”
For the next forty-five minutes, Emily meticulously detailed the investigation and the circumstances that had led to Aldrich's indict?ment. She told them that by all accounts Natalie Raines and Gregg Aldrich had been very happy early on in their five-year marriage. She spoke of Natalie's success as an actress and of Aldrich's promi?nence as her theatrical agent. She explained to them that the evi?dence would show that as time passed, the demands of Natalie's career, including long separations when her shows took her on the road, began to cause substantial strain.
Her voice lowered,