A month ago, I heard that Sarah Boone’s lawyer wanted to call her ex-husband to testify. Why? I wondered. Sarah’s ex-husband, Brian, can’t stand her and told the police that he was also a victim of her physical abuse. It’s hard to imagine what he could say that would help Sarah’s case.
But imagine I did, and I came up with a defense theory that would only work on Law & Order. I’m going to describe it here, purely for my own amusement.
If this were a movie, Owens would try to pin the blame for Jorge’s death on Brian. He’d tell this story: Sarah and Jorge were drinking and having fun, and they decided to play a game. Not hide and go seek, but truth or dare. Sarah dared Jorge to get into the suitcase, and he did. Laughing, she zipped him up. But the power went to her head, and all her resentments toward Jorge bubbled up, and she made those awful videos. Then she went upstairs, just for a couple of minutes so he could feel helpless and trapped like she felt. As was her habit, she drunk dialed Brian and told him that she’d put Jorge in a suitcase.
“Should I leave him in there?” she slurred.
Brian, half-asleep and really not in the mood for Sarah’s BS, said, “I don’t know. Sure.”
“Will he be okay?”
Brian, who knew nothing about positional asphyxia, replied, “Probably.”
“Okay.” Sarah giggled and passed out, genuinely believing Jorge would be all right.
In the morning, when she discovered that he hadn’t survived, she called Brian, partly to get help and partly because she blamed him for Jorge’s death. “Jorge is dead and it’s your fault! Get over here!”
Brian stalled, taking his dogs out, before heading over to Sarah’s. He barely remembered the call the night before, and he didn’t really believe Jorge was dead until he walked into the apartment… and then he told Sarah to call 911 and walked right back out.
In this scenario, Sarah is still culpable, but not of second degree murder. Probably manslaughter. She believed Brian when he said Jorge would be all right, which means that he bears some of the responsibility. That isn’t enough to exonerate her, but it’s enough that most jurors probably wouldn’t feel comfortable with second degree murder, especially if Brian backed Sarah up. I’m not sure why he’d do that, especially since he seems to have loosened her hold on him since she’s been in jail, but he might. Even without his backup, Owens could argue that Sarah had taken his advice.
Obviously, I don’t think that’s what happened and I don’t think that’s what Owens will argue. But it was a fun thought experiment.
Perish the Thought 