Kim had been standing like a fighter; tense and tight in combat mode. The judge’s words acted like a punch in the gut.
“I know I won’t be able to live with myself,” Judge Davies continued, “if I know I could have helped an innocent man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit and I didn’t do something about it.”
Twenty minutes later, Judge Davies returned to the bench. He looked grim.
“I’m going to permit Frank Melville to reveal the confidential communication he received from Archie Stallings,” the judge said as the bailiff set up the television screen in the court so everyone could see Melville and hear him.
“I’ve concluded that Mr. Alvarez is in imminent danger as a result of being condemned to death, so I believe the exception to the privilege applies here.”
“Objection on the grounds previously stated,” Kim said.
“You’ve made your record, if the State decides to appeal.”
Frank Melville appeared on the screen.
“Mr. Melville, please relate your contacts with Archie Stallings.”
“Thank you for letting me do that, Your Honor. You have no idea how heavily it has weighed on me to have had to keep what I know to myself.
“When I was a prosecutor in the Multnomah County district attorney’s office, I prosecuted Jose Alvarez for the murder of Margo Prescott. I met Archie Stallings for the first time when he was a witness against Mr. Alvarez. He testified that he saw Mr. Alvarez running from the scene of the crime with blood on his person around the time that the medical examiner established that Margo Prescott had been killed.
“My next contact with Mr. Stallings came when I left the district attorney’s office to go into private practice. He hired me to represent him when he was charged with rape. After I won his case, we returned to my office, and he told me that he met Margo Prescott outside her dormitory on the evening of her murder. She was upset because she and Mr. Alvarez had quarreled.
“Mr. Stallings confessed that he had been trying to have sex with Miss Prescott for some time, and she had always rejected his advances. He saw her as emotionally vulnerable because of the breakup with Mr. Alvarez and pretended to be sympathetic. Once they were in Miss Prescott’s dorm room, Mr. Stallings told me that he attempted to have sex with her. When she resisted, he hit her. He told me that he panicked because he was afraid that she would report him to the police, so he killed her.
“As he was leaving the crime scene, Mr. Stallings saw Mr.Alvarez coming up the stairs. He hid before slipping out of the dormitory when Mr. Alvarez went into Miss Prescott’s room.”
“What did you do after hearing Mr. Stallings’s confession?” Judge Davies asked.
“I told him that he had to go to the authorities and clear Mr. Alvarez’s name. He refused. He said he’d done some research and knew that I couldn’t reveal his confidential communication. He also said that he would deny telling me that he had murdered Miss Prescott if I told anyone, and he’d see I was disbarred.
“Over the years, I tried to convince Mr. Stallings to do the right thing, but, in my opinion, he was a sociopath who relished the fact that he had put me in a bind.”
“Do you have any questions for Mr. Melville, Mrs. Kim?”
“How do you know that Mr. Stallings was telling you the truth? You said that he was a sociopath. What if he was having fun at your expense and really had not killed Miss Prescott?”
Melville paused to consider the question. “There are a few things that make me believe he was telling the truth. First, Mr. Alvarez always said he was innocent. I offered him a plea that would have let him escape the death penalty, and he rejected it. When he testified at his trial, he was very convincing.”
“Obviously not convincing enough,” Kim said, “since the jury not only found him guilty, but sentenced him to die.”
The color drained from Melville’s face. “That’s on me, Mrs. Kim. I was an exceptional attorney and a master orator. The closing argument in Mr. Alvarez’s case was one of the best I have ever given.”
“Or maybe Mr. Alvarez was not so convincing.”
“How do you explain the hammer?” Melville asked.
Kim looked confused. “What hammer?”
“Miss Prescott was killed with blows from a hammer. The police never found the weapon. Stallings said that he took it with him and threw it in the Willamette River. The police learned that Miss Prescott borrowed a hammer to hang a picture, but that didn’t come out at trial for some reason. The medical examiner never specified the weapon that had been used. Stallings told me that there was a framed picture of Mount Hood on Miss Prescott’s bed along with a nail and a hammer. How would he know that if he wasn’t in her room?”
Kim started to say something. Then she stopped.
“Nothing further, Your Honor.”
“Miss Lockwood?”
“No questions.”