Re: Local crime story (And stories like this?)

Francis A. Miniter wrote:

> artyw2@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> Last July a 7 year old boy disappeared from a local community. His
>> parents said he "ran away." There was a big search, but he never
>> turned up until this week when his father led police to the body. Both
>> parents are blaming each other for the killing.
>> In the absence of other witnesses or a direct confession, it seems like
>> it might be difficult to convict either parent if both accuse the
>> other. In fact, it might even be a strategy. Would you epxect both
>> parents to have separate trials? Would they appear as witnesses in each
>> others trials?
>> Any fictional parallels? There must be some.
>> Richard Price's Freedomland* is similar in that a parent reports a
>> missing child and there is a big hunt, but there is only one parent
>> involved.
>> *Soon to be a motion picture.
>>
>
> Since the father knew of the whereabouts of the body, he is at least an
> accessory after the fact. Then there is the question of how the body was
> moved
> to the location where it was hidden. Could the mother alone have moved
> it?
> Could the father have moved it alone? Then there is the problem of
> eliminating
> all traces of evidence that might have adhered to the body. Granted that
> the passage of time would aid the killer(s) in that regard, but maybe not
> enough.
>
> As to joint or separate trials, I think that the State will want a single
> trial
> so that they cannot play that game. On a motion to sever, I tend to think
> that
> the judge would probably deny the motion. Even if the motion to sever is
> granted, in the first trial, you would hardly expect the spouse not being
> tried
> to testify, given that that person's trial is yet to come. (Simultaneous
> separate trials is a fiction of "Law and Order".)
>
> Sometimes reality mimics a law school exam.
>
>
> Francis A. Miniter

Details are a little sketchy, but it would be an interesting investigation
and trial to follow. The cross-allegations don't necessarily mean that
both parents were involved in the death or cover-up, though it does tend to
look that way. It could be possible that one parent, alone or with an
accomplice, killed the boy and persuaded the other the boy had run away, so
only one of them was covering up while the other was an unwitting
accessory. Though the situation as reported, here, certainly sounds like a
parental murder--possibly an accident as a result of abuse--which then came
out when the parents fell out over something else.

Francis (or John P, if you know): I seem to recall that a spouse cannot be
compelled to testify against their spouse (exes, I believe, don't count).
Is that true or is it a fiction?

I can't think of any legal procedurals revolving around the murder of a
child by the parent, at the moment. Karin Slaughter's Kisscut was strongly
related to parental abuse of children, but it was police procedural and
forensic, not legal. To say more would be too much spoiler. And I can't
think of another mystery fiction book at the moment (not true crime) that
deals with the subject in that way, but I do tend to avoid child-abuse
stories, so I've probably missed a lot.

--
Kat Richardson
Greywalker--coming from Roc in October, 2006
http://www.katrichardson.com/
.