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Fatal Flaw

A True Story of Malice and Murder in a Small Southern Town

- The Trial - Page 170

HADLEY:...We would object to the introduction into evidence of those items that were not furnished to the defense pursuant to discovery, the ones on May 12th or the ones that were prepared last week....We would claim surprise and would claim prejudice.

 JUDGE PAUL: Anything further, Mr. Eagan?

EAGAN: No, Your Honor.

JUDGE PAUL: Did you say earlier, Mr. Eagan, that those reports were furnished to the defense or were available?

EAGAN: The only report that I have obtained from Professor MacDonell was furnished Counsel, Your Honor, prior to their taking his deposition.2

 HADLEY: Your Honor, that is correct.  We have a complete report on Professor MacDonell which was given to us by Mr. Eagan prior to taking his deposition. However, these matters were not covered in the report or the deposition....We have never been furnished with either the ink prints that he made or the bloody ones that he intends to testify to today, and that's what we object to....

JUDGE PAUL: It appears from everything that has been said that the state has compiled with the discovery rules as it became known to them.  Mr. Hadley, I overrule the objection and will permit him to testify on these areas.

MacDonell's testimony was poised and thorough.  He said that the first of the two photographed footprints from the store shared several characteristics with Zeigler's shoe, but that he could not make a positive match.  This was also Delaney's finding.  But on the second photograph, the two experts disagreed.  Delaney had said that Zeigler’s shoes did not make that print; MacDonell said that he found "great similarities with an apparent individual characteristic" between the photographed footprint and his test print to blood, although he could not say positively that Zeigler's shoe had made the print in the store.

Eagan interrupted MacDonell's testimony to put on William Tobin—another FBI examiner with a scheduling crunch—who found that the store clock had been in working order when its works were jammed by a bullet that passed through the wall.  But he could not say whether the clock was running at the time—that is, whether there was any electricity in the line.

Then MacDonell resumed.  He noted that the left underarm of Zeigler's white T-shirt showed both soaked-through stains and "transferred stains," where another bloody garment apparently had brushed it.  They had not been caused by anyone

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2    A document found in the state attorney's files in 1991 seems to contradict the assertion.  The one-page paper captioned "Points of Testimony of Professor Herbert Leon MacDonell" enumerates eight of the professor's findings, including a discussion of the bloody shoe print and other observations that do not appear in his official report.  This one page document, apparently written by MacDonell, was never released to the defense.               A document found in the state attorney's files in 1991 seems to contradict the assertion.  The one-page paper captioned "Points of Testimony of Professor Herbert Leon MacDonell" enumerates eight of the professor's findings, including a discussion of the bloody shoe print and other observations that do not appear in his official report.  This one page document, apparently written by MacDonell, was never released to the defense.

Page Number: 
170
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