Native Son (48 page)

He looked about. Yes; there were his mother and brother and sister; they were staring at him. There were many of his old school mates. There was his teacher, two of them. And there was G.H. and Jack and Gus and Doc. Bigger lowered his eyes. These were the people to whom he had once boasted, acted tough; people whom he had once defied. Now they were watching him as he sat here. They would feel that they were right and he was wrong. The old, hot choking sensation came back to his stomach and throat. Why could they not just shoot him and get it over with? They were going to kill him anyhow, so why make him go through with this? He was startled by the sound of a deep, hollow voice booming and a banging on a wooden table.

“Everybody rise, please….”

Everybody stood up. Bigger felt Max’s hand touching his arm and he rose and stood with Max. A man, draped in long black robes and with a dead-white face, came through a rear door and sat behind a high pulpit-like railing. That’s the judge, Bigger thought, easing back into his seat.

“Hear ye, hear ye….” Bigger heard the hollow voice booming again. He caught snatches of phrases: “…this Honorable Branch of the Cook County Criminal Court…. now in session…. pursuant to adjournment…. the Honorable Chief Justice Alvin C. Hanley, presiding….”

Bigger saw the judge look toward Buckley and then toward him and Max. Buckley rose and went to the foot of the railing; Max also rose and went forward. They talked a moment to the judge in low voices and then each went back to his seat. A man sitting just below the judge rose and began reading a long paper in a voice so thick and low that Bigger could only hear some of the words.

“…indictment number 666-983…. the People of the State of Illinois vs. Bigger Thomas…. The Grand Jurors chosen, selected and sworn in and for the said County of Cook, present that Bigger Thomas did rape and inflict sexual injury upon the
body…. strangulation by hand…. smother to death and dispose of body by burning same in furnace…. did with knife and hatchet sever head from body…. said acts committed upon one Mary Dalton, and contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, against the peace and dignity of the People of the State of Illinois….”

The man pronounced Bigger’s name over and over again and Bigger felt that he was caught up in a vast but delicate machine whose wheels would whir no matter what was pitted against them. Over and over the man said that he had killed Mary and Bessie; that he had beheaded Mary; that he had battered Bessie with a brick; that he had raped both Mary and Bessie; that he had shoved Mary in the furnace; that he had thrown Bessie down the air-shaft and left her to freeze to death; and that he had stayed on in the Dalton home when Mary’s body was burning and had sent a kidnap note. When the man finished, a gasp of astonishment came from the court room and Bigger saw faces turning and looking in his direction. The judge rapped for order and asked,

“Is the defendant ready to enter a plea to this indictment?”

Max rose.

“Yes, Your Honor. The defendant, Bigger Thomas, pleads guilty.”

Immediately Bigger heard a loud commotion. He turned his head and saw several men pushing through the crowd toward the door. He knew that they were newspapermen. The judge rapped again for order. Max tried to continue speaking, but the judge stopped him.

“Just a minute, Mr. Max. We must have order!”

The room grew quiet.

“Your Honor,” Max said, “after long and honest deliberation, have determined to make a motion in this court to withdraw our plea of not guilty and enter a plea of guilty.

“The laws of this state allow the offering of evidence in mitigation of punishment, and I shall request, at such time as the Court deems best, that I be given the opportunity to offer evidence as to the mental and emotional attitude of this boy, to show the degree
of responsibility he had in these crimes. Also, I want to offer evidence as to the youth of this boy. Further, I want to prevail upon this Court to consider this boy’s plea of guilty as evidence mitigating his punishment….”

“Your Honor!” Buckley shouted.

“Allow me to finish,” Max said.

Buckley came to the front of the room, his face red.

“You cannot plead that boy both guilty and insane,” Buckley said. “If you claim Bigger Thomas is insane, the State will demand a jury trial….”

“Your Honor,” Max said, “I do not claim that this boy is legally insane. I shall endeavor to show, through the discussion of evidence, the mental and emotional attitude of this boy and the degree of responsibility he had in these crimes.”

“That’s a defense of insanity!” Buckley shouted.

“I’m making no such defense,” Max said.

“A man is either sane or insane,” Buckley said.

“There are degrees of insanity,” Max said. “The laws of this state permit the hearing of evidence to ascertain the degree of responsibility. And, also, the law permits the offering of evidence toward the mitigation of punishment.”

“The State will submit witnesses and evidence to establish the legal sanity of the defendant,” Buckley said.

There was a long argument which Bigger did not understand. The judge called both lawyers forward to the railing and they talked for over an hour. Finally, they went back to their seats and the judge looked toward Bigger and said,

“Bigger Thomas, will you rise?”

His body flushed hot. As he had felt when he stood over the bed with the white blur floating toward him; as he had felt when he had sat in the car between Jan and Mary; as he had felt when he had seen Gus coming through the door of Doc’s poolroom—so he felt now: constricted, taut, in the grip of a powerful, impelling fear. At that moment it seemed that any action under heaven would have been preferable to standing. He wanted to leap from his chair and swing some heavy weapon and end this unequal fight. Max caught his arm.

“Stand up, Bigger.”

He rose, holding on to the edge of the table, his knees trembling so that he thought that they would buckle under him. The judge looked at him a long time before speaking. Behind him Bigger heard the room buzzing with the sound of voices. The judge rapped for order.

“How far did you get in school?” the judge asked.

“Eighth grade,” Bigger whispered, surprised at the question.

“If your plea is guilty, and the plea is entered in this case,” the judge said and paused, “the Court may sentence you to death,” the judge said and paused again, “or the Court may sentence you to the penitentiary for the term of your natural life,” the judge said and paused yet again, “or the Court may sentence you to the penitentiary for a term of not less than fourteen years.

“Now, do you understand what I have said?”

Bigger looked at Max; Max nodded to him.

“Speak up,” the judge said. “If you do not understand what I have said, then say so.”

“Y-y-yessuh; I understand,” he whispered.

“Then, realizing the consequences of your plea, do you still plead guilty?”

“Y-y-yessuh,” he whispered again; feeling that it was all a wild and intense dream that must end soon, somehow.

“That’s all. You may sit down,” the judge said.

He sat.

“Is the State prepared to present its evidence and witnesses?” the judge asked.

“We are, Your Honor,” said Buckley, rising and half-facing the judge and the crowd.

“Your Honor, my statement at this time will be very brief. There is no need for me to picture to this Court the horrible details of these dastardly crimes. The array of witnesses for the State, the confession made and signed by the defendant himself, and the concrete evidence will reveal the unnatural aspect of this vile offense against God and man more eloquently than I could ever dare. In more than one respect, I am thankful that this is the case, for some
of the facts of this evil crime are so fantastic and unbelievable, so utterly beastlike and foreign to our whole concept of life, that I feel incapable of communicating them to this Court.

“Never in my long career as an officer of the people have I been placed in a position where I’ve felt more unalterably certain of my duty. There is no room here for evasive, theoretical, or fanciful interpretations of the law.” Buckley paused, surveyed the court room, then stepped to the table and lifted from it the knife with which Bigger had severed Mary’s head from her body. “This case is as clean-cut as this murderer’s knife, the knife that dismembered an innocent girl!” Buckley shouted. He paused again and lifted from the table the brick with which Bigger had battered Bessie in the abandoned building. “Your Honor, this case is as solid as this brick, the brick that battered a poor girl’s brains out!” Buckley again looked at the crowd in the court room. “It is not often,” Buckley continued, “that a representative of the people finds the masses of the citizens who elected him to office standing literally at his back, waiting for him to enforce the law….” The room was quiet as a tomb. Buckley strode to the window and with one motion of his hand hoisted it up. The rumbling mutter of the vast mob swept in. The court room stirred.

“Kill’im now!”

“Lynch ’im!”

The judge rapped for order.

“If this is not stopped, I’ll order the room cleared!” the judge said.

Max was on his feet.

“I object!” Max said. “This is highly irregular. In effect, it is an attempt to intimidate this Court.”

“Objection sustained,” the judge said. “Proceed in a fashion more in keeping with the dignity of your office and this Court, Mr. State’s Attorney.”

“I’m very sorry, Your Honor,” Buckley said, going toward the railing and wiping his face with a handkerchief. “I was laboring under too much emotion. I merely wanted to impress the Court with the urgency of this situation….”

“The Court is waiting to hear your plea,” the judge said.

“Yes; of course, Your Honor,” Buckley said. “Now, what are the issues here? The indictment fully states the crime to which the defendant has entered a plea of guilty. The counsel for the defense claims, and would have this Court believe, that the mere act of entering a plea of guilty to this indictment should be accepted as evidence mitigating punishment.

“Speaking for the grief-stricken families of Mary Dalton and Bessie Mears, and for the People of the State of Illinois, thousands of whom are massed out beyond that window waiting for the law to take its course, I say that no such quibbling, no such trickery shall pervert this Court and cheat the law!

“A man commits two of the most horrible murders in the history of American civilization; he confesses; and his counsel would have us believe that because he pleads guilty after dodging the law, after attempting to murder the officers of the law, that his plea should be looked upon as evidence mitigating his punishment!

“I say, Your Honor, this is an insult to the Court and to the intelligent people of this state! If such crimes admit of such defense, if this fiend’s life is spared because of such a defense, I shall resign my office and tell those people out there in the streets that I can no longer protect their lives and property! I shall tell them that our courts, swamped with mawkish sentimentality, are no longer fit instruments to safeguard the public peace! I shall tell them that we have abandoned the fight for civilization!

“After entering such a plea, the counsel for the defense indicates that he shall ask this Court to believe that the mental and emotional life of the defendant are such that he does not bear full responsibility for these cowardly rapes and murders. He asks this Court to imagine a legendary No Man’s Land of human thought and feeling. He tells us that a man is sane enough to commit a crime, but is not sane enough to be tried for it! Never in my life have I heard such sheer legal cynicism, such a cold-blooded and calculated attempt to bedevil and evade the law in my life! I say that this shall
not
be!

“The State shall insist that this man be tried by jury, if the
defense continues to say that he is insane. If his plea is simply guilty, then the State demands the death penalty for these black crimes.

“At such time as the Court may indicate, I shall offer evidence and put witnesses upon the stand to testify that this defendant is sane and is responsible for these bloody crimes….”

“Your Honor!” Max called.

“You shall have time to plead for your client!” Buckley shouted. “Let me finish!”

“Do you have an objection?” the judge asked, turning to Max.

“I do!” Max said. “I hesitate to interrupt the State’s Attorney, but the impression he is trying to make is that I claim that this boy is insane. That is
not
true. Your Honor, let me state once again that this poor boy, Bigger, enters a plea of guilty….”

“I object!” Buckley shouted. “I object to the counsel for the defendant speaking of this defendant before this Court by any name other than that written in the indictment. Such names as ‘Bigger’ and ‘this poor boy’ are used to arouse sympathy….”

“Sustained,” the judge said. “In the future, the defendant should be designated by the name under which the indictment was drawn. Mr. Max, I think you should allow the State’s Attorney to continue.”

“There’s nothing further I have to say, Your Honor,” Buckley said. “If it pleases the Court, I am ready to call my witnesses.”

“How many witnesses have you?” Max asked.

“Sixty,” Buckley said.

“Your Honor,” Max said. “Bigger Thomas has entered a plea of guilty. It seems to me that sixty witnesses are not needed.”

“I intend to prove that this defendant is sane, that he was and is responsible for these frightful crimes,” Buckley said.

“The Court will hear them,” the judge said.

“Your Honor,” Max said. “Let me clear this thing up. As you know, the time granted me to prepare a defense for Bigger Thomas is pitifully brief, so brief as to be without example. This hearing was rushed to the top of the calendar so that this boy might be tried while the temper of the people is white-hot.

“A change of venue is of no value now. The same condition of
hysteria exists all over this state. These circumstances have placed me in a position of not doing what I think wisest, but of doing what I must. If anybody but a Negro boy were charged with murder, the State’s Attorney would not have rushed this case to trial and demanded the death penalty.