Word: binders
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Sarcastic and aggressive, Binder promptly lived up to his reputation, which one of his colleagues on the defense team described as "a shark-and a winner." Speaking in a slow drawl, Binder portrayed the defendant as "a free spirit with proud parents" who had "lavished all of their love, money and attention on this young son." Williams, the son of two schoolteachers, had been a bright child and an honor student, active in his church and the Cub Scouts. Insisted Binder: "You don't get a killer from a boy that was raised like that...
...Binder did note one fault in his client: "He could be in a little better physical shape." Williams, who is 5-ft. 7-in., 160 lbs. and appears pudgy, grinned at the remark. The point was pertinent: the prosecution suggested that Williams hoisted both of the victims, Nathaniel Cater, 27 (146 Ibs.), and Jimmy Ray Payne, 21 (138 Ibs.), over a 4-ft. wall on the James Jackson Parkway Bridge and threw their bodies into the Chattahoochee River. The defense insists that Williams was not strong enough to do this...
...testimony began, Binder effectively displayed his cross-examination talents. He forced Dr. Saleh Zaki, associate medical examiner of Fulton County, to admit that he had first listed the cause of Payne's death as "undetermined." Only after Williams was arrested, on June 21, did Zaki change Cater's death certificate to cite "homicide" as the cause. Asked Binder: "Did you not state [to the FBI] that had it not been for other killings you would have ruled Payne's death an accidental drowning?" Said Zaki: "I may have said something close to this...
...prosecutor will try to link fibers found in Williams' home and car with similar fibers found on the bodies of both victims. Even before the state presented any testimony about the fibers, Binder tried to undermine the linkage by getting police to admit that a number of people had handled Payne's body. His implication: even the police could have been the source of fibers found on the victim...
Whether the eight black and four white jurors are convinced by Binder's trial skills will not be known until the end of the trial, which is expected to last at least six weeks. The jurors were selected in only five days, a short time considering the volume of pretrial publicity. A former Detroit policeman explained why he thought he could judge impartially. "I looked at Mr. Williams," he replied to questions during jury selection. "I looked at his mother and father. No one knows if that man is guilty. Nobody's heard the evidence." As the prosecution...