Detective by Arthur Hailey

difference
between right and wrong. The judge
thereupon declared Doil to be
mentally competent and ordered him to
stand trial for first-degree murder.
    Doil's presence at his trial was
unlikely to be forgotten by anyone
who attended it. He was an enormous
man, standing six feet four and
weighing two hundred and ninety
pounds. His facial features were
large, his chest broad and muscular,
his hands immense. Everything about
Elroy Doil was oversized, including
his ego. Each day he moved into the
courtroom with a superior, menacing
swagger and a sneer. The combination
made him seem indifferent, at times,
to events around him an attitude that
persisted throughout his trial and
beyond. One reporter wrote in a
summation, "Elroy Doil might just as
well have asked for his own
conviction."
    What might have helped him, as it
had on past occasions, would have
been the presence of his mother, who
was wise in the ways of crime and the
law. But Beulah Doil had died several
years earlier of AIDS.
    As it was, Doil remained abusive
and hostile. Even during jury
selection he blurted out such remarks
to his counsel as, "Get that fucking
grease monkey out of here!" speaking
of a garage mechanic whom Willard
Steltzer had been on the verge of
approving as a juror. Because a de-
fendant's wishes count, Steltzer was
forced to reverse himself, then use
a precious peremptory challenge for
dismissal.
    Again, when a dignified black woman
showed some em
    52 Arthur Halley
    pathy toward Doil, he shouted, "That
dumb nigger couldn't see the truth
if it ran over her." The woman was
excused.
    At that point the judge, who until
now had refrained from comment,
cautioned the accused, "Mr. Doil,
you had better settle down and be
quiet."
    There was a pause while Willard
Steltzer, visibly disturbed and
clenching his client's arm, spoke
seriously into Doil's ear. After
that the interruptions ceased during
jury selection, but resumed when the
main trial proceedings began.
    A Dade County medical examiner,
Dr. Sandra Sanchez, was on the
witness stand. She had testified
that a bowie knife, bearing the
victims' blood and found in Elroy
Doil's possession, was the actual
weapon that killed Kingsley and
Nellie Tempone.
    At that point Doil, his face
twisted with rage, rose from the
defense table and shouted, "You
fucking bitch, why you tell them
lies? All lies! It ain't my knife. I
wasn't even there."
    Judge Olivadotti, a martinet with
lawyers but known for giving a
defendant all the latitude he could,
now warned sternly, "Mr. Doil, if
you do not remain silent, I am going
to have to take extreme measures to
keep you quiet. This is a serious
warning."
    To which Doil responded, "Screw
you, Judge. I'm tired of sitting
here, listening to all this
bullshit. This ain't no court of
justice. You already made up your
minds, so execute me, goddammit! Get
it over with!"
    Flushed with anger, the judge
addressed Willard Steltzer:
"Counsel, I order you to talk some
sense into your client. This is my
final warning. Court is adjourned
for fifteen minutes."
    After the adjournment, Doil was
fidgety but silent while
    DETECTIVE 53
    two crime-scene specialists
testified. Then, when Ainslie took
the stand and described the arrest at
the Tempone murder scene, Doil
exploded. Leaping from his seat, he
raced across the court and hurled
himself at Ainslie, screaming
obscenities. "Crooked conniving cop
. . . I wasn't even there . . .
fucking priest, disgraced. God hates
you! . . . Bastard, liar. . ."
    As Doil pounded with his fists,
Ainslie barely protected himself,
raising one arm as a shield, and did
not strike back. In seconds, two
bailiffs and a prison officer threw
themselves on Doil. Pulling him
clear, they locked his arms behind
him, wrestled handcuffs into place,
then slammed him face forward to the
ground.
    Once more, Judge Olivadotti adjourned
the trial.
    When it resumed, Elroy Doil was
tightly gagged, and handcuffed to a
heavy chair. The judge addressed him
sternly.
    "Never before, Mr. Doil, at