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Poor Richard's Almanac

This week, Richard Bay, the feisty, competitive, yet insecure Assistant District Attorney met his demise. After successfully prosecuting Jackie Cahill, a drug dealer accused of murdering a competitor, Bay is himself sent to kingdom come by a hail of bullets fired by a Cahill associate, seated in the back seat of a sedan driven by a grandmotherly-looking woman. Richard, we hardly knew you.

The Practice has produced a good number of bad guys. There was Hinks, the bug-eyed accountant who lost his head earlier this season. And who can forget George Vogelman, the psycho-killer who made wearing a nun's habit a habit? Then there was Henry Olson, the grape-jelly collector with a bug fetish (but he was innocent, so I am not sure that he counts). This episode, Jackie Cahill, the evil, morally vacuous, unrepentant killer who dresses like Regis Philbin took the stand.

In the first few minutes of the show, Cahill all but tells Bobby Donnell that he is going to have the only eyewitness to the murder meet with an unfortunate accident. Specifically, Cahill tells Donnell not to worry about the witness - twice - just in case Donnell did not catch his meaning the first time (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). After discussing this not too heavily veiled threat with the other members of Donnell, Young, Dole & Frutt, Donnell approaches Bay and Gamble. He tells them that if he were in their place, he would be putting his eyewitness under police protection (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Although communications between an attorney and a client are privileged, the Rules of the Supreme Judicial Court provide for certain exceptions. Under Rules 1.6 and 4.1(b), a lawyer is required to reveal information to prevent the commission of a crime that the lawyer reasonably believes is likely to result in someone's death or substantial bodily harm. Believing that the eyewitness will likely be harmed, Donnell is under an ethical imperative to either inform Bay of the threat or take other steps to prevent the harm from occurring.

Cahill is shocked that Donnell may have divulged part of his privileged communications to Bay - but then again, Cahill is not a trained attorney, and is unlikely to be familiar with the requirements of Rules 1.6 and 4.1(b). If Cahill were a little smarter, or had taken courses in ethics training, he would have realized he was making a mistake by revealing his plans to Donnell.

In the course of the trial, Cahill informs Donnell that he could not have committed the murders because he has an alibi. He claims to have been in the bar that he owns doing the books. The judge and the assistant district attorneys go berserk when Donnell tells them that he intends on calling an alibi witness. Under Rule 14 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure, a criminal defendant must notify the Commonwealth of his alibi and his alibi witnesses so that the Commonwealth can investigate the alibi and be prepared for trial. If there is no notice, or insufficient notice, the judge may refuse to permit the alibi witness to testify. In this case, the Judge resolves the matter by permitting the Commonwealth to prepare itself by questioning the alibi witness out of the hearing of the jury. Bay does a fairly good job (it is scripted, after all) of decimating the alibi witness. He does such a good job, that Donnell correctly decides not to call the witness at trial.

The remainder of the trial is a typical "television show" trial. The girlfriend of an innocent bystander, who did not see a thing, the police detective who investigated the murders, and a single eyewitness are the only witnesses to take the stand. There would have been a lot more witnesses at a real trial. There also would have been physical evidence tying Cahill to the murder and the crime scene - of which, in this 48-minute episode, there is none. How convenient.

I am a sucker for witty, pithy dialogue, and there was more of it than usual in this episode. I especially liked Gamble's comment that it would not help Cahill to knock off Bay or any other Assistant District Attorney because "we do have more." Also, Cahill's taunts in the meeting with Gamble and Bay were ridiculously entertaining.

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The show did a pretty good job of leading up to Bay's murder. There was the thirty- second scene of Bay sitting contemplatively on his bed, before strapping on his six-shooters and leaving his home. Bay's closing, while pretty bad legally, was effective at building up the tension between him and Cahill. The suspense leading to Bay's murder was pretty intense. First, he shrugs off his police protection (hasn't he ever watched any TV? If he did, he would know not to do this). Then, a car drives by, causing Bay to flinch. Another car drives up to his parking space and stops. Bay tenses, and then relaxes when a grandmotherly woman sticks her head out the window. When Bay turns the key - I expected the car to explode. Finally, a muzzle pokes itself out of the back of grandma's car and riddles Bay with lead. Bay convulses violently from the impact of the bullets and then slumps lifeless against the steering wheel. He will be missed.

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