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Fiction. © Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
Nine year old Mary Shannon was found dead in a drainage ditch, a mile from her home. Her skull had been fractured by a blunt object similar to a baseball bat. There were no other signs of injury. Her clothing was not damaged, except that it was covered in a great deal of mud. Investigation showed that she had been dead for about four days, and that she had died somewhere else and then moved to the ditch.
Marilyn and Phillip Shannon, Mary's parents, told the police that Mary had been kidnapped, five days before she had been found dead. They had been informed of this by a note left in Mary's bedroom. The note had warned them not to contact the police. So they did not contact the police. The note went on to instruct them to leave $50,000 cash, in a briefcase, under a certain bush, next to a certain apartment building, in town. The note also told them to include the note in the briefcase with the money. The Shannons said they did all of this.
The police verified that Mr. Shannon had indeed withdrawn $50,000, in cash, from their savings account, on the day that they claimed to have found the note.
The Shannons said that there had been no sign of a break-in. But, Mary's bedroom window had been left open, because of hot weather. The police verified that the previous night had been unseasonably warm.
The case was reported, pretty much as described above, in one of the supermarket tabloids. There were photos of her, alive and dead. About a week after Mary's body had been found, a second story appeared in the same tabloid. An anonymous source claimed that the police suspected the parents of killing Mary, and faking the kidnapping. There were more photos of Mary, and one of her parents.
The case ground to a halt.
Years later, a man identifying himself as William S. Johnson attempted to withdraw about $80,000 ($50,000 plus several year's interest) from the local bank. The police had asked the bank officials to watch this account, as the $50,000 had been deposited by the same William S. Johnson, the day after the Mary Shannon murder. Until now, the police had not been able to find this William S. Johnson. Alerted by the bank officials, the police showed up within minutes, and arrested Mr. Johnson, who turned out to be Phillip Shannon, Mary Shannon's father.
Mr. Shannon was convicted of the crime, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Mrs. Shannon was not charged because of lack of evidence. The tabloids reported that the police were sure that she was involved in the murder.
Mr. Shannon's lawyer appealed the conviction, on the grounds that Mr. Shannon had been denied his right to a speedy trial. The prosecutor pointed out that the trial had begun a mere two months after he had been charged with the crime. And all of the delays, before the trial, were caused by the defense's pre-trial motions.
The defense's argument, however, was that the trial should have begun shortly after the crime. The idea was that as soon as the supermarket tabloid reported that the police suspected Mr. Shannon of the crime, a report that subsequently was shown to be accurate, then Mr. Shannon had become a defendant in the case. In fact he had hired a lawyer at that time. And the trial should have occurred shortly after that.
The prosecution did not take this theory very seriously. The prosecutor asked the Court of Appeals to reject the defense's argument on several legal grounds, as well as by common sense.
Mr. Shannon's conviction was overturned. The Court agreed that he had been denied a speedy trial. He went free. Any subsequent trial would now be even less speedy.
Mr. and Mrs. Shannon changed their name, and moved away together. Mary Shannon remained in her grave.
Author's note: The following disclaimer applies to all of my fiction. These characters are not real. The story is not true. This story may possibly resemble a case or two from the tabloids. The inspiration for this story came, instead, from a comment that I heard about speedy trials. In the story, Mr. Shannon was not denied a speedy trial, but who knows what a judge may rule?