Roslyn Moore-Silver erupts with a string of objections like a stutterer lost in Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.
As Spence recounts FBI agent Fain's visits to Foreman, you can see the attorney putting his arm around the jury and explaining everything in simple terms anyone might understand.
The $580 was for the Yavapai Earth Net, a legitimate telephone network Davis had attempted to launch in Prescott.
Spence points out that the FBI recorded everything and yet this critical conversation is not recorded. We are expected to take undercover agent Fain's word.
A second conversation between Fain and Foreman was recorded by an airplane that circled over the heads of the two men. In this conversation, Spence repeatedly points out where Foreman attempts to dissuade the FBI agent: Just drop the plan . . . I am not a part of this . . . You don't get support for your movement by frightening people . . . This is a hell of a risk for something where the message is unclear.
Spence grabbed a chalkboard to sketch out a time line of the events. Though he stumbled through the presentation, even getting the dates wrong, he finally finished his rough graph.
He demonstrated that the first Snow Bowl incident happened in October of '87, the Canyon Mine in September of '88 and the second Snow Bowl occurred in October of '88.
David Foreman would not meet Mark Davis for another fourteen months, in December of '89.
Not much of a conspiracy, said Spence.
The day after Fain's final visit with Foreman, the FBI agent taped a call between Davis and the co-founder of Earth First!.
Spence quoted Davis as saying to Foreman, "We've got to have some discussion about targeting philosophy."
In other words, said Spence, "They don't agree."
Spence argued that the only reason Foreman was indicted was because of who he is, what he has written, and the movement he inspired.
"A valuable member of our society has been singled out to be silenced," said Spence.
Dave Foreman wanted no part of attacking Palo Verde's transmission lines.
Nor did he want any part of attacking the Central Arizona Project transmission lines two weeks after that final telephone call, said Spence in conclusion.
By the time Gerry Spence finished, you might have been excused if you left the courtroom thinking that no one, at no time, wanted any transmission lines cut down anywhere.
And we know that isn't true.
In fact, all of us, with the possible exception of Daniel Fromstein, want the transmission lines, all of them, taken down. You cannot make the drive from Phoenix to Prescott, if you have any soul at all, without taking offense at the intrusion of the massive transmission towers that bisect the high-country plateaus. But that's just a fantasy.
The reality is that on May 30, 1989, Mark Davis, Margaret Millett, and Marc Baker were gathered at a CAP power line with cutting torch ablaze.
The question this trial must settle is how they got there.
To be continued
Foreman discovered that when it came to the wide-open space he cherished, he was no longer capable of compromise.
The defendants have assembled an intimidating array of legal talent.
Alfred "Skip" Donau may be the toughest lawyer in the Prescott courthouse.
"All of a sudden there was a large thunk. She hit her head on the podium and passed out . . . "
"Hey, you in the buckskins, you try any of your macho nonsense in my courtroom and I'll pin your ears."
Moore-Silver portrayed the indicted as extremists opposed to all businesses that weren't health-food stores.
Black has an air of ruthlessness in the courtroom enhanced by Jack Nicholson eyebrows.
Not much of a conspiracy, said Spence.
