Their numbers had already shrunk from the previous Friday. One of the alternates had called in sick earlier in the morning. The trial would proceed without her.Justice Davidoff addressed the remainder of the jurors for about ten minutes, outlining their role in the trial, as well as his, giving them a few general instructions and explaining some basic principles of law. Boilerplate stuff, lawyers call it. Then he called upon Jacob Pope to make his opening statement.Pope spoke for an even shorter time than the judge had, and it, too, was standard stuff. He made the usual observation that it was his duty to open on behalf of “the People,” a phrase he would use as persistently as Jaywalker would avoid it. He compared his opening to the table of contents of a book, something every prosecutor feels compelled to do. The trial itself he likened to a jigsaw puzzle, with various pieces contributed by different witnesses. At the end, there might be a piece missing here or there. But, he assured them, there would be more than enough for them to recognize the true picture that emerged.
