Steven D. Green

Steven D. Green
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Calm Before The Storm

If I tried to tell you that my "young" mind wasn't beginning to show signs of wear from doing this for ...nearly three weeks now, I'd be lying. Regardless, if you have any ideas about what I should do with this blog or what should become of it after the trial is over, please comment or email me.

Day 15

The defense rested today. While some were surprised that the jury would not get to hear testimony from any of Green's direct family, while others expected it.

For the prosecution, Jim Lesousky called a single rebuttal witness, as previously predicted. Dr. Helen Mayberg, a clinical neurologist at Emory University, was called; Dr. Ruben Gur was also listening via muted phone so as to hear what her response to his testimony would be.

Mayberg was called to respond to the testimony of Gur. She told the court of her medical degree from USC and of her certification in neurology. Her testimony did not last nearly as long as Gurs. She told the jury that "testing one person deemed possibly mentally disabled...against a control group of forty-one 'healthy' people, would not always produce accurate results." She told the court that she did not note the same variations within Green's MRI that Dr. Gur previously testified to the jury. She also testified that in Gur's study of the forty one "healthy" subjects, they were tested using MRI's of a 1.5 tesla strenth, as well as two other measurements/settings that were to equal or be set to "one;" she told the jury when Gur reviewed Green's MRI, he failed to notice that his MRI was given at a 3.0 tesla strength, and that the two other aformentioned settings were also different, meaning that Green's MRI would not have matched the control group results regardless. For the most part, the defense has been excellent, but if they've ever suffered a setback, this would be it.

For the defense, Scott Wendelsdorf crossed Dr. Mayberg on her witness history and her pay grade. She admitted that in her "twenty plus" years of testimony, she had never testified for the defense, only prosecution. She also admitted that while amount of pay doesn't affect her testimony, she was getting paid $500 per hour of testimony today.

Just after the judge stipulated the jury on a few menial matters, court adjourned at 10:50AM. Prosecution and Defense needed time to prepare both closing statements and to agree on jury instructions.

Closing statements start at 9AM sharp tomorrow, Wednesday, May 20th. After completion, the judge will instruct the jury and the waiting game will begin. Personally, I'm predicting that we'll have a verdict by this time(9:05PM CST) tomorrow. I, Evan Bright, am also predicting a sentence of life in prison, one way or another.

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