Case of a Lifetime pg 51-100

Summary

I am finding that one of the major conflicts is not finding out wheather Kelly is guilty or not, and that it is actually being able to prove that she was fasly acussed. Even though now she is still a convicted criminal, it seems everyone Kelly meets knows that she is innocent. Through out Kellys sentence, different people are trying to get her help on her case that people dont usually give to a convicted criminal. "Claudia has never heard of a superintendent who was so disturbed by the possibility of an innocent prisoner that sought out a defence lawyer to take the case" (Smith 56). Abbe Smith is finding that the more she gets to know Kelly, and the more she believes Kelly, the more Kelly is locking into Abbe, which keeps Abbes devotion to the case.

The story goes back to when Kelly was being deffended by John School, a Utica lawyer and how Scholl worried that jurors might be hostile to Kelly if they knew she was a lesbian, and that they might regard her as "mannish". He told her that if asked she should say she had dated Billy Ronald, but it was not a serious involvement. "It is hard to say whether Scholl's decision to portray Kelly as heterosexual was the strategy that ultimately doomed her before the jury" (Smith 77) Even though Kelly never felt shame about her sexual orentation, she felt that her lawyer knew best, and thats why she should go on with the lie.

An important part of Kelly's case, was the eyewitness Robert Hyland. There was alot of controversy with the eyewitness, because at firt he could not tell if the passanger with Billy Ronald was a male of female, as well as when he was asked later on by the police. In December 1975 Robert Hyland positivly testified that Kelly was the other perosn in the car with Billy Ronald.

Quote

"She was an innocent"(Smith 58)

Reaction

All throughout the book, it seems that the majority of the people Kelly met, felt that she was innocent. This jumped out at me because it passed that fact that Kelly was innocent, and told me that Kelly was an innocent. It is mentioned that even everyone at Bedford Hills felt this way about Kelly. Kelly was described as a person who people could tell she was not able to commit the crime that was brought on her because of her human nature. Abbe does a good job in also convincing me that Kelly is innocent, even though I cant make that decision because i never met her. As i get deeper into the story i find that it would be very interesting to meet Kelly, and get a sence of her personality myslef.