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.EMR meant special education, which would explain why Bo s gradessuddenly became more diverse in the sixth grade.He was finally operatingin an environment that befitted his abilities.This could be it, the artifact they d been hunting.But they had to find someone who could interpret this for them.Some-one who d worked in the Duplin County schools and knew the policies,who could tell them how kids got placed in EMR classes.Someone whocould sit in a witness box and point to these records and tell a judge whatEMR meant.The schools didn t designate kids as mentally retarded without evi-dence, Mark knew.The term retarded was too much of a slur, especiallyback then.Which would explain why Bo scowled and grumbled at anymention of mental retardation if he d been placed in special-ed classes inthe late 60s, he d have been taunted.Maybe there was another IQ test out there.They had to find someone who could tell them.29Sara settled into the deep leather sofa and regarded the farmer s sun-blis-tered nose and serious steel-blue eyes.She was back on the Bo Jones case,much more experienced now, and her investigation had a new focus.Kenhad instructed her to document Bo s mental shortcomings.She had already returned to Bo s sisters.Bo s father had died since thehearing in 1999.The sisters had been glad to see her and to hear that thecase still had hope.Sara had interviewed them each again, this time asking The Last Lawyer 137questions about Bo s abilities and habits.Bo never read, the sisters hadsaid not newspapers, not magazines, and not books.Bo never went to amovie.He couldn t cook for himself.He never paid his own bills.Talkingto Bo meant listening to Bo talk at you; he couldn t carry on a conversa-tion with real give-and-take.He couldn t go to the store with a grocerylist and come back with the correct items.Once, when their father was inthe hospital and Bo had the house to himself for two weeks, Evone had todrive there every two days to straighten up.That was just Bo ornery, lazy,dense Bo.The sisters seemed to know little about Bo s educational history.Theydid not know whether he was placed in special education classes in thesixth grade.They assigned no labels to Bo s odd behavior, certainly not thedesignation of mentally retarded. Sara tried a different phrase: Is he slow?The sisters considered this appellation and agreed Bo was definitelyslow.Sara had prepared new affidavits for each woman to sign that detailedtheir brother s peculiarities.The sisters had told Sara about a farmer named Donnell Kornegaywho d employed Bo for a time, and Sara visited the old man at his ninety-eight-acre spread, about a mile away from Bo Jones s childhood home.Heled Sara into his den, and she sat on a sofa before a broad brick fireplace.The farmer raised sweet potatoes, beans, wheat, cows, and hogs, mainly,and he remembered Bo well.He told Sara that Bo had worked for him ona seasonal basis about twenty years back.Bo would have been in his earlytwenties back then, several years before the Grady murder.Bo loaded hogs,plowed fields, and hauled hay.Strong as an elephant, the farmer recalled.But Bo had his limitations. Some of the things Bo said gave me the impression he was slow, Kornegay said. Sometimes he said things that didn t make much sense. Kornegay said he had learned to give his farmhand only the least com-plicated tasks.Bo could plow a field, for instance, but he never figured outhow to hitch the plows to the tractor.He rarely sent Bo on errands.Bojust couldn t follow detailed instructions.The farmer wouldn t let Bo use achain saw. I was afraid he d drop the saw in the dirt and ruin it, or hurt himselfwith it, the farmer said. I used the chain saw to cut logs, and then Bowould split the wood for me.I didn t like splitting wood anyway, so I wasglad to let Bo do that for me. 138 The Last LawyerSara wrote fast.The information was just what she needed: detailedexamples of Bo s mental shortcomings.And Kornegay was the perfectsource: an objective acquaintance who knew his abilities well.She hadn tknown what to expect from the farmer; so many people in Duplin Countyacted hostile or indifferent when they discovered she was working for Bo.But the old farmer was concerned.He d known Bo s family for decades,lived alongside them.Bo s brother worked for him now, much more capa-bly than Bo.You could just turn him loose on a task.By the end of the interview, Sara s notebook was filled with good details,and she was charmed by the grave old man.He was handsome, in his rug-ged way, she thought a little like Paul Newman with his steely eyes.Andhe was going to deliver a great affidavit.Bo s old teachers were less helpful.Several, in fact, were dead by now,according to school district officials.Dialing one phone number afteranother, Sara eventually reached five of Bo s former teachers.Three had nomemory of Bo.Two remembered him but could summon up only the fadedimage of a lanky boy.Mark and Ken had explained to Sara the possible significance of theEMR notation on Bo s school records, so Sara looked for educators whocould explain how the term was interpreted by the Duplin County schoolsystem.A school psychologist told her that low standardized test scoresmight have placed Bo in EMR classes, but she wasn t sure.A former princi-pal at Bo s high school disagreed, saying that Bo likely would have taken anIQ test to qualify for EMR classes, but he didn t know what the qualifyingscores were.It was mid-December, and time was running out.The new law gavethem until January 31, 2002, to file the mental retardation claim.All overthe state, similar claims were being prepared on behalf of the fifty-two cho-sen inmates.As the deadline approached, attorneys came to the CDPL forconsultations with Ken, Mark, and the others who d become mental retar-dation experts.Emails flew back and forth, sharing legal language and nug-gets of case law or research.Your pleading should look like this one, Kenand Mark instructed the other attorneys.The Bo Jones team had built a relatively strong case.Sara had col-lected plenty of anecdotal evidence that Bo lacked many of the life skillsthat the new law described.Their psychologist had reviewed the files andsaid unequivocally that Bo was retarded.School records showed Bo hadbeen placed in classes for the mentally retarded.His teenage mental healthrecords bore his diagnosis of borderline mental retardation. The Last Lawyer 139But seven weeks before the deadline, they still lacked perhaps the mostimportant element required by the new state law: a solid IQ score of 70 orbelow.Then Sara called a woman named Linda Jenkins, the head of specialeducation at Bo s old high school.With no trace of doubt in her voice, Jen-kins said students were placed in EMR classes only if they tested between50 and 70 on an IQ test.Those who tested between 71 and 80 were classifiedas slow learners but not placed in special education [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.EMR meant special education, which would explain why Bo s gradessuddenly became more diverse in the sixth grade.He was finally operatingin an environment that befitted his abilities.This could be it, the artifact they d been hunting.But they had to find someone who could interpret this for them.Some-one who d worked in the Duplin County schools and knew the policies,who could tell them how kids got placed in EMR classes.Someone whocould sit in a witness box and point to these records and tell a judge whatEMR meant.The schools didn t designate kids as mentally retarded without evi-dence, Mark knew.The term retarded was too much of a slur, especiallyback then.Which would explain why Bo scowled and grumbled at anymention of mental retardation if he d been placed in special-ed classes inthe late 60s, he d have been taunted.Maybe there was another IQ test out there.They had to find someone who could tell them.29Sara settled into the deep leather sofa and regarded the farmer s sun-blis-tered nose and serious steel-blue eyes.She was back on the Bo Jones case,much more experienced now, and her investigation had a new focus.Kenhad instructed her to document Bo s mental shortcomings.She had already returned to Bo s sisters.Bo s father had died since thehearing in 1999.The sisters had been glad to see her and to hear that thecase still had hope.Sara had interviewed them each again, this time asking The Last Lawyer 137questions about Bo s abilities and habits.Bo never read, the sisters hadsaid not newspapers, not magazines, and not books.Bo never went to amovie.He couldn t cook for himself.He never paid his own bills.Talkingto Bo meant listening to Bo talk at you; he couldn t carry on a conversa-tion with real give-and-take.He couldn t go to the store with a grocerylist and come back with the correct items.Once, when their father was inthe hospital and Bo had the house to himself for two weeks, Evone had todrive there every two days to straighten up.That was just Bo ornery, lazy,dense Bo.The sisters seemed to know little about Bo s educational history.Theydid not know whether he was placed in special education classes in thesixth grade.They assigned no labels to Bo s odd behavior, certainly not thedesignation of mentally retarded. Sara tried a different phrase: Is he slow?The sisters considered this appellation and agreed Bo was definitelyslow.Sara had prepared new affidavits for each woman to sign that detailedtheir brother s peculiarities.The sisters had told Sara about a farmer named Donnell Kornegaywho d employed Bo for a time, and Sara visited the old man at his ninety-eight-acre spread, about a mile away from Bo Jones s childhood home.Heled Sara into his den, and she sat on a sofa before a broad brick fireplace.The farmer raised sweet potatoes, beans, wheat, cows, and hogs, mainly,and he remembered Bo well.He told Sara that Bo had worked for him ona seasonal basis about twenty years back.Bo would have been in his earlytwenties back then, several years before the Grady murder.Bo loaded hogs,plowed fields, and hauled hay.Strong as an elephant, the farmer recalled.But Bo had his limitations. Some of the things Bo said gave me the impression he was slow, Kornegay said. Sometimes he said things that didn t make much sense. Kornegay said he had learned to give his farmhand only the least com-plicated tasks.Bo could plow a field, for instance, but he never figured outhow to hitch the plows to the tractor.He rarely sent Bo on errands.Bojust couldn t follow detailed instructions.The farmer wouldn t let Bo use achain saw. I was afraid he d drop the saw in the dirt and ruin it, or hurt himselfwith it, the farmer said. I used the chain saw to cut logs, and then Bowould split the wood for me.I didn t like splitting wood anyway, so I wasglad to let Bo do that for me. 138 The Last LawyerSara wrote fast.The information was just what she needed: detailedexamples of Bo s mental shortcomings.And Kornegay was the perfectsource: an objective acquaintance who knew his abilities well.She hadn tknown what to expect from the farmer; so many people in Duplin Countyacted hostile or indifferent when they discovered she was working for Bo.But the old farmer was concerned.He d known Bo s family for decades,lived alongside them.Bo s brother worked for him now, much more capa-bly than Bo.You could just turn him loose on a task.By the end of the interview, Sara s notebook was filled with good details,and she was charmed by the grave old man.He was handsome, in his rug-ged way, she thought a little like Paul Newman with his steely eyes.Andhe was going to deliver a great affidavit.Bo s old teachers were less helpful.Several, in fact, were dead by now,according to school district officials.Dialing one phone number afteranother, Sara eventually reached five of Bo s former teachers.Three had nomemory of Bo.Two remembered him but could summon up only the fadedimage of a lanky boy.Mark and Ken had explained to Sara the possible significance of theEMR notation on Bo s school records, so Sara looked for educators whocould explain how the term was interpreted by the Duplin County schoolsystem.A school psychologist told her that low standardized test scoresmight have placed Bo in EMR classes, but she wasn t sure.A former princi-pal at Bo s high school disagreed, saying that Bo likely would have taken anIQ test to qualify for EMR classes, but he didn t know what the qualifyingscores were.It was mid-December, and time was running out.The new law gavethem until January 31, 2002, to file the mental retardation claim.All overthe state, similar claims were being prepared on behalf of the fifty-two cho-sen inmates.As the deadline approached, attorneys came to the CDPL forconsultations with Ken, Mark, and the others who d become mental retar-dation experts.Emails flew back and forth, sharing legal language and nug-gets of case law or research.Your pleading should look like this one, Kenand Mark instructed the other attorneys.The Bo Jones team had built a relatively strong case.Sara had col-lected plenty of anecdotal evidence that Bo lacked many of the life skillsthat the new law described.Their psychologist had reviewed the files andsaid unequivocally that Bo was retarded.School records showed Bo hadbeen placed in classes for the mentally retarded.His teenage mental healthrecords bore his diagnosis of borderline mental retardation. The Last Lawyer 139But seven weeks before the deadline, they still lacked perhaps the mostimportant element required by the new state law: a solid IQ score of 70 orbelow.Then Sara called a woman named Linda Jenkins, the head of specialeducation at Bo s old high school.With no trace of doubt in her voice, Jen-kins said students were placed in EMR classes only if they tested between50 and 70 on an IQ test.Those who tested between 71 and 80 were classifiedas slow learners but not placed in special education [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]