Part 22 (1/2)
”And who was performing this research? The head of the project at that time?”
”Doctor David Crone.”
”The defendant in this trial?”
”Yes. That's correct.”
”Had you ever met the defendant at that time?”
”Yes.”
”And when was that?”
”I took a cla.s.s from him.”
”He was a faculty member and you were one of his undergraduate students?”
”That's correct.”
”This was a science cla.s.s in genetics?”
”Right.”
”And why did you take this cla.s.s? I mean, I a.s.sume it wasn't a required course?”
”I took it to get information.”
”What kind of information?”
”At that time, it was suspected that he . . .”
”Doctor Crone?”
”Yes. It was believed that he was gathering information to show that blacks, African-Americans, lacked certain cognitive abilities based on their genetic makeup.”
”The ability to reason, to form judgments.” Tannery is leading her shamelessly, but Harry and I don't object. We want to see what the witness has to say. It will be another thing if she gets in front of the jury.
”That's correct.”
”And I take it this was controversial?”
”Dynamite,” says the witness. ”It was not something they wanted out in the public, at least not until they were finished, until he had his studies done. Then it would take time to refute the findings. While that was being done, Dr. Crone would have been all over the airwaves promoting his study, giving it wide publicity.”
”Which takes us back to the question of why you took the course from the defendant in the first place.”
”Because I was asked to.”
”By whom?”
She takes a deep breath. ”We were activists. We called ourselves Students for Racial Justice. Some were grad students. Others undergraduates.”
”And you were a member of this group?”
”I was.”
”Why did they pick you? I mean, why not some graduate student who was doing research with Dr. Crone?”
”There weren't any minority graduate students involved in his project. He wouldn't have them. At least that was the rumor.”
”Objection. Move to strike.”
”Sustained.”
”Were there any black graduate students working on Dr. Crone's project?”
”No.”
”Were there any minorities of any color?”
”He had one Asian graduate student, and the rest were all white.”
”So the only opportunity to get close to the project was as undergraduate?”
”That's correct.”
”Now, with reference to the undergraduate cla.s.s that you took from Dr. Crone, were there any other African-American students in that cla.s.s, besides yourself?”
”No.”
”Why not?”
”The word was out on campus that this was not a cla.s.s that African-Americans would want to take.”
”Why was that?”
”It was believed that Dr. Crone had a racial bias.”
”Objection. No foundation. Speculation on the part of the witness.”
”Let me rephrase the question,” says Tannery.
”Did you have occasion to talk to other black and minority students at the time about this cla.s.s?”
”I did.”
”And based on those conversations, did you form any conclusions as to why minority students might not want to take this cla.s.s being taught by Dr. Crone?”
”Yes. I concluded that there was a general feeling that Dr. Crone was racially biased.”
”And what was this based upon?”