Giving a Deposition

I’m off to give a deposition this morning in an old case that arose out of a homicide in Columbia, MO. One of the editors of the Columbia Tribune was murdered outside the newspaper building, late one night. Nobody was arrested, and there were no good suspects, for a long time. Then, 2-3 years later, after a newspaper article was published about the old unsolved case, one young man began to tell people that he suddenly remembered that he and a friend had committed the murder. Eventually, he pled guilty and his “friend” was put on trial. A major issue in the “friend’s” trial was the reliability (or not) of the co-defendant’s memory about the incident. Elizabeth Loftus, the big-name memory expert, testified, which made the trial even more high-profile than it already was. The jury found the “friend” guilty. I did some consulting on the case, and now there are post-conviction matters being litigated, so the lawyers have asked me to come in and testify about various aspects of the case.

Here’s a link to an article about the case: http://www.columbiatribune.com/Heitholt/

And another article: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Oct/20051018Feat003.asp