"I think both feelings can be true," he said. "I don't think anybody should ask you to celebrate just because the system finally started listening."
The closing arguments took place on a Friday. Cheney's lawyer warned the jury not to confuse public anger with proof and argued that the officer had believed he was responding to danger. Kirkland's counsel said the chief had made administrative mistakes but had not intended to violate anyone's rights. Both attorneys reminded the jurors that the defendants were presumed innocent unless the prosecution proved the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
The federal prosecutor answered by returning to the original report and the recovered video. She placed two timestamps beside each other and showed the jury where Cheney's written account diverged from what the cameras recorded. She reminded them that a real threat would have appeared somewhere in the sequence, yet the footage showed Nathaniel complying, Calvin keeping his hands visible, and Cheney producing the supposed contraband from his own pocket. Then she turned to the actions taken after the arrest and asked whether the attempted concealment was consistent with the defendants' claims of innocent misunderstanding.
Finally, she referred to the station recording. "You heard the officer say that he did not care who this man claimed to be," she told the jurors. "The law does not ask you to decide whether a general deserves special treatment. It asks you to decide whether these defendants used the power of a badge to deprive someone of rights protected by the Constitution, and whether they then tried to make the evidence tell a story that wasn't true."
The jury retired in the afternoon. Nathaniel and Simone waited in a quiet hallway while Ruthie worked a crossword puzzle and Calvin paced near a vending machine without buying anything. Beasley sat farther down with his lawyer, looking at the floor. Jerome and Denise waited near a window where the city traffic moved below, ordinary and uninterrupted by the decisions being made upstairs.
When the jurors returned, less than three hours had passed. The foreperson stood while the clerk read the verdicts. Cheney was found guilty on the counts submitted against him, including deprivation of rights and falsification of evidence. Kirkland was convicted on the charges the jury found proved concerning conspiracy and obstruction, and the remaining defendants' related cases proceeded through their own resolutions.
The room reacted with a sudden release of sound. Some people cried; others embraced; several reporters hurried toward the exit to send updates. Nathaniel remained seated, his eyes closed, while Simone placed a hand on his forearm. He was relieved the evidence had been believed, but he could not call it a simple victory while Jerome's conviction still existed and the community remained frightened of the roads around its own town.