And the most vocal denial of a homosexual relationship between Wallace and Matthews came from Wallace himself. "When we asked him about it, he completely denied it," says Illarazza. "He adamantly denied it. I think Henry was too embarrassed to admit it. It's too bad; that could have been an excellent defense."
Wallace's denials were consistent with the things he had said his entire life: he wasn't a loony, and he wasn't gay. In his deposition Carroll said that Wallace often yelled, "I don't need this gay shit. I'm no gay cocksucker." Wallace did this "too many times to count." He also often yelled, "I can't be gay, because I'm a roofer, and roofers aren't gay."
As to the psychologists' testimonies about the potential impact of a sexual relationship in which Wallace was a reluctant participant, these apparently didn't have much of an impact either. "Textbook this, textbook that -- we just didn't buy it," says Schweitzer. Early in their deliberations, a few jurors -- Schweitzer included -- were leaning toward manslaughter, he says, but they gradually moved toward the more serious second-degree murder.
Silverman says she was concerned that a manslaughter verdict would leave Wallace without the long-term help he obviously needed. "With manslaughter you get out in a few years, and what would he [Wallace] do then? There was no way he could take care of himself," she says.
When the jury's verdict was announced, Portala says, "Everybody was shocked. Wayne Corry called me up and said everybody in the courthouse was shocked."
Chavarria was also surprised. "I sat through the whole thing, and I really thought he should have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. I talked with the other alternate, and he had been thinking the same thing." Prosecutor Kern says that this is common with alternates. "They don't go through the deliberations, and their opinions are -- I won't say tainted -- but influenced by talking to others and reading news accounts."
According to Schweitzer the jury never came close to returning a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. "He knew he'd done something wrong," says Schweitzer.
Some legal experts wonder whether the verdict would have been different if the semantics of the insanity defense had been different. For the last couple of years, a move has been afoot to have the verdict "not guilty by reason of insanity" changed to "guilty but insane." Part of the problem with the current terminology is that juries aren't comfortable saying somebody who obviously committed a crime is not guilty, says Cheney Mason of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (FACDL).
There would be no legal difference between a "guilty but insane" verdict and a "not guilty by reason of insanity" verdict. The only change would be semantic.
The criminal defense lobby supports this change, but not too vocally, says Donnie Murrell, past president of the FACDL. Legislators have proven leery of suggestions coming from defense lawyers because of the perceived unpopularity of the people the lawyers defend. "Come on -- we're received as if we're talking about letting loose the scum of the earth," he says.
Howard Finkelstein says that isn't the case. "It isn't as if a 'not guilty' verdict means that he would be let loose. It just means that he would be treated instead of punished for something he had no control of."
At this point Henry Wallace still doesn't understand what happened to him. On January 13, Judge Cohn found him incompetent to be sentenced after reading a report from Block-Garfield in which she stated her belief that Wallace is unaware of his circumstances.
But Wallace has been found incompetent before, after which he has improved with proper medical treatment at Chattahoochie. Corry thinks that will happen again. "They'll bring him back," he says.
Block-Garfield is worried about what will happen to Wallace then. She doesn't think he'll ever be able to survive in a regular prison population. "What I think will happen is that when he goes to prison, they'll recognize very quickly that he doesn't belong in the normal population." And then? "Then they'll put him in the prison hospital.
