228
20 MR. WOOD: Mr. Kane, why don't
21 you sit down and let's try --
22 MR. KANE: You are obstructing.
23 You are obstructing, Lin. You are asking me
24 now to justify why I am asking the
25 questions.

229
1 MR. WOOD: Mr. Kane, sit down.
2 Sit down.
3 MR. KANE: Yes or no, can she
4 answer that question?
5 MR. WOOD: Mr. Kane, life does
6 not always turn on what Michael Kane thinks
7 is fair. Just give me a second. I don't
8 think I am being unreasonable.
9 MR. KANE: I think you are.
10 You're asking me to justify.
11 MR. WOOD: Give me a chance to
12 talk without jumping up and making your
13 preplanned speeches.
14 MR. KANE: You stated your
15 objection.
16 MR. WOOD: Now wait a minute.
17 You all made the request and you all set the
18 conditions, and I agreed to them at the
19 direction of John and Patsy. I got the
20 letters that demonstrate and document that.
21 The only thing I asked for was the courtesy
22 of whether you would consider this being done
23 in Atlanta, and you quickly said yes. I
24 asked for a stenographic reporter because of
25 the concern over an accurate transcript

230
1 because there never had been one in the
2 prior interviews in April of '97 and in June
3 of 1998.
4 And that's it. I didn't impose
5 any conditions, and I don't want to be
6 misrepresented in that connection.
7 All I've done today, because I
8 thought we were here to be productive, in
9 looking for the killer of this child, the
10 parents want to come in here and help you,
11 but when you start asking questions about why
12 did you let Burke go to school with Susan
13 Stein, I mean, with all due respect, I mean,
14 I haven't instructed that she can't answer
15 it, but I don't think it's unfair and
16 unreasonable for me to say, what in the
17 world does that have to do with the question
18 of moving this investigation forward on who
19 killed this child.
20 MR. KANE: Let's go back to what
21 I said.
22 MR. WOOD: I didn't mean to get
23 you all upset and hot and bothered. I just
24 thought it was a fair question. To my mind,
25 Susan Stein drove Burke Ramsey to school in

231
1 a locked automobile and dropped him off, I
2 am having a lot of trouble finding something
3 sinister about that or inconsistent with a
4 parent's love and protection of their son.
5 MR. KANE: Well, I think it is
6 inconsistent, number one. Number two, it
7 doesn't matter what I think.
8 MR. WOOD: It does. You are the
9 special prosecutor.
10 MR. KANE: What matters is, if
11 you ever think an intruder is going to be,
12 and I'm going to go back to the speech I
13 made in the very beginning that I made two
14 years ago to John Ramsey, if you ever expect
15 for us to be able to put a case against an
16 intruder together, the intruder is going to
17 ask that question. The intruder is going to
18 say, why is it that the parents of a month
19 after their child is murdered allow their son
20 to be transported at a time when he is most
21 vulnerable, at a time when their own security
22 people said this is crazy to be transported
23 with no protection. And that is a
24 legitimate question.
25 Now, are you going to let her

232
1 answer or not?
2 MR. WOOD: Let me say this to
3 you. That, again, Mr. Kane -- and I don't
4 mean, Mr. Kane -- Michael, you know, you
5 have a perspective. I just think that what
6 you are trying to represent about the lack
7 of security --
8 MR. KANE: Mr. Wood, you are an
9 obstructionist.
10 MR. WOOD: Let me finish, Mike.
11 I'm not an obstructionist.
12 MR. KANE: You go out there and
13 you tell these press people that they
14 cooperated, and I will go out and tell them
15 what really happened in here.
16 MR. WOOD: Mr. Kane, what's
17 happened here is you are looking to storm
18 out for no reason.
19 MR. KANE: I'm looking to go
20 storm out because I can't ask a question --
21 MR. WOOD: Take five, take five
22 minutes and be reasonable enough to listen.
23 MR. KANE: Look, I don't need
24 this. It is a game. You're playing a
25 game.

233
1 MR. LEVIN: Take five minute.
2 MR. WOOD: Take five minutes.
3 MR. KANE: Are we going to take
4 every five minutes every time I ask a
5 question because you want to, you want to
6 know what it is that's in my mind. I just
7 told you what's in my mind.
8 MR. WOOD: Mr. Kane, we are both
9 trying to do our jobs under very unusual and
10 difficult circumstances.
11 MR. KANE: Right. And my job is
12 not to stand in the way of the truth.
13 CHIEF BECKNER: Let us take a
14 time out.
15 MR. LEVIN: Let's take five
16 minutes.
17 MR. WOOD: If you are implying my
18 job is to obstruct the truth, I take that as
19 a professional insult. And you will not be
20 staying in my office. I pay the rent here.
21 I will not be insulted by you.
22 MR. KANE: That's fine.
23 CHIEF BECKNER: Time out. Time
24 out.
25 (A recess was taken.)

MR. KANE: You go out there and you tell these press people that they cooperated, and I will go out and tell them what really happened in here.

Well, now we all know.... and this was just the first day!