...And Never Let HerGo

calm and normal the night of Anne Marie’s death. Could a man planning a murder have been so calm?
    Trying to save Tom’s life, O’Donnell argued that he was not an entirely rational man, and had demonstrated he was given to rash and impulsive acts. “I suggest to you that when you consider all that evidence, it suggests a lack of premeditation or substantial plan.”
    Linda Marandola? O’Donnell said that Tom had been young, and set up by Joe Riley who had done most of the talking on the tapes to deliberately incriminate him. What had happened to Linda, O’Donnell said, was merely “phone harassment.” And the very fact that she dated Tom again was proof she wasn’t really afraid of him. “The watch he purchased for her in Atlantic City, she kept all those years. . . .”
    O’Donnell praised Tom for his good works for the church and for the aged and infirm. “So Tom did some good things,” he said, “I don’t think the government disputes that.” Then he painted the bleak picture of Tom’s world if the jurors chose to sentence him to life in prison. “Probably more onerous punishment for him if you think about it,” he said. “This is a man who could go to lunch at thefinest restaurants who will be eating baloney and cheese for the rest of his life. This is a man who could travel the world who will be shuffling in leg irons at best . . . who will be confined to a nine by twelve or less cell . . . who will never hug his daughters again . . . or attend their graduations . . . or weddings . . . or other festive occasions.”
    O’Donnell said he felt that once Tom was transferred to a prison facility, he would have the opportunity to help other inmates. Perhaps teach them to read. “But most of all,” O’Donnell concluded in a surprising fashion, “I ask you to consider the effect of your recommendations on his brothers, Louie and Gerry. . . . Gerry is a mess. If you can’t find it in your hearts to recommend life for Tom because of Tom . . . do it for his mother . . . for his daughters . . . for his ex-wife . . . , please find it in your hearts to do it for Louie and especially for Gerry.”
    Ferris Wharton gave the last argument of the trial. He decried O’Donnell’s contention that the murder of Anne Marie had been rash and impulsive, or that Linda Marandola had not been afraid of Tom. “The rekindling of Linda Marandola’s relationship,” he said, “is also more of a testament to the defendant’s relentlessness and persistence than anything else. You’ve heard how he can be. You’ve heard how he was on the phone with Debby MacIntyre. . . . He can be charming. But above all, he was
relentless. . . .”
    How many mitigating factors were there left in Tom Capano’s makeup? “Perhaps there was good in him,” Wharton acknowledged. “Fifteen years ago. Ten years ago. But there was also evil in him. There was substantial evil in him. . . . Perhaps at one point, there was this duality . . . a battle going on, if you will, for his soul. But that battle has been lost. What you see now is the Tom Capano that you have to recommend a sentence for.”
    Wharton doubted that putting Tom in the general population of a prison for the rest of his life would be a wise idea. “There are people there to relate to,” he pointed out. “There are people to control . . . to manipulate. There are people to do things for, do things to. There are the Harry Fuscos in prison. There are the Nick Perillos in prison. There are rules to be broken. There are ways to get over . . . inmates to be influenced.”
    Wharton noted that Tom had never once mentioned tutoring prisoners or helping them with their education during his allocution. No, he had thought, as always, of himself. And now the jurors would have to decide if the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigatingfactors as they looked back over Tom Capano’s life and Anne Marie’s death.
    “And when you answer those questions,” Wharton said, “you will have an opportunity to do more than simply confine the evil that Tom Capano has become. Because that type of evil is relentless and will not be confined. You will have the opportunity to end its presence in your lives, ladies and gentlemen, because that type of evil must be ended.”
    W HEN the jurors returned for the second time with a decision, the city of Wilmington held its breath. Tom was led into the courtroom to hear his fate, and he seemed as insouciant as always. He looked toward his mother,