Snow Falling on Cedars: Chapter 29 Summary & Analysis

Alvin Hooks gives his closing statements. He claims Kabuo murdered Carl in cold blood. He emphasizes how much motive Kabuo would’ve had to murder Carl, citing the land dispute between Kabuo and the Heines.

Hooks goes through the night of the murder, step by step, emphasizing how patiently and carefully Kabuo  orchestrated the event. Enraged by Ole’s decision to sell the strawberry fields to Carl, Kabuo decided to take matters into his own hands. He followed Carl’s boat to the Ship Channel Bank, laying out his net near Carl’s. He’d waited to strike until it was late at night, “watch[ing] while the fog concealed everything.” When the moment was right, Hooks postulates, Kabuo cut his engine. He signaled to Carl, who’d been not more than 100 or so yards away, that his battery had died and that he needed help. Because both men adhered to a fishermen’s code that required them to help a man in trouble, Carl would’ve set aside his differences with Kabuo to lend him a hand.

Hooks repeatedly calls on the jury to “imagine” placing themselves in the scene: he asks them to picture Carl “stopping to help his enemy” late at night, only to be attacked with the fishing gaff.

Hooks ends his remarks by expressing that there is “no uncertainty any more,” as both the defense and the prosecution have disclosed all the facts there are to disclose. It’s the jury’s job, Hooks emphasizes, to “ask [themselves] what [their] duty is as citizens of this community” and call the truth as they see it.

It’s Nels Gudmundsson’s turn to give a closing statement, and he rises to do so “with a geriatric awkwardness that was painful for the citizens in the gallery to observe.” Nels delivers his statement “in measured tones, as soberly as he [could].” He outlines how Kabuo had gone to Ole Jurgensen and then Carl Heine about the land; how then fate had brought the two boats together at Ship Channel Bank. Kabuo had helped his childhood friend, they’d resolved their land issue, and Kabuo had gone on his way to fish for the rest of the night. Finally, the next day, Kabuo “found himself arrested.”

Nels emphasizes that the prosecution hasn’t provided any evidence that Kabuo] planned to commit murder. There were no witnesses to attest to Kabuo’s mental state before Carl’s death. Above all, Nels emphasizes that the prosecution hadn’t proved Kabuo’s guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Nels tells the jury that Hooks’s case encouraged them to “be open […] to an argument based on prejudice.” Hooks had depended on the prejudice the jury would impose onto Kabuo’s face. Nels sympathizes with this prejudice—conceding that, yes, it hasn’t been so many years since the U.S. was at war with Japan. Still, he reminds the jury, Kabuo served the United States in this war.

Nels suggests that “perhaps there is such a thing as fate.” It might’ve been fate that led Carl and Kabuo to come together under such a series of coincidences, and fate, ultimately, that led “an accident of some kind [to befall] Carl Heine at a moment that could not be less propitious or less fortunate for the accused.” Still, Nels emphasizes, these things happened. Fate might be beyond humankind’s control, but it is completely within the jury’s ability to choose what happens now: they can choose to honor or ignore the reasonable doubt present in the prosecution’s case against Kabuo, and they can choose to honor or to look past their racial prejudices.

Nels ends his closing statement. He tells the jury he is an old man who may not live much longer. He tells them this because, in his old age, he is “prone to ponder matters in the light of death” in a more serious way. He sees now how “human frailty” and “hate” dictate all things on earth. “In such a world you have only yourselves to rely on,” asserts Nels. He ends his statement by emphasizing the weight and power of the jury’s ability to choose Kabuo’s fate.

Judge Lew Fielding sits at his bench and looks down on the scene before him. He’s very tired and bothered by the fear that he hasn’t done well in this case. He has high standards. He’s never presided over a first-degree murder case, and he thinks he didn’t handle it well. He’s not comfortable with the fact that Kabuo’s life is on the line.

Before Fielding dismisses the jury to make their deliberations, he emphasizes that they must be certain that Kabuo is guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt” if they are to convict him. They must also “keep in mind the specificity of the charge and address that charge exclusively.” In other words, they must be able to identify the presence of “planned intent” if they are to convict Kabuo of murder in the first degree. Fielding tells the jury this is a very difficult distinction to make.

Fielding reminds the jury that they were selected to serve because they were deemed unprejudiced and fair. They have to make their decision with these qualities in mind, and they have to listen to each other. Because the trial is a criminal case, the jury’s decision must be unanimous. Fielding then makes his closing remarks: “The storm […] is beyond our control, but the outcome of this trial is not.” He reminds them that the outcome is in their hands and tells them to begin deliberating.