Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

OK, now let's take a look at the mechanics of this situation of Leavelle picking up Oswald while they were handcuffed to each other: Leavelle's left wrist to Oswald's right. 

First, here is our proxy for Oswald lying on the ground. 

You see where my right hand is. Well, that's where Leavelle's left hand had to be. So, even if he snugged my arm close to my body and tried to get his left hand underneath me, it won't work because he needs to support the top part of my body, which he can't get to. So, let's say he moves my arm up. 

Well, his left hand has to go with my right hand, so now it's gone too far, and he can't do anything. So, let's go back and try something else. 

Well, if my right hand is on top of my body, so is his left hand. and therefore, he can't pick me up. There's only one more thing left to try.

So now, my right arm is externally rotated, but his left hand is out where my right hand is, and he still can't get it underneath me to pick me up. He's nowhere near able to do it. Remember, he's got to get his arm underneath me, underneath my weight, to pick me up. He's got to support my weight. 

So, how could he have arrived at this position?

The only way he could have done it was to remove the handcuffs. Remember: arms are hinge joints; they are not wet noodles; they are not like cooked spaghetti. You can't just move them any which way you want. There are strict limits on what they can do and where they can go. 

Jim Leavelle could NOT have picked up Oswald without first removing the handcuffs, which he said he didn't do. 

So, where does that leave us? Shall we assume that he lied about when he removed the handcuffs? No, we can't do that because there was no time. Remember that Leavelle's first respond to the shooting was to get involved in the scuffle, to get his hand on the back of Ruby's neck and help push him down. It wasn't until the pack of penguins drifted away to his right that he gave any thought to Oswald.

So, Leavelle still has a hand in the scuffle at that point, but presumably, he is about to give his attention to Oswald. But notice that there is no one in place on the other side to help him pick him up. But wait, Leavelle's left hand is going across to meet Oswald's right hand. In fact, was the cuff-chain even long enough to accommodate what we're seeing above? Was Oswald's arm raised in the air? Remember what we are talking about here:

Those are standard police handcuffs. That short chain was all the distance there could have been between Leavelle's left wrist and Oswald's right. So, is this image even legitimate?

I don't think Leavelle's left hand could be that low there. So, is Oswald's right arm raised in the air? But, he couldn't raise it; he was unconscious. So, it had to happen just from being attached. But anyway, the next thing that had to happen, in my opinion, was for Leavelle to inspect and examine Oswald. Isn't that what he had to do? Then he had to scoot around to the other side of him. Then presumably someone who take his place on that side. And then presumably they would talk about it and decide that the best thing would be to pick him up and carry him inside. That doesn't happen automatically. You have to decide to do it and coordinate with someone else. All of that takes time. But, if you add more time to remove the handcuffs, now it's too much time. The vanishing of Oswald happened too fast to allow for that. There just wasn't enough time. And because there wasn't enough time, Leavelle said that he waited until they got inside to remove the handcuffs. But, as I have shown here, he could not have carried Oswald without first removing the handcuffs.