I have been reading John Mortimer’s biography, entitled “Murders and Other Friends”. John Mortimer is a Barrister, playwright, novelist, but is probably best known for the “Rumpole of Old Bailey” TV series. His stories have appeared starring Leo Kern. He also produced for TV “Brideshead Revisited”. In his biography he tells of an incident that reminded me of one I heard from my lawyer Dad and saw in writing in an alleged fictional version. So I am not sure now that it ever happened in fact. But Mortimer’s did and makes the same point…the fickleness of the juror.
Mortimer’s report is as follows: “I’m settling into the back of a London taxi when the driver calls over his shoulder, ‘You still doing those cases down the Old Bailey, are you?’ ‘I’m afraid not’ was he a potential customer? ‘I haven’t done one of them for about ten years.’
“I did wonder. I was on the jury in that case you were doing when the bomb went off.”
I remember it well. A young man had filled his care with petrol and driven off without paying. A policeman who tried to stop him got lodged on the bonnet. The officer was unhurt but the young man was charged with attempted murder. The judge was quite unusually pompous. Just as he finished his summing up I saw a note being passed to him by the usher. He unfolded it slowly and spoke with great deliberation, “Members of the jury, I have just received a note which tells me’-and then the words carne tumbling out in a panic – “there’s a bomb outside the court!!!’ “Whereat, his lordship shot out of the door like a greyhound from a trap. The bomb duly went off, breaking a good deal of glass. No one was injured except my client’s mother whose leg was cut and a very stout, eccentric barrister named James Crespi, who was taken to the hospital saying, ‘I have a great deal of affection for the Old Bailey, so when the bomb was about to go off I interposed my body between it and the building.”
Later we stood in the street and the judge consulted his books to see if you could take a jury’s verdict in Ludgate Circus. The books said no, so we eventually returned to court. The judge repeated his summing up and the young petrol-stealer was acquitted.
‘You were a very kind-hearted jury. ‘I tell the taxi driver, ‘you let my client off’.
‘Oh, that’s all right,’ he assures me. ‘You see, you always said good morning to us when you came into court and the prosecuting gentleman never said good morning to us’.
Strangely enough this incident doesn’t cause me to lose faith in the jury system or the “virtues of politeness”.
I hadn’t meant to make these jottings an excerpt from John Mortimer’s book (it read a lot faster than it typed). But the point is there…Jury’s or jurors sometime make a decision on completely inconsequential and non-relevant concepts or events.
Now my Dad’s story, which as I noted above I later read as applying to a fictitious attorney, is similar. A defense attorney is finishing a case and is about to leave the courtroom when the Judge stops him. He advises him he wants him to represent the next defendant. He is to do it pro bono of course. The attorney’s protests fall on deaf ears and the case is called. It is a murder charge against and Defendant once convicted of murder or with a record as bad as that. The case begins and the attorney realizes the evidence against his client is overwhelming and his client is of no help insisting he is innocent. The prosecution ends and the attorney attempts to begin argument to the jury with the express purpose of delaying till court ends for the day. He begins with a history of man from the biblical story of Adam and Eve, and the alleged murder of Cain, etc., etc. He accomplishes his end when the Judge agrees the court should be closed for the day.
The attorney leaves, still undecided as to what he can truthfully and effectively say to defend his client. He wanders the street and then stops in a church to rest. He falls asleep and awakens to morning. He rushes to the office changes and is off to court. He has thought of nothing to improve his client’s position with the jury. He sums up the best he can, pointing to the few weakness in the Prosecution’s case. He rests. After several hours of deliberation the jury returns with an acquittal!
He is dumbfounded! Several weeks later he happens upon one of the jurors in a bus. She is happy to say hello and reminds him of the case. He then broaches the subject of the acquittal and asks if she could, without disclosing any confidences, explain how they arrived at the decision. She responds, with a bit of brogue: “Shurean when I saw you at holy Mass that morning, I knew no client of yours could be guilty of murder!”
Certainly, the story is a bit of a distortion of the whimsy of the jury, but then, after reading John Mortimer’s story it seems more plausible. My father had no doubts that it was just such a thing that could sway a jury. I bow to his wisdom.
I haven’t been before a Jury in over 25 years. In trying to recall an example of their whimsy I find I can’t. I suppose one explanation is I had all good juries, the other is I was just lucky…been so all my life starting with being number 13 in the family. The only recollection I have of those days is one I reported previously about the dissatisfaction of my client who was acquitted of felonious assault against one victim and held guilty of only conspiracy to murder against another. It was a gang slaying case in the 70’s. He expressed his “dissatisfaction” in remarking after three days of trial and the verdict, prior to any “thank you”… “You means I’s gotta go to jail!”
The dinner with Bill, Bunny, Jerry and Betty Hopkins was a smash…the cuisine was June-Extraordinaire! Her salmon special. The company was just as scintillating and even fun! Bill King brought one of those mimeographed race results I’ve been talking about. It was the 5th Philadelphia Marathon. Dec. 1, 1974. It listed the winner as Bill Rogers later to be a four-time winner of the Boston. It also noted that the 1st Master was Bill King in 2hrs, 47 min. and the “2nd Master” was yours truly in 2hrs 54 min…I think he wanted every one to know he beat me?! In the twenty years of racing with Bill King I beat him one time in 1974 and he keeps those results in his scrapbook with a heavy black frame around it…to remind him of his off day!
Reading further in Mortimer’s bio I came across a surprise: He is relating about another of his books entitled “Summer Lease” based on his experiences renting houses on the continent (usually in south France or Italian Riviera sections) He goes on, “the book contains a lecherous old journalist, author an appalling column called JOTTINGS which he fills with random and frequently pretentious thoughts.” Boy did I jump! I certainly hope that my readers do not apply these labels to this old author (lecherous or not.) Nor do I want to believe that what I have recorded are “pretentious thoughts” – maybe boastful, self-important, and boring perhaps, but NOT pretentious.
It is now tax day 1996 and I am back at the machine after a two-week plus absence. June and I had a great time in St. Petersburg, FL Warm weather, warm friends, and the generosity of Rich and Shirley made our Easter ’96 a memorable one. I won’t bore you with the details (no pretentious thoughts either!) but will pass on the highlights at a later time. We have made three visits to this country of St. Petersburg and this time we signed an agreement to purchase a property with a view towards seeing it more often, and some day maybe permanently…We have a time table and a ARM mortgage of three years. We also have a dividend of having the property presently rented. It, the rent, will pay the mortgage and the agent-former (we hope) owner is going to see to any new tenant if we so desire. The present tenants are a young couple, she is an RN and he runs his business from the home. They are looking for a residence. They may leave in August ‘96 or continue looking.
So that this may arrive sometime in April I am closing this month’s jottings…I’ll add a salutation and valedictorian…as I can.