Crime -- United States; Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States; Criminals -- United States
Not long ago a celebrated case of murder was moved for trial after the
defendant's lawyer had urged him in vain to offer a plea of murder in
the second degree. A jury was summoned and, as is the usual custom in
such cases, examined separately on the "voir dire" as to their fitness
to serve. The defendant was a German, and the prosecutor succeeded
in keeping all Germans off the jury until the eleventh seat was to be
filled, when he found his peremptory challenges exhausted. Then the
lawyer for the prisoner managed to slip in a stout old Teuton,
who replied, in answer to a question as to his place of nativity,
"Schleswig-Holstein." The lawyer made a note of it, and, the box filled,
the trial proceeded with unwonted expedition.
The defendant was charged with having murdered a woman with whom he
had been intimate, and his guilt of murder in the first degree was
demonstrated upon the evidence beyond peradventure. At the conclusion of
the case, the defendant not having dared to take the stand, the lawyer
arose to address the jury in behalf of what appeared a hopeless
cause. Even the old German in the back row seemed plunged in soporific
inattention. After a few introductory remarks the lawyer raised his
voice and in heart-rending tones began:
"In the beautiful county of Schleswig-Holstein sits a woman old and
gray, waiting the message of your verdict from beyond the seas." (Number
11 opened his eyes and looked at the lawyer as if not quite sure of
what he had heard.) "There she sits" (continued the attorney), "in
Schleswig-Holstein, by her cottage window, waiting, waiting to learn
whether her boy is to be returned to her outstretched arms." (Number 11
sat up and rubbed his forehead.) "Had the woman, who so unhappily met
her death at the hands of my unfortunate client, been like those
women of Schleswig-Holstein--noble, sweet, pure, lovely women of
Schleswig-Holstein--I should have naught to say to you in his behalf."
(Number 11 leaned forward and gazed searchingly into the lawyer's face.)
"But alas, no! Schleswig-Holstein produces a virtue, a loveliness, a
nobility of its own." (Number 11 sat up and proudly expanded his chest.)
When, after about an hour or more of Schleswig-Holstein the defendant's
counsel surrendered the floor to the district attorney, the latter found
it quite impossible to secure the slightest attention from the eleventh
juror, who seemed to be spending his time in casting compassionate
glances in the direction of the prisoner. In due course the jury
retired, but had no sooner reached their room and closed the door
than the old Teuton cried, "Dot man iss not guilty!" The other eleven
wrestled with him in vain. He remained impervious to argument for
seventeen hours, declining to discuss the evidence, and muttering at
intervals, "Dot man iss not guilty!" The other eleven stood unanimously
for murder in the first degree, which was the only logical verdict that
could possibly have been returned upon the evidence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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