House of Evil by John Dean

Author:John Dean [Dean, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-312-94699-9
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2008-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

12

A “NICE GIRL,” A JURY, AND AN

ANGRY YOUNG MAN

IT WAS to be daughter vs. mother and sister vs. sister in what Deputy Prosecutor Leroy New later called “the most diabolical case ever to come before a court or jury.”

The famed New York trial lawyer Louis Nizer wrote that “the excitement, surprise and meaningfulness of a real court contest are incomparable and elude imagination.” The Likens murder trial had all those elements and then some.

Nizer contended that fictional trial scenes, such as in the movies or on television, are usually incorrect or inadequate.

“In fictional court scenes,” he wrote, “one sharp contradiction often breaks the witness, who then hysterically screams a confession. In real life the witness’ fortitude in the face of exposure is as remarkable as a human body’s resistance to incredible torment.”

Cross-examination will leave the witness “no retreat” and compel him “to admit his error,” Nizer wrote, “yet he continues to fight back and clutch for the remote chance that the tide will turn and he will not go under.” But one witness actually did break down in the Likens murder trial, a real-life drama that possessed fictional qualities as well.

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