My life in court by Nizer Louis 1902-

Author:Nizer, Louis, 1902- [Nizer, Louis, 1902-]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Trials
Publisher: Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday
Published: 1961-04-15T19:00:00+00:00

264 • My Life in Court

A. No, I wasn't infringing on "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" melodically. This last answer knocked down the edifice constructed by the defendant that it was really "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' " which with some changes became the melody of "Rum and Coca-Cola." Paul Baron still persisted that he had composed the melody before he ever heard any demonstration from Morey Amsterdam and therefore could not have copied it. I confronted him with an opposite statement from his examination before trial:

Q. Did you use the tune that Amsterdam sang to you?

A. Since what Amsterdam sang was also the same general sound-but actually I paid very little attention to what he sang.

Q. Did you ask Amsterdam about the tune they were singing in Trinidad?

A. Well, naturally I asked him.

Q, What did he tell you?

A. He tried to give me a very unable demonstration.

Q. Of the tune?

A. Yes, it was a very simple matter from there to put the two together because I vaguely remembered a melodic form that was very common to calypso music. He still insisted that he wrote the melody before hearing Amsterdam's "unable demonstration" and that the reason he had given the conflicting answer was that my questions "were tricky." I did not permit him even this solace—the frequent cry of a trapped witness. I asked:

Q. My first question was: "What did he tell you?" Do you consider that tricky?

A. I would say the whole general question—

Q. No, I am asking you about this. Is "What did he tell you?" a tricky question?

A. No.

Q. Then "Question: of the tune?" Is that a tricky question?

A. No. The reason Paul Baron had used the awkward phrase "unable demonstration" was to give the impression that he could not even understand the music that Amsterdam sang to him. I asked him if this wasn't so. He denied it. Then I quoted Amsterdam's answer in his examination before trial: "I can sing anything. If a publisher comes up to me with a song tonight, I will sing it on the program tomorrow."

When Paul Baron originally took the stand, his clean-cut, neat appearance and his sincere, cultured manner had given considerable veracity to his testimony on direct examination. By this time, the cross-examination had already disheveled him. Not only had his shiny black hair become less orderiy, but his distressed face, halting speech, and shifring atritudes had cast a serious doubt on his story. This is the kind of cross-examination

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