In like manner he managed to get an
Abraham Levy on the jury, and on that occasion succeeded in
getting his client off scot-free.
No method is too far-fetched to be made use of on the chance
of "catching" some stray talesman. In a case defended by
Ambrose Hal. Purdy, where the deceased had been wantonly
stabbed to death by a blood-thirsty Italian shortly after the
assassination of President McKinley, the defence was
interposed that a quarrel had arisen between the two men owing
to the fact that the deceased had loudly proclaimed
anarchistic doctrines and openly gloried in the death of the
President, that the defendant had expostulated with him,
whereupon the deceased had violently attacked the prisoner,
who had killed him in self-defence.
The whole thing was so thin as to deceive nobody, but Mr.
Purdy, as each talesman took the witness-chair to be examined
on the voir dire, solemnly asked each one:
"Pardon me for asking such a question at this time--it is only
my duty to my unfortunate client that impels me to it--but
have you any sympathy with anarchy or with assassination?"
The talesman, of course, inevitably replied in the negative.
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