Clever counsel, of course, habitually make use of all sorts of
appeals to sympathy and prejudice. In one case in New York in
which James W. Osborne appeared as prosecutor the defendant
wore a G.A.R. button. His lawyer managed to get a veteran on
the jury. Mr. Osborne is a native of North Carolina. The
defendant's counsel, to use his own words, "worked the war for
all it was worth," and the defendant lived, bled and died for
his country and over and over again. In summing up the case,
the attorney addressed himself particularly to the veteran on
the back row, and, after referring to numerous imaginary
engagements, exclaimed: "Why, gentlemen, my client was pouring
out his life blood upon the field of battle when the ancestors
of Mr. Osborne were raising their hands against the flag!"
For once Mr. Osborne had no adequate words to reply.
By far the most effective and dangerous "trick" employed by
guilty defendants is the deliberate shouldering of the entire
blame by one of two persons who are indicted together for a
single offence.
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