OCR Text |
Show Page 4—THE HERALD. Provo. Utah, Wednesday, January 2, 1980 c Here’s the View From the Bench For the Saver Dreaming to do Better... Of Texas Judge By RICHARD H. GROWALD UPI Nationa! Reporter FORT WORTH, Texas (UP!) — The judgesat in his chambers in frontof a ceilinghigh shelf of lawbooks. and was asked what makesa good juror. “For which side?” he replied For the side of justice and right.’’ he was told. a good juror for the prosecution,” said Gordon Gray judge of the Criminal District Court of Tarrant County, Texas. Defense lawyers might not be too concerned with jurors plumping for justice and right, “The prosecutor wants a juror to be an older person, a professional person. A person who has worked 15 years for the sane company, a person who goes to church a person with two grown children — now there's a person whois apt to vote for conviction. That person will zapit to ‘em.”” Hesmiled. ‘That's not at all what the defense lawyer wants.’ The 48-year-old Texan has been on the bench a decade. He tries some 50 defendants a week. His longest and one of the more gaudytrials in a state which extends as muchinterest to its courtroom dramas as to where the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers play was the recent retrial of multimillionaire Cullen Davis oncues he tried to have a Tarrant County judgekilled. While the Davis jury was out, the five defense lawyers, including ‘Racehorse’ Haynes, the Roger Staubach of Texas jurisprudence, were straw polled on the expected verdict. All guessed it would be conviction. The two prosecutors agreed. When the jury emerged from its deliberations, two women among the 12 peers were crying, elating the prosecutors. For when women on a jury weep, it is taken by ae to meanthe jury has judged the defendant guilty. Davis was found not guilty. Why did the jury even surprise the defense lawyers? Gray looked at the chess set front and center onhis six-footlong desk. ‘Juries usually do whatthe community wants. They are usually true to community feelings. “Davis was something of a folk hero in Fort Worth,” the judge said. Davis earlier had won in court freedom from accusations he shot his thenwife and shot and killed a stepdaughter and a male friend of his wife. “‘Maybe the general public admired Davis oe he was seen beating the system,” Gray sai And it underlined Gray's words aboutjury selection. Hesaid prosecutors prefer to bar the jury box to the young, the unemployed, the person free of local pride and church membership and home mortgage. Gray said lawyers also would prefer to keep juries pure of “‘little old ladies. of either sex. “There wasonelittle old lady on one of my juries who, when polied, said she really hadn't decided guilt or innocence but just wanted to go along with whatever the other jurists wanted. And there was the little old lady on anotherjury; the jury reported in thatit had voted eight, three and one. Eight for a and three for innocence and oneforthe little ol “So 1asked her ‘ey washervote. ‘Me? I voted videcided,’ she said. In anycase, said the judge. the percentage rides with the prosecutor. ‘I suppose 99 percent of the defendants cominginto court are guilty as sin. “Thepolice, the witnesses, the grand jury and the district attorney make sure they fre the evidence or the defendant wouldn’t be here,” Gray said. He leaned back. “A district attorney in Texas should have a 98 percentconviction record.”’ he said. Which might be a reason most defendants do not ask for jury trials. “The rules of the courts are designed to protect the defendant. But evidence can wipe him out,” Gray said. “As long as the defense lawyer knows whathe is doing.” A rule for defense lawyers,he said,is to know the answerto any question he asks a witness. Gray said in a case heard, an uncle accused of raping a niece was being examined by his defense lawyer. The defense lawyer wanted to showthat the victim’s father had brought the court action not so muchfor any harm done his daughter but because his brother, the accused, had once given him bad checks. “So the defense lawyer asked thevictim girljust when her father had become angry at the defendant, expecting ee to say it came when the bad checks were “But the victim replied that her daddy had become angry when the uncle had raped her sister.” Juries, said the $55.000-a-yearjurist, listen to the law but listen also to their hearts and common sense. Thus, he said, some good defense lawyers approachTexasjuries with the pminipins style ofa fundamentalist preacher. One successful lawyer, recalled Gray. defended a rapist — and rapists fare poorly with Texas juries which notonly judge guilt but also assess punishment — “‘by doing a marvelous job of crying and weeping and crying and weeping. The jury judged the fellow innocent.” Commonsense entered when two young science buffs were accused of a felony. The pair hd been refused membershipin a club of persons operating remote controlled modelairplanes; the pair sat on a hillside with an infernal machine of their own making, taking away control of the planes from the club members downbelow andcrashingthe pirated modelplanes. ‘‘The jury sensibly did not convict,”” the judgesaid. “For why should any youngster be punished by the community for such hijinks?’ Grayalso said a jury also rightly freed a teenager who had stolen a motorbike; the youth had becomeconsciencestricken half a block away and wasreturning the bike when arrested.‘Thedistrict attorney judged him a criminal. Thejury, sensibly, did not.”” Gray buttonshis graysuit coat in preparation for a return to the courtroom through the door — the judgeis alonein these parts in refusing to wear the black robes of office; “The robes are uncomfortable,like a nightgown.” ‘No Business, Va.,’ Has Only Farming NO BUSINESS,Va.(ut) — If you're looking for a real getaway, try No Business. The tiny hamlet is tucked away near the Bland and Giles county line, way up in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia. No Business lives up to its name. There is no business in No Business, except for farming. Residents say there used to be a few sawmills, manganese mines, bears, tigers and bobcats, but they're all gone now. No Business doesn’t even have a country store with a potbellied stove. FREE WINDSHIELD BRUSH/SCRAPER JUST FOR COMING IN* Gift Item with a deposit of: 1 RubberMaid Message Cenier 2 Salt & PepperMills 3 Beacon Blanket 4 12 Piece Spice Set With Rack 55 PieceCutlery SetWith Case $250 $499 $500 $999 $1,000 $4,999 $5,000 $10,000 $9,999 or more FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE ANY TWO FREE ANY TWO FREE 3.00 FREE FREE ANY TWO FREE __ ANY TWO FREE FREE FREE 5.00 2.00 6.00 3.00 7.00 8 GE Steam & Dry Iron 9 2 Step, Step Stool 10 12 piece Spice Rack With Cabinet 10.00 10.00 FREE 4.00 7.50 5.00 10.00 10.00 7.50 7.50 11.00 8.00 11_5 Piece Exercise Set 12.00 9.00 12 3-Piece Coming Ware Sauce Pan 12.00 9.00 13 Weather Station Trio 14 Black & DeckerCircular Saw 18.00 19.00 15 GE AM/FMClock Radio 21.00 6 Black & Decker V4"Drill 7 Toastmaster Toaster 16 Oster 10-Speed Blender ANY TWO FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE 21.00 17_2 Speed HooverElectric Broom 18 Norther Electric Blanket 19 53 Piece Stoneware Set 28.00 28.00 110.00 While supply lasts OPEN ONE OF THESE HIGH-INTEREST SAVINGS ACCOUNTS: Annual Annual Rate Yield? 8.00% 8 years—$100 minimum 7.75% 7.50% 6 years—$100 minimum 4 years—$100 minimum 6.75% 30 months—$100 minimum 1 year—$100 minimum Phone for today's rate Phonefor today's rate 90 days—$100 minimum Regular Account 6 month Money Market—$10,000 minimum 2% year Variable Rate Certificate—$100 minimum Yield is the actualinterest earned,with daily compoundingif the original deposit and all earnings remain in the accountfor twelve months. Early withdrawals are subject to a substantial interest penalty Transfer your savings to American Savings and: 1. Choose from the gift selection above. 2. Earn a higher interest rate than your bank pays 3. Feel secure and safe with your savings money 4. Deposit and withdraw from 24 convenient insured by an agencyof the Federal Government locations. American 3.Savings “an Over billion dollars in assets 24 Branch Offices Believing in the American Dream 310 NORTH UNIVERSITY AVENUE, PROVO PHONE 375-2600 | |