Compulsion Page #10

and what was not.

You Honor, prosecution moves

a jury be impaneled.

- But why?

- If Artie Strauss cannot distinguish...

- between what is true and what is not...

- Your Honor

he cannot distinguish between

right and wrong.

- Your Honor

- Isn't that what you're saying?

- No, I don't believe so.

- Now just a minute.

- Is your diagnosis insanity?

- I am cross-examining this witness.

Under oath, I cannot answer that, sir.

"Insanity" is a legal term...

not a medical one

I'm a doctor, not a lawyer.

- Motion denied.

- Your witness, Mr. Horn.

Go ahead.

Poppycock, Doctor.

More psychiatric verbiage.

Call it "paranoia".

Call it anything you like.

What it all adds up to in Judd Steiner

is a feeling that nobody liked him...

and they had good reason

not to.

Paranoia encompasses

a very positive feeling of being right...

and a strong neurotic suspicion of being

persecuted because of those feelings.

Oh, it does, eh?

Well, let me tell

you something...

for the past ten days in cross-examining you

and your colleagues...

I've had exactly

those feelings.

I know I'm right

and I have a distinct feeling...

of being persecuted

by the defense.

Do you think I should be committed?

Your Honor, I submit

that if the subject to be debated...

is Mr. Horn's sanity,

for once I agree with him...

only a jury

could determine that.

Now, at the time of this meeting...

you had a deep romantic attachment

for another boy.

Yes, sir.

And yet you also feel a romantic

attachment forJudd?

I felt he was alone

and terribly unhappy.

I see. Did Judd give

any demonstration that...

he liked you as a woman?

He kissed me.

That's all?

No further advances?

There were, but they stopped.

Would you keep your voice up,

Miss Evans. I couldn't hear you.

- But they stopped.

- I'm sorry, Miss Evans...

but were they of such a nature as to make

you determine never to see him again?

No. They were not.

- You would have seen him again.

- Yes.

Within a few hours after this,

Judd was arrested.

Now did your feelings toward him

change then?

Of course.

I realized that...

the unhappiness

I sensed in him...

caused him to commit

a violent and insane crime.

And with this knowledge,

would you still see him again?

Yes.

I felt sorry for him then...

and I feel sorry for him now.

No further questions.

Stand back.

"This crime is the most fiendish,

cold-blooded, inexcusable case...

the world has ever known".

That's what Mr. Horn

has told this court.

You Honor, I've been practicing

law a good deal longer than I ought to

Anyhow, for 45, 46 years

During all that time,

I have never tried a case...

where the State's Attorney

did not say it was the most cold-blooded...

inexcusable case ever.

Certainly, there was no excuse

for the killing of little Paulie Kessler.

There's also no reason for it.

It wasn't for

spite or hate...

or for money.

The great misfortune

of this case is money.

If Your Honor shall doom

these boys to die, it'll be because...

their parents are rich.

I hope I don't need to mention,

I'll fight as hard for the poor as the rich.

If I'd come into

this court alone...

with two ordinary,

obscure defendants...

- who'd done what these boys have done...

- This crime was no -

And hadn't been all this weirdness...

And notoriety and this sensational publicity...

and I'd said, "Your Honor,

I'm willing to enter a plea of'guilty'...

and let you sentence them

to life in imprisonment"...

do you suppose the State's Attorneys

would raise their voices in protest?

There's never been a case in Chicago

when a plea of"guilty"...

a boy under 21

has been sentenced to death.

Not one.

Yet, for some reason...

in the case of these immature boys

of diseased minds, as plain as day...

they say you can only get justice

by shedding their last drop of blood.

Isn't a lifetime behind prison bars

enough for this mad act?

And must this great public

be regaled with a hanging?

For the last three weeks...

I've heard nothing but

the cry of"blood" in this room.

I've heard nothing from the offices

of the State's Attorney but ugly hatred.

For God's sake, are we crazy?

If you hang these boys...

it will mean that in this land of ours,

a court of law...

could not help but bow down

to public opinion.

In as cruel a speech

as he knew how to make...

the State's Attorney...

told this court that we're

pleading guilty because...

we're afraid to do

anything else.

Your Honor, that's true.

Of course I'm afraid...

to submit this case

to a jury...

where the responsibility

must be divided by 12.

No, Your Honor...

if these boys must hang...

you must do it.

It must be your own...

deliberate, cool,

premeditated act.

The State's Attorney has laughed at me

for talking about children's fantasies...

but what does he know about

childhood?

What do I know?

Is there anyone of us who hasn't...

been guilty of some kind

of delinquency in his youth?

How many men are there here today,

lawyers and congressmen...

and judges and even

State's Attorneys...

who haven't been guilty

of some kind of wild act in youth?

And if the consequences didn't amount

to much and we didn't get caught...

that was our good luck,

but this was something different...

this was the mad act of two sick children

who belong in a psychopathic hospital.

Do I need to argue it? Is there any man

with a decent regard for human life...

with the slightest

bit of heart...

that doesn't

understand it?

We're told it was a cold-blooded killing

because they planned and schemed.

Yes, but here are

officers of the state...

who for months have

planned and schemed...

and contrived...

to take these boys' lives.

Talk about scheming.

Your Honor, I've become obsessed

with this deep feeling of hate and anger.

I've been fighting it,

battling with it...

till it's fairly

driven me mad.

What about this matter

of crime and punishment anyway?

Through the centuries,

our laws have been modified.

Till now, men looked back

with horror...

at the hangings

and killings of the past.

It's been proven that as the penalties

are less barbarous...

the crimes are less frequent.

Do I need to argue with Your Honor

that cruelty only breeds cruelty?

Every religious leader who's held up

as an example has taught us...

that if there is any way

to kill evil...

it's not by killing men.

If there's any way of destroying hatred

and all that goes with it...

it's not through evil

and hatred and cruelty...

through charity, love,

understanding.

This is a Christian community

so-called.

Is there any doubt that these boys

would be safe...

in the hands of the founder

of the Christian religion?

I think anyone who knows me knows

how sorry I am for little Paulie Kessler...

knows that I'm not

saying it simply to talk.

Artie and Judd enticed him

into a car...

and when he struggled, they hit him

over the head and killed him.

They did that.

They poured acid on him

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