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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..728704a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60467 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60467) diff --git a/old/60467-h.zip b/old/60467-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 576dce7..0000000 --- a/old/60467-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60467-h/60467-h.htm b/old/60467-h/60467-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 5939f0e..0000000 --- a/old/60467-h/60467-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1880 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Question of Identity, by Frank Riley. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } - -.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph2 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Question of Identity, by Frank Riley - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: A Question of Identity - -Author: Frank Riley - -Release Date: October 10, 2019 [EBook #60467] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A QUESTION OF IDENTITY *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="343" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>A QUESTION OF IDENTITY</h1> - -<h2>BY FRANK RILEY</h2> - -<p><i>What is a Man?... A paradox<br /> -indeed—the world's finest minds<br /> -gathered to defend a punk killer....</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Worlds of If Science Fiction, April 1958.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Every pair of eyes in the hushed courtroom watched Jake Emspak walk -slowly toward the prospective juror.</p> - -<p>Around the Earth, and above it, too, from South Africa and Franz Joseph -Land to the satellite stations adrift through the black morning, two -hundred million pairs of eyes focussed on the gaunt figure that moved -so deliberately across the television screen.</p> - -<p>In the glass-fronted TV booth, where the 80-year-old Edward R. Murrow -had created something of a stir by his unexpected appearance a few -moments earlier, newsmen stopped talking to let the viewers see and -hear for themselves what was happening.</p> - -<p>Jake halted in front of the witness stand, both hands cupped over -the gold head of the cane that had been his trademark, in and out of -court, for most of a half century. The shaggy mane of white hair, -once as black as the coal in the West Virginia mining country of his -birth, stood out like an incongruous halo above the bone ridges of his -face. The jutting nose, the forward hunch of his body accentuated the -impression he always gave of being about to leap on a nervous witness. -The magnificent voice, which could thunder, rasp, weep and persuade in -all the registers of eloquence, now phrased his first question with -disconcerting softness:</p> - -<p>"What is a man?"</p> - -<p>The prospective juror, a Bronx appliance distributor with sagging jowls -and perpetual tension lines around his mouth, started visibly.</p> - -<p>"I—I beg your pardon?"</p> - -<p>Again Jake Emspak gently phrased his question:</p> - -<p>"What is a man?"</p> - -<p>The distributor, who could wake up out of a sound sleep and address a -sales meeting of unhappy dealers, opened his mouth and closed it again. -Jake waited patiently, rocking a little on the point of his cane.</p> - -<p>Finally, the distributor said:</p> - -<p>"I can't answer that—right off...."</p> - -<p>"Thank you," Jake said mildly.</p> - -<p>He turned to Judge Hayward and nodded his acceptance of the juror.</p> - -<p>Up in the TV booth, Murrow smiled to himself and listened to his -colleagues chew over the familiar questions: Why had Jake Emspak, the -"million dollar mouthpiece", taken a cheap case like this away from the -Public Defender? Who would possibly pay him enough to defend a punk -like Tony Corfino—a bungling hoodlum who had killed two bystanders in -a miserable attempt to rob a bank?</p> - -<p>The Judge noted acceptance of the juror, then brusquely recessed court -until 10 A.M. Monday.</p> - -<p>The timing was excellent. Jake smiled with satisfaction, and his smile -was like the slash of a paring knife across the skin of a dried apple.</p> - -<p>He walked with Tony Corfino and the bailiff as far as the prisoner's -gate.</p> - -<p>"Don't worry," Jake said.</p> - -<p>Tony's eyes were wide and bewildered, like the eyes of a confused -child—or of an old man not quite certain whether he is awake or -dreaming.</p> - -<p>"I ain't worried," Tony replied. As he walked, there was the crackling -sound of a bone twisting in a stiff joint.</p> - -<p>From under his shaggy brows, Jake studied him carefully, and was -content with what he saw. Tony could have been very young, or very -old. Undoubtedly he was both, with a lot of in-between, Jake thought -suddenly. The tangle of black, curly hair was the hair of youth. The -cameo-smooth skin had the waxed perfection of an expensive doll. But -the mouth and lips were still puffy, sensuous. And the eyes—Jake -Emspak, for all his knowing, couldn't be sure about the eyes. -Silently, he addressed a memo to himself: Check on the eyes.</p> - -<p>At the prisoners' gate, Tony faced him.</p> - -<p>"I ain't worried," he repeated. "It's just—well, I don't see why -you're takin' my case—I can't pay anythin'...."</p> - -<p>The thin smile slashed again across the wrinkled harshness of Jake's -face.</p> - -<p>"I'll be paid," he chuckled drily.</p> - -<p>The District Attorney brought up the same question when Jake sat in his -office two hours later. They had been studying each other across the -desk, thinking of all the years that were gone, the good years dying -with the new quarter of the century.</p> - -<p>How many times had he sat here just like this, Jake wondered. How -often had he come into this office to bargain and to deal, to cajole -and plead—and always hovering like a hawk to pounce on any bit of -information that could fit his case.</p> - -<p>Now the D.A. was old, too. Older than Jake, if you measured a man's -life by the inverse proportion of his distance from the grave. Even -the limitless possibilities of medical science had about reached -their limit with the D.A. He was heavier than Jake, and his skin was -smoother, yet somehow it looked much older.</p> - -<p>"I don't get it," he wheezed, with the shortness of breath that the -latest bronchial replacement had not substantially relieved. "I just -can't see Jake Emspak taking a case without a fee! Why, in the old -days, you wouldn't defend your mother without a cashier's check in -advance!"</p> - -<p>Jake accepted the taunt without blinking.</p> - -<p>"I'm touched by this solicitude for my fees," he retorted.</p> - -<p>"Tony Corfino's guilty," said the D.A., moving up another pawn in the -never-ending chess game between them. "He's a punk, and he's guilty. -You know that, don't you, Jake?"</p> - -<p>"Do I?"</p> - -<p>"You know it—and damn well! I've got six witnesses who saw Tony walk -into the bank with that sawed-off shotgun! I've got four more who saw -him get panicky and start spraying lead! And there are a dozen others -who helped load him on a stretcher after his getaway car went over the -curve on the Parkway!... Hell, Jake, this is a two-bit case. Why are -you taking it away from the Public Defender?"</p> - -<p>"Now, Emmett," Jake mocked, "you know it's not ethical for me to -discuss my client's case."</p> - -<p>"To hell with your client!" The D.A. breathed deeply for a moment, then -pressed ahead: "I don't care about that punk—I'm talking about you, -Jake. What's this case mean to you?"</p> - -<p>The chuckle started again, then died in Jake's throat.</p> - -<p>"It means a lot, Emmett," he answered soberly. "For one thing, it's my -last case...."</p> - -<p>"What?" The D.A. looked stunned.</p> - -<p>Jake nodded.</p> - -<p>"I've been around the circle enough times for any man, Emmett."</p> - -<p>Both of them absorbed this thought in silence, and the long years -walked between them. The D.A.'s lips set, and the steel of his jaw -showed beneath the soft folds of his skin.</p> - -<p>"I guess it'll have to be my last case, too, Jake," he said quietly. -Then he banged his fist on the desk. "But what a helluva case! What -a helluva two-bit case! We've had some good ones, Jake—I've got the -scars of them all over me! But why do we have to go out on something as -cheap as this?"</p> - -<p>Jake Emspak stood up, all six feet of him, and he brushed back his long -white hair with a gesture that was fierce and strong.</p> - -<p>"It's not a cheap case, Emmett! It's big—bigger than any case we've -ever fought out!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The reporters were waiting for Jake outside the D.A.'s office.</p> - -<p>"Is it true you're retiring, Jake?"</p> - -<p>"This is my last case."</p> - -<p>"Why are you representing Tony Corfino?"</p> - -<p>"You couldn't keep me out of a case as big as this."</p> - -<p>"Can you tell us why it's so big?"</p> - -<p>"I can, but I won't. Not until I get before the jury."</p> - -<p>"Is robbing a bank and shooting two people so important?"</p> - -<p>"Not particularly."</p> - -<p>"What else did he do, then?"</p> - -<p>"Nothing that I know of."</p> - -<p>"Jake, this isn't some kind of a joke, is it?"</p> - -<p>"It's the most serious case I've ever handled."</p> - -<p>"Mr. Emspak, it was reported that you received $100,000 from your last -client. Are you being paid for defending Tony Corfino?"</p> - -<p>"I never discuss my fees."</p> - -<p>"Would you object to a televised interview with Tony?"</p> - -<p>"Certainly not. How about tomorrow morning?"</p> - -<p>The reporters left, baffled and intrigued. That night, Jake Emspak sat -alone in his apartment high over Central Park West, chuckling with -satisfaction as he read the headlines in the first editions:</p> - -<p class="ph2">FAMED CRIMINAL LAWYER IN MYSTERY CASE</p> - -<p>The other headlines were substantially the same. Jake grinned. Things -were working out fine, just fine. Publicity was a wonderful tool, if a -lawyer knew when to use it, and how. He showed one of the headlines to -his wife, whose picture was in a mellow gold frame on the stand beside -his window chair. Marge had been dead since '67, but he still found it -a quiet comfort to share things with her. She didn't have to answer, -because words weren't necessary after you'd lived and loved with a -woman for forty-three years. His thin smile became warmer as he turned -toward her.</p> - -<p>"Mystery case!" he chortled. "Mystery! The only mystery is why someone -hasn't tried a case like this before!"</p> - -<p>He paused, looked across the park at the spangle of lights, and added -softly:</p> - -<p>"But I'm glad no one did."</p> - -<p>Ed Murrow called just before Jake went to bed.</p> - -<p>"Sorry you got into this?" Murrow asked.</p> - -<p>"You know better than that, Ed. I'm deeply grateful to you for tipping -me off on this case."</p> - -<p>"Well, don't forget to tip me off, too, Jake! I'm not too old to -appreciate a scoop now and then!"</p> - -<p>"Don't worry, Ed...."</p> - -<p>Next morning, Jake was rested and ready to meet the challenge of Tony -Corfino's TV interview. He knew there was a danger Tony might say too -much, but it was a calculated risk that had to be taken. The case -needed build-up, plenty of build-up.</p> - -<p>The interview took place in the open square between the towering -cell-blocks of Manhattan's new jail. When Jake and Tony came out, the -TV cameramen and reporters had already taken their places. The city's -crack newspapermen were seated on folding chairs in front of the -cameras, along with two men from the District Attorney's office who -self-consciously tried to look like members of the working press. Jake -sat down beside Tony and hunched forward watchfully over the gold head -of his cane.</p> - -<p>Bert Brown of the <i>Tribune</i>, whose pipelines into the D.A.'s office had -brought him many an exclusive, shot out the first question. It came -with a whiplash crack:</p> - -<p>"Tony, are you paying Mr. Emspak to represent you?"</p> - -<p>Tony looked uncertainly toward Jake, and when the old lawyer didn't -answer, Tony said quietly:</p> - -<p>"No—I'm not."</p> - -<p>"Is the Syndicate paying Mr. Emspak?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know why they should—I never got into the Syndicate." Tony's -answer was expressionless, yet his voice had a strangely subdued -quality for a Tenth Avenue kid who had grown up fighting for crumbs -from the tables of underworld kingpins.</p> - -<p>Cassidy of the Times interjected:</p> - -<p>"Do you know who is paying Mr. Emspak to represent you?"</p> - -<p>"Nope."</p> - -<p>Now the sun broke through the morning overcast and gleamed on the -polished perfection of Tony's waxlike skin. A woman reporter from the -Mirror asked in an abrupt, mannish voice:</p> - -<p>"Tony—what happened to your face?"</p> - -<p>"The Doc says it's some new kind of plastic surgery. I got burned in -that accident...."</p> - -<p>"When you were driving away from the bank?" Bert Brown snapped out.</p> - -<p>"Yeah."</p> - -<p>Brown grinned in triumph. It had been a neat double play. The two -investigators from the D.A.'s office scribbled furiously. Jake Emspak -continued to stare into the TV cameras without blinking.</p> - -<p>From the back row, a <i>Daily News</i> man boomed out:</p> - -<p>"Then you admit the shootings, Tony?"</p> - -<p>Jake lifted one finger from the gold head of his cane. It was a small -gesture, but it silenced Tony's answer and immediately commanded the -attention of everyone present.</p> - -<p>"My client," rasped Jake, "neither denies nor admits any connection -with the crimes for which he is being tried."</p> - -<p>Bert Brown grinned sardonically at him.</p> - -<p>"Do you expect to win this case, Mr. Emspak?"</p> - -<p>"We'll win it," Jake answered, in a voice so cold and certain and hard -that the reporters involuntarily joined the TV audience in a collective -gasp.</p> - -<p>Jake stood up and motioned to the deputies. It was time to end the -interview. Precisely the right time.</p> - -<p>The reporters left without further questions. They knew from long -experience when Jake Emspak would and would not talk.</p> - -<p>By that evening, speculation—without the ballast of facts—was -soaring to dizzy heights. Even the communist angle came in for -its share of limelight. Was Tony Corfino somehow of value to the -resurgent Red underground? Could Jake Emspak's fee be traced back to -Peiping, new headquarters for the Comintern? But not even the most -skilled commentator could adequately sustain innuendo on innuendo -alone. Not by the grossest distortion of facts could any Communist -connection be twisted out of Tony's record of juvenile delinquency, -pimping, pick-pocketing, petty thievery, dope peddling, armed robbery, -and—since the grain and sugar restrictions of '70—bootlegging.</p> - -<p>But one of the more perceptive reporters had noted Tony's strangely -quiet manner of speaking. Inquiries at the jail disclosed that Tony had -apparently developed an interest in reading.</p> - -<p>Here, indeed, was a fresh angle! By mid-afternoon, "Gentleman Tony" -had been conceived and given birth. His sordid record was reinterpreted -in a picaresque light, and he became something of a Tenth Avenue -Robin Hood. A nation squeezed between the twin problems of mounting -population and tighter food rationing took "Gentleman Tony" to its -fancy. It was like a case of 24-hour flu.</p> - -<p>In the midst of all this, as Jake Emspak sat in his office Sunday -morning, behind a mound of microfilmed court records dating back to the -mid-fifties, he received a more serious-minded interviewer. The visitor -was John O. Callihan, well-publicized sportsman, art connoisseur, world -traveler and No. 1 man in the Syndicate. His mistresses, and a few old -friends like Jake Emspak, called him Johnno.</p> - -<p>"Greetings, Jake," he said, easing his athletic, tastefully dressed -frame into the chair in front of Jake's desk.</p> - -<p>"Hello, Johnno," Jake rasped. "I'm busy."</p> - -<p>"I know. That's why I came."</p> - -<p>"I can't talk about this case, Johnno."</p> - -<p>"I'm not asking you to."</p> - -<p>Johnno lit a long, pencil-thin cigarette, and continued reflectively:</p> - -<p>"Jake, I've given you some big cases, paid you well—and always let you -handle them clean, in your own way. Right?"</p> - -<p>"Right enough."</p> - -<p>"This is the first time I've ever come for a favor, Jake."</p> - -<p>"Yeah?"</p> - -<p>"Who's paying for Tony Corfino?"</p> - -<p>"Nobody you have to worry about, Johnno."</p> - -<p>"No other Syndicate—or anything like that?"</p> - -<p>Jake shook his head, and his caller stood up.</p> - -<p>"Thanks, Jake."</p> - -<p>"Now, will you get the hell out of here!"</p> - -<p>"Sure, Jake—give my love to Marge."</p> - -<p>Jake lowered his head to hide the mist in his eyes. Johnno had sent -a simple corsage of blue violets to Marge's funeral. And he sent one -every year, on the anniversary of her death.</p> - -<p>Jake went back to Gould v. Gould, 243 App. Div. 589, and stayed with it -until nearly six o'clock, when he turned wearily to People v. Gibbs. -This looked like an interminable case, even on microfilm. His eyes were -strained from staring at the viewer screen, and his big hand was stiff -from spinning the reel crank. He opened his fingers, and the knuckles -cracked. Jake stared disgustedly at them. You could take a boy out of -the coal mines, but not the coal mines out of the boy. His hand was -too big for such a small crank. Someday, he'd have to buy an automatic -viewer, or even one of those electronic brains they demonstrated at the -last Bar Association meeting. But then, he wouldn't need anything after -this case. And besides, he didn't trust such impersonal help. Leibowitz -had taught him a good lawyer should do his own preparation. Leibowitz! -The Vera Stretz case.... That was forty years ago! Jake shook his head -to chase away the memories, and started People v. Gibbs, patiently -searching for points of law to help him prove that a punk named Tony -Corfino....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When court reconvened on Monday morning, the weekend's publicity -showed its results. A bailiff whispered to Jake that people had been -waiting for the doors to open since five A.M. Thousands had gone home -disappointed. The fortunate who did get seats filled the courtroom -with babble and shrillness as they waited impatiently for something to -happen. A new note of excitement sounded when Tony Corfino walked in -beside a Sheriff's Deputy. Jake had insisted that Tony be carefully -groomed and dressed each morning before coming into court, and the -women among the spectators buzzed with appreciation.</p> - -<p>Promptly at ten, Judge Hayward stepped out of his chambers and -looked, gimlet-eyed, over the courtroom. The hubub quieted, then -faded to stillness. Jake was glad to have Judge Hayward on this case. -At forty-seven, he was the youngest Superior Court judge and least -wedded to precedent. He was impatient with legal sleight-of-hand, -painstakingly insistent on a structure of evidence. "Any mule can kick -a barn down; it takes a good carpenter to build one," he had once told -Jake.</p> - -<p>Selection of the jury proceeded at a creeping pace, which court -reporters had come to expect with both the D.A. and Jake Emspak in the -same courtroom. In their last clash, they had meticulously examined -one hundred and fifty jurors before accepting twelve. But this time, -the District Attorney was responsible for most of the delay. Not -knowing why Jake had taken the case, the D.A. proceeded nervously -and cautiously in questioning each juror: What is your feeling about -capital punishment? Would you credit the testimony of an eye witness? -Do you believe that a criminal must be punished as decreed by law?</p> - -<p>Jake's questions were fewer, and less orthodox. Sometimes he asked: -"What is your attitude toward science?" Or, again: "Are you a religious -man?" But most frequently he came without preamble to what seemed to be -the key to his case:</p> - -<p>"What is a man?"</p> - -<p>And while this went on in the courtroom, Jake continued his tireless -preparations. Research, subpoenas, talking to witnesses, taking -depositions, then more research and more subpoenas. Bound the case on -the east, the north, the south and the west. Lincoln had said that. -Jake's stomach rebelled, and he took to eating a bowl of baby cereal -before going to bed in an effort to still its growling and grumbling. -Those who knew how hard he worked continued to ask: Where's the money -coming from? Why is this important anyway?</p> - -<p>Whenever speculation started to sag, Jake shrewdly needled it by -leaking a fact here, a rumor there. From Los Angeles, the ebullient old -television commentator, George Putnam, still indefatigable in his late -sixties, reported that a noted brain surgeon had been subpoenaed to -testify at the Corfino trial. In New York, Ed Murrow asked the probing, -provocative question: Why has Jake Emspak personally invited one of our -great religious philosophers to appear as a defense witness?</p> - -<p>"I suggest," hinted Murrow, "that you won't find the gold in this case -by panning the mainstream. Or, as Plato said...."</p> - -<p>The D.A. and his deputies sat up half the night studying an air-check -of the Murrow broadcast.</p> - -<p>By the close of the fourth day, selection of the jury had been -completed and the trial was ready to begin. That evening, Jake worked -on his notes until ten o'clock, and then went out for his customary -walk through the memories and quiet of Central Park. As he paused at a -crosswalk to watch a satellite platform sweep like a new planet across -the sky, a long, black car drifted silently to a stop beside him.</p> - -<p>The door swung open, and the District Attorney's tired voice said,</p> - -<p>"Get in, Jake."</p> - -<p>Jake got in, and neither of them spoke for awhile.</p> - -<p>"Couldn't sleep," the D.A. said finally. "Can't even sleep with them -damn pills anymore."</p> - -<p>Jake didn't say anything. He stared at the back of the chauffeur in -front of them. What could you say when an old friend was wearing out?</p> - -<p>"Look, Jake," the D.A. continued, "do you really mean this is your last -case?"</p> - -<p>"You know I do."</p> - -<p>"Then, how about a deal—You cop a plea, and Tony gets off with -life...."</p> - -<p>"Why, Emmett?"</p> - -<p>"I don't want to see you wind up this way, Jake—losing a penny-ante -case like this!"</p> - -<p>"You know how I feel about this case."</p> - -<p>"No deal, then?"</p> - -<p>"No deal."</p> - -<p>The D.A. wheezed angrily:</p> - -<p>"Then I'm going to whip you, Jake—and that punk's going to burn!"</p> - -<p>Jake didn't answer, and they drove slowly along the endless, winding -roads of Central Park. The tires of the great car murmured over the -pavement like a boat in the ripples of a lake, and the silent motor -gave them a sensation of floating through the night.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Anger still fired the D.A.'s voice when he made his opening address to -the jury. His final words were brutally to the point:</p> - -<p>"We've all heard rumors about what the defense may or may not attempt -to prove in this trial, but let us not forget that in the law of our -land there is no place for medical quacks, parole panderers or all the -bleeding hearts who drip sympathy for a killer like Tony Corfino! The -chair is the only thing he and others like him will ever understand!"</p> - -<p>The courtroom stilled to breathlessness as Jake Emspak stepped forward -to deliver his own opening remarks. He moved, then paused, with a great -dramatist's sense of timing. Ghosts of a thousand courtrooms and fifty -years of practice moved and paused with him. Impeccably dressed, his -long silver hair artfully disheveled, he folded his blue-veined hands -over the gold head of his cane and swayed for a moment in silence, -thoughtfully contemplating the jurors. When he spoke, his voice had a -quality of remoteness that was peculiarly compelling:</p> - -<p>"I would like," he began, "to quote from a Supreme Court Justice -who died before some of you were born. It was Benjamin Cardoza who -said—'Law in its deepest aspects is one with the humanities and with -all the things by which humanity is uplifted and inspired. Law is not a -cadaver, but a spirit; not a finality, but a process of becoming; not a -clog in the fullness of life, but an outlet and a means thereto; not a -game but a sacrament'...."</p> - -<p>He waited fully a half-minute before continuing, and not a person in -the courtroom stirred.</p> - -<p>"The defense," Jake went on quietly, "will rest its case on two major -points:</p> - -<p>"First, we will prove that the law has not kept pace with the progress -of science and the forward march of human thought.</p> - -<p>"Second ..." here Jake paused again, while he looked slowly from the -jurors, to the judge and finally to the District Attorney. "Second," -he continued, with a ghost of a smile on his thin lips, "we will prove -that <i>Tony Corfino is not Tony Corfino</i>!"</p> - -<p>Jake stood for a moment in silence. Then, with a slight, almost curt -nod of his head, he turned away and walked back to his seat beside Tony -Corfino. Tony stared at him wordlessly, with a look in his eyes that -Jake had not yet fathomed.</p> - -<p>The courtroom exploded into bedlam. Judge Hayward gaveled peremptorily -for silence, and motioned to the District Attorney to begin -presentation of the People's case.</p> - -<p>If the D.A. was puzzled by Jake's opening remarks, he gave no sign of -it. His marshalling of the evidence was grimly efficient. There was -a quality of the inexorable about the way he moved up his witnesses -one by one. It was like the maneuvering of a skilled boxer who seeks -to take his opponent out, not with one punch, but with a carefully -executed combination of punches.</p> - -<p>Tony Corfino was not Tony Corfino? The D.A. smiled sardonically as he -pointed to the pale defendant and asked the witness to identify him.</p> - -<p>"And is this the man who entered the bank on the morning of last -October 17?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, it is," replied the nervous, overly plump young woman.</p> - -<p>"Were you in a position to observe him closely at all times?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Where were you?"</p> - -<p>"In—in the Note Window ... right next to where he—he came up and -pointed his gun."</p> - -<p>"Thank you."</p> - -<p>With elaborate courtesy, the D.A. turned to Jake:</p> - -<p>"Does the distinguished defense counsel desire to cross-examine this -witness?"</p> - -<p>Jake nodded gravely, and advanced toward the witness stand. The young -woman watched him apprehensively. In the TV booth, the regular court -reporters leaned forward with anticipation. Many a time had they -seen Jake Emspak take the most positive witness and reduce him to a -quivering, stuttering symbol of uncertainty. "Show me an eye witness," -Jake had once observed, "and I'll show you a liar."</p> - -<p>Now, as Jake began, there was a note of friendliness in his voice:</p> - -<p>"You say this is the man who entered the bank on the morning of last -October 17?"</p> - -<p>"Yes—yes, sir.... It is!"</p> - -<p>Jake nodded understandingly.</p> - -<p>"Suppose," he continued, "we look at it another way for a moment: Is -the man who entered the bank on the morning of last October 17 the same -man who now appears as defendant in this trial?"</p> - -<p>The young woman bit her lip, smearing some of the lipstick on her large -front teeth. She hesitated, thinking through the question, then nodded -firmly.</p> - -<p>"Yes—of course!"</p> - -<p>"How do you know?"</p> - -<p>"Why—he—he <i>looks</i> the same!"</p> - -<p>"<i>Exactly</i> the same? I suggest you look him over carefully before you -answer."</p> - -<p>The young woman stared at Tony, then dropped her eyes in confusion.</p> - -<p>"<i>Exactly</i> the same?" Jake pressed.</p> - -<p>"Well ... I'm ... I'm not sure...."</p> - -<p>Jake teetered on the point of his cane, thoughtfully contemplating the -now flustered witness. Then, unexpectedly, he turned to Judge Hayward -and said,</p> - -<p>"No further questions, your Honor."</p> - -<p>The D.A. blinked in surprise. It was not like Jake to stop once he had -a witness in full retreat. The court reporters looked at each other -disappointedly. Maybe the old man should retire!</p> - -<p>Jake continued to treat prosecution witnesses with similar restraint. -He would lead them up to the brink of uncertainty, then leave them -there. As a result, the District Attorney was able to complete -presentation of his case by the middle of the second morning.</p> - -<p>"The People rest," he announced, with grim satisfaction.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jake Emspak's first defense witness was a youthful looking man of about -forty who quickly identified himself as a well-known authority on -fingerprints, an expert who had many times been called to assist the -police in major criminal cases.</p> - -<p>"Is it not true," Jake began, "that in the tradition of modern -law, fingerprints are regarded as the most positive method of -identification?"</p> - -<p>"That is correct."</p> - -<p>From a mass of data on his desk, Jake extracted a single sheet of -photostatic copy and handed it to Judge Hayward.</p> - -<p>"I have here," he said, "a certified copy of one Tony Corfino's -fingerprints—taken at the time of his arrest and conviction five years -ago on a charge of Grand Theft, Auto...."</p> - -<p>The Judge accepted the photostat and handed it to the clerk for entry -into the record. Jake then retrieved it, and gave it to his witness.</p> - -<p>"Now, Sir," he went on, "will you please take the defendant's -fingerprints and compare them to this photostatic copy."</p> - -<p>The jurors craned forward curiously as the fingerprint expert opened -his kit and went methodically about the business of fingerprinting Tony -Corfino. When he had finished, and returned to the witness stand with -the new prints, Jake Emspak demanded:</p> - -<p>"Is there any similarity between those fingerprints and the -fingerprints of one Tony Corfino?"</p> - -<p>The expert looked from one set of prints to the other, and quickly -replied:</p> - -<p>"There can be absolutely no doubt about it—these are <i>not</i> the same -prints."</p> - -<p>Red-faced with anger, the District Attorney heaved himself to his feet -and strode toward the bench.</p> - -<p>"Objection, your Honor!" he stormed. "This is the most outrageous -deception I have ever witnessed in a courtroom. Frankly, I am astounded -that opposing counsel would stoop to such tactics!"</p> - -<p>Judge Hayward's voice had the bite of steel drill as he directed:</p> - -<p>"Will you please explain to the Court exactly what you mean?"</p> - -<p>"It's a matter of record," the D.A. snapped, "that the defendant was -seriously injured in the accident that resulted in his capture. Massive -burns were part of his injuries.... Bone and skin grafts were necessary -to repair the damage to his hands—as well as to other parts of his -body. Naturally, his fingerprints would be different! The Defense -Counsel knows that!"</p> - -<p>Jake smiled, and replied mildly:</p> - -<p>"Of course the Defense Counsel knows that, and will certainly make the -full extent of the defendant's injuries a part of the trial record. -However, I have called this particular witness to show that Tony -Corfino cannot be identified as Tony Corfino by what is still regarded -as the most infallible method of criminal identification."</p> - -<p>"Your Honor," retorted the D.A., "This so-called testimony is totally -irrelevant and immaterial. I request that it be stricken from the -record!"</p> - -<p>"It is most relevant to our case," Jake shot back. "Furthermore, the -Defense will prove that Tony Corfino cannot be identified as Tony -Corfino by any known method of criminal identification!"</p> - -<p>Judge Hayward's eyes narrowed speculatively. He thought the matter over -for a moment before stating, with unconcealed interest:</p> - -<p>"This may well be a legal situation without precedent. The Court will -withhold ruling on the objection for the time being."</p> - -<p>The next defense witness was a specialist on agglutination of the blood.</p> - -<p>"Agglutination," he explained, adjusting his glasses pedantically, -"is a biological reaction consisting of the mutual adhesion of the red -corpuscles. It is also a method of establishing individualization of -blood."</p> - -<p>"I see," said Jake. "Now, tell us—how has this method been used to -establish identification in a criminal case?"</p> - -<p>"It is sometimes used where the victim's blood leaves stains on the -murderer's clothing—as well as the victim's own clothing. If both -blood stains produce the same biological reaction, the murderer is -either guilty—or has a great deal of explaining to do!"</p> - -<p>Jake meticulously selected another exhibit from the material on his -desk.</p> - -<p>"Will you identify this, please?"</p> - -<p>"It is a piece of cotton stained with the blood of this—this -defendant."</p> - -<p>"When was it stained?"</p> - -<p>"In the test I made last week."</p> - -<p>"Did you compare it with the stains on garments worn by a certain Tony -Corfino at the time of his accident?"</p> - -<p>"I did."</p> - -<p>"What did you find?"</p> - -<p>"The two samples were entirely different?"</p> - -<p>"Could we assume, then, that the blood of a man known as Tony Corfino -does not flow through the veins of this defendant, who also bears the -name of Tony Corfino?"</p> - -<p>The witness rubbed his hand thoughtfully over the high, polished dome -of his forehead.</p> - -<p>"You <i>could</i> put it that way," he conceded.</p> - -<p>With the skill of a symphony conductor calling upon the diverse -instruments under his baton, Jake Emspak continued to bring forward -a bewildering variety of witnesses to prove that in the identifiable -details of his physiology, Tony Corfino indeed was not Tony Corfino. -The D.A. watched in furious silence. Once, when Jake passed near him, -he muttered:</p> - -<p>"This is contemptible!"</p> - -<p>Imperturbably, Jake turned back to the witness stand, where a -radiographer from Scripps Institute was taking the oath. Patiently, -he led the witness through a description of how the radiographies -of the nasal accessory sinuses and mastoid processes could be used -to establish the identity of an individual. Jake then produced -medical records from a juvenile correctional institution in eastern -Pennsylvania, where Tony Corfino had sojourned during his seventeenth -year. Comparison with recent hospital records showed a striking -difference between the two radiographies.</p> - -<p>The opthalmologic method of Capdevielle was next explored by Jake to -show that the eyes of Tony Corfino were not the eyes of Tony Corfino. -The technique of Tamassia and Ameuille was employed to prove the same -point about Tony's veins. The umbilicial method of Bert and Vianny -intrigued the courtroom and TV audience with structural dissimilarities -of Tony's navel. By means of projection on a large screen, Jake -demonstrated to the jurors and Judge Hayward that Tony Corfino, -defendant, had an entirely different electrocardiagram from the Tony -Corfino whose crushed body had been pulled, more dead than alive, from -the wreckage of a burning automobile.</p> - -<p>Late that afternoon, Ed Murrow commented to his news audience in the -cadence that had been his trademark for more than forty years:</p> - -<p>"We know not yet where this trial is taking us, though Jake Emspak is -beginning to show the direction. Perhaps, we, too, could ask ourselves -the question: <i>What is a man?</i>"</p> - -<p>Less philosophically, a space-weary young captain, sending in his -nightly report from the satellite station, Vanguard VI, queried:</p> - -<p>"If this Tony Corfino isn't Tony Corfino, who or what in the hell is -he?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Part of the answer to this question was on display the next morning -when the jury filed into Judge Hayward's courtroom. Before them, and -angled toward the TV cameras, was a chart nearly eight feet tall. -It showed, in outline, the figure of a man. The figure was covered -with small black dots, each bearing a white number. In all, there was -seventy-two dots.</p> - -<p>As soon as court was in session, Jake called a short, squarely-built -man of about fifty to the stand. There was a bulldog set to his jaw -and mouth. He identified himself as Dr. Theodore Clendenning, Chief of -Staff at City Hospital.</p> - -<p>"Dr. Clendenning," said Jake, "I assume you are familiar with the -medical and surgical care received by the defendant at your hospital?"</p> - -<p>"Quite familiar," the doctor retorted, impatiently.</p> - -<p>"Then, may I direct your attention to this chart. It indicates areas in -which artificial parts were used to replace the damaged or destroyed -natural parts of a certain Tony Corfino's body. Will you name them, -please, as I point them out with my cane."</p> - -<p>Tapping the chart like a school-teacher signalling for the attention of -his pupils, Jake Emspak started at the outline of the head.</p> - -<p>"Vitallium skull plate," snapped Dr. Clendenning.</p> - -<p>Jake's cane touched the nose.</p> - -<p>"Vitallium nose plate."</p> - -<p>Swiftly, the tip of the cane moved around the outline of the body, -pausing only long enough for the doctor to name each part:</p> - -<p>"Plastic tear duct ... vitallium jaw bone and implanted dentures ... -paraffin and plastic sponge to fill chest after removal of lung ... -plastic esophagus ... tantalum breast plate ... tantalum mesh to patch -chest wall ... vitallium shoulder socket rim and shoulder joint -bone ... vitallium elbow joint, radius bone, ulna bone, wrist bone, -finger joint ... spinal fusion plate ... vitallium blood vessel tubes."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="650" height="330" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Jake put down his cane, and turned conversationally toward the doctor.</p> - -<p>"Dr. Clendenning, is it true that this Tony Corfino's reproductive -organs were destroyed in the accident?"</p> - -<p>"Virtually so."</p> - -<p>"And is it not also true that the defendant in this case is now -capable of becoming a parent?"</p> - -<p>Dr. Clendenning glanced at his watch and sighed.</p> - -<p>"What you are referring to," he answered, "has been rather elementary -surgery for the past ten years."</p> - -<p>"But the children of Tony Corfino would not then be the children of -Tony Corfino?"</p> - -<p>Dr. Clendenning looked toward Judge Hayward with a pained expression. -Receiving no sign of any kind from the Judge, he turned back to Jake -Emspak.</p> - -<p>"I have given you the medical data," he said angrily. "You can draw -your own conclusions."</p> - -<p>Jake nodded, and replied with emphasis:</p> - -<p>"I am sure this Court and the Jury will do just that."</p> - -<p>He studied the chart for a moment, then tapped the outline figure in -the area of the eyes.</p> - -<p>"Tell us, Dr. Clendenning, what did your staff do about Tony Corfino's -eyes? I understand the flames had reached them."</p> - -<p>"Cornea transplants were necessary."</p> - -<p>"And where did you obtain the corneas?"</p> - -<p>"Mr. Emspak—I'm sure you know that most people nowadays will their -eyes to the Cornea Bank!"</p> - -<p>"Can you tell us anything about the corneas that were transplanted in -Tony Corfino's eyes? From what type a person did they come?"</p> - -<p>"I'd rather not answer that?"</p> - -<p>Jake turned to the Judge.</p> - -<p>"Your Honor, unless there is a legal reason why the good doctor should -not answer, I ask the Court to direct that he do so."</p> - -<p>Judge Hayward hesitated, then directed the witness to answer.</p> - -<p>"They came from the eyes of a priest," growled the doctor.</p> - -<p>Jake Emspak raised his cane to the chart once again, then apparently -changed his mind and lowered it.</p> - -<p>"Dr. Clendenning," he asked quietly, "am I correct in believing that -the construction of parts for the human body is now an important -industry?"</p> - -<p>"That's right," the doctor said grudgingly. "It's grown tremendously in -the past twenty years—from a $160-million-a-year business in 1957 to -nearly a billion today...."</p> - -<p>"One further question, if you please, Doctor," said Jake. "What is -<i>your</i> definition of a man?"</p> - -<p>The doctor thought for a moment, and smiled coldly.</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid it would not assist your case," he replied.</p> - -<p>"We are only looking for some basic truths."</p> - -<p>Dr. Clendenning bunched his square shoulders and leaned forward -aggressively.</p> - -<p>"I can think of no better definition," he snapped, "than one given by -a distinguished physician in the earlier years of this century. He -defined the human body as an animal organism, differing in only a few -respects from other animal organisms, and fitted for the performance -of two main functions: The conversion of food and air into energy and -tissue; and the reproduction of other individuals of its species!"</p> - -<p>So coldly, with such an air of finality did he speak, that his words -brought an audible gasp from two women in the jury box. Jake Emspak -remained impassive.</p> - -<p>"And this is all you see in a man?" he prodded gently.</p> - -<p>The doctor's jaw set stubbornly.</p> - -<p>"As a philosopher," he retorted, "I may engage in some speculation in -the company of Plato, Schopenhauer or the Archbishop of Canterbury, but -my speculations would themselves be based upon speculations and not -upon any scientific data resembling observed facts!"</p> - -<p>"Then, from your point of view, the defendant in this courtroom is not -<i>the</i> Tony Corfino—the same man—whose broken body was brought into -your hospital eight months ago?"</p> - -<p>"Obviously not."</p> - -<p>"Thank you, Doctor."</p> - -<p>Jake walked slowly from the witness stand to the jury box, and then -back to the bench.</p> - -<p>"Perhaps," he said softly, "a ten-minute recess would be in order...."</p> - -<p>Judge Hayward drew a long breath, exhaled and nodded. With the sound of -his gavel, tension ran out of the courtroom like water from a punctured -barrel.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When court reconvened, Jake began bringing to the witness stand a -parade of educators, religious leaders and philosophers who kept the -courtroom alternately fascinated and bewildered for the next two -days. They came from London, Rome, Johannesburg, Philadelphia, Tokyo -and Chicago. They came from every oasis of learning where men could -still find profit in thought, without relating the profit to the cash -register or the thought of technology. They spoke in words and symbols -that sometimes soared beyond space itself, and left the world's TV -audience groping for stability in earthbound cliches. The paradox was -incredible: All this thinking, all this culture—all of everything -brought into a courtroom to defend a bush-league hoodlum. Reporters -ceased to ask who was paying for this display; they simply marveled at -the pyrotechnics. Through it all, Jake Emspak moved deftly, surely, -extracting from each witness the pure essence of relevant thought:</p> - -<p>Man is a creature destined to live in two worlds. He is surrounded -first by the realities of this world—and he is called to live with -eternal realities that transcend this world....</p> - -<p>The human person is a body, and therefore subject to the laws of -matter, to spatiality, temporality and opacity. As such, he is a -meeting place for passing forces, a crossroads of contacts and -reactions. But the human person is also a spirit, that is to say a -reality that transcends apparent reality. There is within him the -wakened or nascent ability to comprehend space and surpass time....</p> - -<p>The human self is an object, of a sort—and, as such, can be described -as the empiricists have described us. But the human self is also, and -more essentially, a subject, which never appears to the view of others -or even to the most determined introspection. The self as object is -finite, but the self as subject touches the infinite; it is the meeting -place of time and eternity, of man and God....</p> - -<p>For all its advances, the 20th century is still a child of the 19th, -when the impact of the developing sciences of physics and biology -produced a change in the concept of nature and Man's place in it. From -Malthus and Darwin, Spencer and Feuerbach, Vogt, Buchner, Czolbe and -Haeckel evolved a reductive naturalism in which the spiritual quality -of man is ruled out and he becomes a unique emergent of a blind natural -process—a creature who must make of nature what he can....</p> - -<p>The next five million years of evolution will be in the human brain, -where Man must ultimately be defined. Until Man appeared, evolution -strove only to produce an organ, the brain, in a body capable of -protecting it, and carrying out its will. The ancestors of Man were -irresponsible actors playing parts in a play they did not understand. -Man continues to play his part but wants to understand the play....</p> - -<p>Man is a blending of the rational and intuitive processes. Ethical -conclusions reached by logical thinking were attained several thousand -years ago by the religions, which proves that man's rational processes -are strangely slower than his intuitive processes....</p> - -<p>Jurors shifted impatiently in their seats, yet their attention would -inexorably be drawn back to the witness stand. Courtroom spectators, -who had come to be titillated by the sensational, stayed to grope with -concepts they could not understand. The TV audience, spoon-fed for so -many decades, tried doggedly to chew and digest adult foodstuffs. Sets -were turned off in anger or despair—and then turned back on again.</p> - -<p>"What is a man?"</p> - -<p>The pivotal nature of this question became steadily more evident.</p> - -<p>If Tony Corfino was not Tony Corfino, was he then not more of the real -personality, the human entity, than the original Tony had ever been.</p> - -<p>"In restoring the damaged areas of the brain," a surgeon testified -under Jake's skillful prodding, "we thought it wise to perform a -lobotomy at the same time, thereby relieving anti-social tensions and -pressures."</p> - -<p>(The body is at once a means of expression for the soul, and a veil; it -reveals and it hides....)</p> - -<p>"During the convalescent period," a consulting specialist informed -the courtroom, "we recommended treatment with sodium dilantin and -electroshock therapy, thereby producing a change in this patient's -electroencephalograph."</p> - -<p>(The body presents all the problems of matter: It is a limitation, -a weight, a force. It seems almost a miracle when it is overcome, -penetrated and ordered by thought and spirit....)</p> - -<p>"Subsequently," the psychiatrist stated, "this patient underwent -extensive therapy, aided frequently by hypnosis and sodium pentathol. -His respiratory, vascular and circulatory systems began to show -increasing stability."</p> - -<p>(Released from its warped framework, brought into balance with -instincts inherited from our animal ancestors, the body becomes, in a -way, an image of the soul, a sign conveying something of our personal -mystery....)</p> - -<p>And then Jake called the hospital Administrator to the stand. Speaking -with great deliberation, so that each word registered, Jake asked:</p> - -<p>"Is this type of medical care ordinarily given to a prisoner-patient?"</p> - -<p>"The type of care depends upon the case, Mr. Emspak. In a case such as -this, I would regard the treatment as routine. You see, in the past -decade our approach to any patient has become one of total therapy...."</p> - -<p>"And in the case of a prisoner, what do you do when the therapy is -completed?"</p> - -<p>The Administrator looked surprised.</p> - -<p>"Why, we return him to jail—in accordance with the law."</p> - -<p>Jake Emspak stood in silence, contemplatively staring down at the blue -veins on the back of his hands. At length, he announced:</p> - -<p>"Your Honor, the Defense will conclude tomorrow morning, after one more -witness—a man who goes by the name of Tony Corfino...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sweat on the pale, polished skin of Tony's forehead stood out like -drops of summer rain; they seemed to have fallen there rather than -seeped out through the pores.</p> - -<p>A polygraph lie detector had been set up under Jake's direction and -wheeled close to the witness stand. A technician opened the front -of Tony's shirt and made fast the pneumograph tube with the aid of -a beaded chain. Next, a blood-pressure cuff, of the type used by -physicians, was fasted around Tony's right arm. A set of electrodes -was attached to the palmar and dorsal surfaces of the hand of the -other arm. The recorder showing the graph lines had been specially -constructed so as to be visible throughout the courtroom, and to the -television cameras.</p> - -<p>The technician had already been on the stand to explain the simplified -and easily read graph lines of the modern polygraph: A shallow -breathing line denoting suppression; a heavy breath line denoting -relief; the respiratory block, fast pulse and slow pulse lines; the -rise in blood pressure tracing.... It was all there on the screen—the -emotional picture of a man testifying at his own trial for murder.</p> - -<p>"Objection, your Honor!" shouted the D.A. for the tenth time that -morning. "This procedure is definitely irregular and immaterial! -Defense Counsel has been making a mockery of the Court for days, but -now he has stepped completely out of line!"</p> - -<p>Jake clucked soothingly.</p> - -<p>"What," he inquired, "is irregular or immaterial about a defendant -voluntarily taking a lie detector test? I believe that I have heard -the District Attorney challenge clients of mine to do so on several -occasions! Now, we are merely permitting the Court and the Jury to -view the test in progress...."</p> - -<p>Once again, the Judge withheld his ruling, and the D.A. sagged -dejectedly in his chair. The strain of the last few days—sitting in -the courtroom and listening to witnesses he knew not how or why to -cross-examine—had taken its toll. His eyes were bloodshot, and fits -of wheezing seized him spasmodically, but the set of his jaw was still -unyielding. Jake grieved for him.</p> - -<p>Tony Corfino's reactions, as he sat in the witness chair watching the -final preparations, would be difficult to catalogue. He looked both -aloof and nervously concerned. His curly black hair was damp from the -way he constantly brushed the sweat back off his forehead; his puffy -lips seemed in constant need of moistening. But his hands were folded -quietly in his lap. He seemed to Jake like a man lost to the past, -adrift in the present and unrelated to the future.</p> - -<p>"Will you give us your name, please?" Jake asked casually.</p> - -<p>"Tony Corfino."</p> - -<p>"Where were you born?"</p> - -<p>"I ain't—I'm not sure.... On the West Side, I suppose...."</p> - -<p>On the recorder over Tony's head, the graph lines rippled in smooth -patterns.</p> - -<p>Suddenly changing his manner, Jake rasped:</p> - -<p>"Have you ever committed a crime?"</p> - -<p>Tony frowned in bewilderment.</p> - -<p>"I <i>know</i> that I have, but sometimes.... Well, I kinda wonder...."</p> - -<p>"Do you remember what happened last October 17?"</p> - -<p>"You mean the bank ... the shootin'?"</p> - -<p>"That's right."</p> - -<p>"I've read so much—heard so much talk—that I ain't sure just what I -remember...."</p> - -<p>Tony's eyes—or the eyes of the dead priest through which Tony had -vision—reflected his torment. Jake moved around so that Tony would be -facing the jury when he answered the next question.</p> - -<p>"Tony," directed Jake, "think about this question before you answer -it: Are <i>you</i> the man who tried to rob that bank—then got excited and -killed two people?"</p> - -<p>Jake knew this question was the one element of gamble in his entire -case. The way it was answered could be a summation or refutation of all -the evidence and testimony he had so painstakingly assembled.</p> - -<p>The jury sensed this, too. So did Judge Hayward. His keen eyes -flickered alertly from the defendant's face to the lines on the -polygraph recorder.</p> - -<p>Now Tony's hands were no longer folded quietly in his lap. They were -locked together, and the new veins in his wrists stood out under the -new skin. His lips worked silently as he groped for words.</p> - -<p>And then the words burst into an anguished outcry:</p> - -<p>"No! I couldn't!..."</p> - -<p>The polygraph lines leaped into jagged peaks. Blood pressure, -respiratory block, pulse and breathing—all climbed and dropped wildly, -recording their damning message for the world to see.</p> - -<p>The D.A.'s lips twisted in a mirthless smile of triumph. Up in the TV -booth, reporters sputtered, split infinitives and shattered syntax in -frantic efforts to describe and interpret what had happened.</p> - -<p>Jake Emspak stood and waited, a sear and wrinkled leaf hanging -motionless in the wind.</p> - -<p>(If the self is merely a node in a complex casual series, if self is -solely energized and motivated by the sovereign need of survival and -security, then the idea of a bridge between Man and the infinite is a -pious illusion....)</p> - -<p>Tony Corfino stared down at his twisted hands, and slowly they -unlocked. He looked up at Jake, and the doubt and fear and bewilderment -were gone at last from his eyes.</p> - -<p>"That ain't so," he said quietly. "I did it ... I know I did it ... an' -I know it was wrong ... I deserve the chair!"</p> - -<p>(Thus Man escapes himself in freedom, and is therefore never a fully -predictable or manipulatable object—only a window through which we -peer with blind eyes into the reaches of the universe....)</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The District Attorney's summary to the jury was a model of legal -craftsmanship. Boldly disregarding the broader issues raised by Jake, -he hewed firmly to the line of criminal responsibility and punishment.</p> - -<p>Point by point he reviewed the facts of the crime. Witness by witness -he retraced the eye-witness testimony. He produced photographs of -Tony's body being loaded from the wreckage of the car into the -ambulance, and from the ambulance into the prison ward of City -Hospital. He proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Tony had never -been out of custody from the moment of his apprehension.</p> - -<p>"Even the defendant admits to his responsibility for the crime," the -D.A. continued coldly.</p> - -<p>Only in his concluding remarks did the District Attorney make reference -to the defense presented by Jake Emspak.</p> - -<p>"I wonder," he asked, smiling for the first time, "if any of you -tried—as I did—to carry through to its ultimate conclusion the line -of reasoning presented with such detail and admitted virtuosity by the -defendant's counsel? If the fabricating of replacement parts for the -human body has already become a billion dollar industry, if psychiatry -continues to achieve new miracles, how many people in this world could -now—or in the near future—seek to escape their responsibilities by -taking refuge in the argument that they were no longer themselves? At -what point would we draw the line? If fifty-percent of a man's body has -been replaced is he neither himself nor a new person? If fifty-one has -been replaced, is he no longer the husband of his wife or the father of -his children? Can he then walk blithely away from his responsibilities, -proclaiming 'I am a new man'?"</p> - -<p>A titter went through the courtroom. Judge Hayward gavelled immediately -for silence, but the D.A. winked at the TV cameras. His point had been -well made.</p> - -<p>When Jake Emspak stepped up to the jury box to deliver his own final -plea, he promptly picked up the challenge.</p> - -<p>"I have known the District Attorney too well, for too many years," he -said, "to believe that he has considered only the superficial aspects -of this case. If you should find the defendant guilty, I am sure he -would be the last to oppose consideration of all the matters I have -raised in the determination of a just sentence.</p> - -<p>"And I grant you that if a verdict of guilty is reached, the letter of -the law will be fulfilled, and an eye for an eye can be paid.</p> - -<p>"Likewise, if the verdict is not guilty, the letter of the law most -unquestionably will be violated—but its spirit will be vindicated!</p> - -<p>"I am asking you to take a bold step, across a new frontier.... Yes, -down through the ages, law has become a living, meaningful instrument -of human dignity because—at each crossroad of decision—men and women -were not afraid to depart from precedent!"</p> - -<p>Oldtimers in the court had never before heard Jake Emspak summarize a -case in such dispassionate, objective tones. Usually, his voice and -argument ranged the gamut of emotional and semantic appeals, plucking -at each member of the jury like the strings of a harp. Today, he seemed -to be making an effort to hold himself in check.</p> - -<p>"This is the trial of a living man for the crime of a man who no -longer exists," Jake continued quietly. "Science destroyed that -man—completely and with absolute finality! In his place is a man with -a new body, new thoughts, new blood and new reproductive capacity. The -fact that this new man can be brought to trial violates justice in its -deepest and truest meaning! It points inescapably to the fact that the -law must be revised to bring it up to date with present reality...."</p> - -<p>Jake paused and was silent for so long that he appeared to have -forgotten his surroundings. When he finally continued, his voice was so -soft that the jurors unconsciously leaned forward to catch his words:</p> - -<p>"There is still another dimension to this case—one that transcends -science ... and the law. It is one I approached with great uncertainty, -because it leads down a path I am walking for the first time....</p> - -<p>"Some of the testimony brought out in this trial may not have been new -to all of you, though it was new to me. Perhaps you have all formed -your own conclusions with regard to the relationship between the spirit -or soul of Man, and his outer shell ... the house in which man lives. -But if this house becomes a prison for the real man, and science -releases him to live in a new dwelling, then did the man ever actually -exist until his release? And if the man who lives now did not exist -at the time of the crime for which he is tried, can he then be judged -guilty?</p> - -<p>"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury—we await your answer."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Twilight faded, and across Central Park the skyline of the city changed -from steel and concrete to a gossamer web of light and shadow. Jake -Emspak sat in peace by his window, the fingers of his right hand -resting gently on the gold frame of his wife's picture. He touched a -button on the arm of his chair, and in a moment Ed Murrow's features -came into focus on the wall-screen.</p> - -<p>"The jury in the Corfino case is now locked up for the night," Murrow -began, his 80-year-old voice more vibrantly alive than ever. "Tomorrow -we may—and very likely will—have a verdict.</p> - -<p>"But whatever the verdict, this case has served an epochal purpose—to -our time as well as to the law. We have paused for an instant in our -frantic drive for technological advancement to ponder the essential -meaning of man—and the worth of the human entity.</p> - -<p>"It may take years to evaluate and appreciate all of the complex -testimony Jake Emspak put into the trial record, for each of us will -see in it only what we want to see or are capable of seeing....</p> - -<p>"But we may be assured that in the generations to come this case will -be footnoted throughout the opening worlds of space by serious students -of the law, the sciences and the humanities.</p> - -<p>"For tonight, it should suffice to say: Thank you, Jake Emspak—Well -done!"</p> - -<p>Jake touched the button again, and the screen went dark. Between old -friends, there was much that words left unsaid.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Question of Identity, by Frank Riley - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A QUESTION OF IDENTITY *** - -***** This file should be named 60467-h.htm or 60467-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/4/6/60467/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: A Question of Identity - -Author: Frank Riley - -Release Date: October 10, 2019 [EBook #60467] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A QUESTION OF IDENTITY *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - A QUESTION OF IDENTITY - - BY FRANK RILEY - - _What is a Man?... A paradox - indeed--the world's finest minds - gathered to defend a punk killer...._ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Worlds of If Science Fiction, April 1958. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Every pair of eyes in the hushed courtroom watched Jake Emspak walk -slowly toward the prospective juror. - -Around the Earth, and above it, too, from South Africa and Franz Joseph -Land to the satellite stations adrift through the black morning, two -hundred million pairs of eyes focussed on the gaunt figure that moved -so deliberately across the television screen. - -In the glass-fronted TV booth, where the 80-year-old Edward R. Murrow -had created something of a stir by his unexpected appearance a few -moments earlier, newsmen stopped talking to let the viewers see and -hear for themselves what was happening. - -Jake halted in front of the witness stand, both hands cupped over -the gold head of the cane that had been his trademark, in and out of -court, for most of a half century. The shaggy mane of white hair, -once as black as the coal in the West Virginia mining country of his -birth, stood out like an incongruous halo above the bone ridges of his -face. The jutting nose, the forward hunch of his body accentuated the -impression he always gave of being about to leap on a nervous witness. -The magnificent voice, which could thunder, rasp, weep and persuade in -all the registers of eloquence, now phrased his first question with -disconcerting softness: - -"What is a man?" - -The prospective juror, a Bronx appliance distributor with sagging jowls -and perpetual tension lines around his mouth, started visibly. - -"I--I beg your pardon?" - -Again Jake Emspak gently phrased his question: - -"What is a man?" - -The distributor, who could wake up out of a sound sleep and address a -sales meeting of unhappy dealers, opened his mouth and closed it again. -Jake waited patiently, rocking a little on the point of his cane. - -Finally, the distributor said: - -"I can't answer that--right off...." - -"Thank you," Jake said mildly. - -He turned to Judge Hayward and nodded his acceptance of the juror. - -Up in the TV booth, Murrow smiled to himself and listened to his -colleagues chew over the familiar questions: Why had Jake Emspak, the -"million dollar mouthpiece", taken a cheap case like this away from the -Public Defender? Who would possibly pay him enough to defend a punk -like Tony Corfino--a bungling hoodlum who had killed two bystanders in -a miserable attempt to rob a bank? - -The Judge noted acceptance of the juror, then brusquely recessed court -until 10 A.M. Monday. - -The timing was excellent. Jake smiled with satisfaction, and his smile -was like the slash of a paring knife across the skin of a dried apple. - -He walked with Tony Corfino and the bailiff as far as the prisoner's -gate. - -"Don't worry," Jake said. - -Tony's eyes were wide and bewildered, like the eyes of a confused -child--or of an old man not quite certain whether he is awake or -dreaming. - -"I ain't worried," Tony replied. As he walked, there was the crackling -sound of a bone twisting in a stiff joint. - -From under his shaggy brows, Jake studied him carefully, and was -content with what he saw. Tony could have been very young, or very -old. Undoubtedly he was both, with a lot of in-between, Jake thought -suddenly. The tangle of black, curly hair was the hair of youth. The -cameo-smooth skin had the waxed perfection of an expensive doll. But -the mouth and lips were still puffy, sensuous. And the eyes--Jake -Emspak, for all his knowing, couldn't be sure about the eyes. -Silently, he addressed a memo to himself: Check on the eyes. - -At the prisoners' gate, Tony faced him. - -"I ain't worried," he repeated. "It's just--well, I don't see why -you're takin' my case--I can't pay anythin'...." - -The thin smile slashed again across the wrinkled harshness of Jake's -face. - -"I'll be paid," he chuckled drily. - -The District Attorney brought up the same question when Jake sat in his -office two hours later. They had been studying each other across the -desk, thinking of all the years that were gone, the good years dying -with the new quarter of the century. - -How many times had he sat here just like this, Jake wondered. How -often had he come into this office to bargain and to deal, to cajole -and plead--and always hovering like a hawk to pounce on any bit of -information that could fit his case. - -Now the D.A. was old, too. Older than Jake, if you measured a man's -life by the inverse proportion of his distance from the grave. Even -the limitless possibilities of medical science had about reached -their limit with the D.A. He was heavier than Jake, and his skin was -smoother, yet somehow it looked much older. - -"I don't get it," he wheezed, with the shortness of breath that the -latest bronchial replacement had not substantially relieved. "I just -can't see Jake Emspak taking a case without a fee! Why, in the old -days, you wouldn't defend your mother without a cashier's check in -advance!" - -Jake accepted the taunt without blinking. - -"I'm touched by this solicitude for my fees," he retorted. - -"Tony Corfino's guilty," said the D.A., moving up another pawn in the -never-ending chess game between them. "He's a punk, and he's guilty. -You know that, don't you, Jake?" - -"Do I?" - -"You know it--and damn well! I've got six witnesses who saw Tony walk -into the bank with that sawed-off shotgun! I've got four more who saw -him get panicky and start spraying lead! And there are a dozen others -who helped load him on a stretcher after his getaway car went over the -curve on the Parkway!... Hell, Jake, this is a two-bit case. Why are -you taking it away from the Public Defender?" - -"Now, Emmett," Jake mocked, "you know it's not ethical for me to -discuss my client's case." - -"To hell with your client!" The D.A. breathed deeply for a moment, then -pressed ahead: "I don't care about that punk--I'm talking about you, -Jake. What's this case mean to you?" - -The chuckle started again, then died in Jake's throat. - -"It means a lot, Emmett," he answered soberly. "For one thing, it's my -last case...." - -"What?" The D.A. looked stunned. - -Jake nodded. - -"I've been around the circle enough times for any man, Emmett." - -Both of them absorbed this thought in silence, and the long years -walked between them. The D.A.'s lips set, and the steel of his jaw -showed beneath the soft folds of his skin. - -"I guess it'll have to be my last case, too, Jake," he said quietly. -Then he banged his fist on the desk. "But what a helluva case! What -a helluva two-bit case! We've had some good ones, Jake--I've got the -scars of them all over me! But why do we have to go out on something as -cheap as this?" - -Jake Emspak stood up, all six feet of him, and he brushed back his long -white hair with a gesture that was fierce and strong. - -"It's not a cheap case, Emmett! It's big--bigger than any case we've -ever fought out!" - - * * * * * - -The reporters were waiting for Jake outside the D.A.'s office. - -"Is it true you're retiring, Jake?" - -"This is my last case." - -"Why are you representing Tony Corfino?" - -"You couldn't keep me out of a case as big as this." - -"Can you tell us why it's so big?" - -"I can, but I won't. Not until I get before the jury." - -"Is robbing a bank and shooting two people so important?" - -"Not particularly." - -"What else did he do, then?" - -"Nothing that I know of." - -"Jake, this isn't some kind of a joke, is it?" - -"It's the most serious case I've ever handled." - -"Mr. Emspak, it was reported that you received $100,000 from your last -client. Are you being paid for defending Tony Corfino?" - -"I never discuss my fees." - -"Would you object to a televised interview with Tony?" - -"Certainly not. How about tomorrow morning?" - -The reporters left, baffled and intrigued. That night, Jake Emspak sat -alone in his apartment high over Central Park West, chuckling with -satisfaction as he read the headlines in the first editions: - - FAMED CRIMINAL LAWYER IN MYSTERY CASE - -The other headlines were substantially the same. Jake grinned. Things -were working out fine, just fine. Publicity was a wonderful tool, if a -lawyer knew when to use it, and how. He showed one of the headlines to -his wife, whose picture was in a mellow gold frame on the stand beside -his window chair. Marge had been dead since '67, but he still found it -a quiet comfort to share things with her. She didn't have to answer, -because words weren't necessary after you'd lived and loved with a -woman for forty-three years. His thin smile became warmer as he turned -toward her. - -"Mystery case!" he chortled. "Mystery! The only mystery is why someone -hasn't tried a case like this before!" - -He paused, looked across the park at the spangle of lights, and added -softly: - -"But I'm glad no one did." - -Ed Murrow called just before Jake went to bed. - -"Sorry you got into this?" Murrow asked. - -"You know better than that, Ed. I'm deeply grateful to you for tipping -me off on this case." - -"Well, don't forget to tip me off, too, Jake! I'm not too old to -appreciate a scoop now and then!" - -"Don't worry, Ed...." - -Next morning, Jake was rested and ready to meet the challenge of Tony -Corfino's TV interview. He knew there was a danger Tony might say too -much, but it was a calculated risk that had to be taken. The case -needed build-up, plenty of build-up. - -The interview took place in the open square between the towering -cell-blocks of Manhattan's new jail. When Jake and Tony came out, the -TV cameramen and reporters had already taken their places. The city's -crack newspapermen were seated on folding chairs in front of the -cameras, along with two men from the District Attorney's office who -self-consciously tried to look like members of the working press. Jake -sat down beside Tony and hunched forward watchfully over the gold head -of his cane. - -Bert Brown of the _Tribune_, whose pipelines into the D.A.'s office had -brought him many an exclusive, shot out the first question. It came -with a whiplash crack: - -"Tony, are you paying Mr. Emspak to represent you?" - -Tony looked uncertainly toward Jake, and when the old lawyer didn't -answer, Tony said quietly: - -"No--I'm not." - -"Is the Syndicate paying Mr. Emspak?" - -"I don't know why they should--I never got into the Syndicate." Tony's -answer was expressionless, yet his voice had a strangely subdued -quality for a Tenth Avenue kid who had grown up fighting for crumbs -from the tables of underworld kingpins. - -Cassidy of the Times interjected: - -"Do you know who is paying Mr. Emspak to represent you?" - -"Nope." - -Now the sun broke through the morning overcast and gleamed on the -polished perfection of Tony's waxlike skin. A woman reporter from the -Mirror asked in an abrupt, mannish voice: - -"Tony--what happened to your face?" - -"The Doc says it's some new kind of plastic surgery. I got burned in -that accident...." - -"When you were driving away from the bank?" Bert Brown snapped out. - -"Yeah." - -Brown grinned in triumph. It had been a neat double play. The two -investigators from the D.A.'s office scribbled furiously. Jake Emspak -continued to stare into the TV cameras without blinking. - -From the back row, a _Daily News_ man boomed out: - -"Then you admit the shootings, Tony?" - -Jake lifted one finger from the gold head of his cane. It was a small -gesture, but it silenced Tony's answer and immediately commanded the -attention of everyone present. - -"My client," rasped Jake, "neither denies nor admits any connection -with the crimes for which he is being tried." - -Bert Brown grinned sardonically at him. - -"Do you expect to win this case, Mr. Emspak?" - -"We'll win it," Jake answered, in a voice so cold and certain and hard -that the reporters involuntarily joined the TV audience in a collective -gasp. - -Jake stood up and motioned to the deputies. It was time to end the -interview. Precisely the right time. - -The reporters left without further questions. They knew from long -experience when Jake Emspak would and would not talk. - -By that evening, speculation--without the ballast of facts--was -soaring to dizzy heights. Even the communist angle came in for -its share of limelight. Was Tony Corfino somehow of value to the -resurgent Red underground? Could Jake Emspak's fee be traced back to -Peiping, new headquarters for the Comintern? But not even the most -skilled commentator could adequately sustain innuendo on innuendo -alone. Not by the grossest distortion of facts could any Communist -connection be twisted out of Tony's record of juvenile delinquency, -pimping, pick-pocketing, petty thievery, dope peddling, armed robbery, -and--since the grain and sugar restrictions of '70--bootlegging. - -But one of the more perceptive reporters had noted Tony's strangely -quiet manner of speaking. Inquiries at the jail disclosed that Tony had -apparently developed an interest in reading. - -Here, indeed, was a fresh angle! By mid-afternoon, "Gentleman Tony" -had been conceived and given birth. His sordid record was reinterpreted -in a picaresque light, and he became something of a Tenth Avenue -Robin Hood. A nation squeezed between the twin problems of mounting -population and tighter food rationing took "Gentleman Tony" to its -fancy. It was like a case of 24-hour flu. - -In the midst of all this, as Jake Emspak sat in his office Sunday -morning, behind a mound of microfilmed court records dating back to the -mid-fifties, he received a more serious-minded interviewer. The visitor -was John O. Callihan, well-publicized sportsman, art connoisseur, world -traveler and No. 1 man in the Syndicate. His mistresses, and a few old -friends like Jake Emspak, called him Johnno. - -"Greetings, Jake," he said, easing his athletic, tastefully dressed -frame into the chair in front of Jake's desk. - -"Hello, Johnno," Jake rasped. "I'm busy." - -"I know. That's why I came." - -"I can't talk about this case, Johnno." - -"I'm not asking you to." - -Johnno lit a long, pencil-thin cigarette, and continued reflectively: - -"Jake, I've given you some big cases, paid you well--and always let you -handle them clean, in your own way. Right?" - -"Right enough." - -"This is the first time I've ever come for a favor, Jake." - -"Yeah?" - -"Who's paying for Tony Corfino?" - -"Nobody you have to worry about, Johnno." - -"No other Syndicate--or anything like that?" - -Jake shook his head, and his caller stood up. - -"Thanks, Jake." - -"Now, will you get the hell out of here!" - -"Sure, Jake--give my love to Marge." - -Jake lowered his head to hide the mist in his eyes. Johnno had sent -a simple corsage of blue violets to Marge's funeral. And he sent one -every year, on the anniversary of her death. - -Jake went back to Gould v. Gould, 243 App. Div. 589, and stayed with it -until nearly six o'clock, when he turned wearily to People v. Gibbs. -This looked like an interminable case, even on microfilm. His eyes were -strained from staring at the viewer screen, and his big hand was stiff -from spinning the reel crank. He opened his fingers, and the knuckles -cracked. Jake stared disgustedly at them. You could take a boy out of -the coal mines, but not the coal mines out of the boy. His hand was -too big for such a small crank. Someday, he'd have to buy an automatic -viewer, or even one of those electronic brains they demonstrated at the -last Bar Association meeting. But then, he wouldn't need anything after -this case. And besides, he didn't trust such impersonal help. Leibowitz -had taught him a good lawyer should do his own preparation. Leibowitz! -The Vera Stretz case.... That was forty years ago! Jake shook his head -to chase away the memories, and started People v. Gibbs, patiently -searching for points of law to help him prove that a punk named Tony -Corfino.... - - * * * * * - -When court reconvened on Monday morning, the weekend's publicity -showed its results. A bailiff whispered to Jake that people had been -waiting for the doors to open since five A.M. Thousands had gone home -disappointed. The fortunate who did get seats filled the courtroom -with babble and shrillness as they waited impatiently for something to -happen. A new note of excitement sounded when Tony Corfino walked in -beside a Sheriff's Deputy. Jake had insisted that Tony be carefully -groomed and dressed each morning before coming into court, and the -women among the spectators buzzed with appreciation. - -Promptly at ten, Judge Hayward stepped out of his chambers and -looked, gimlet-eyed, over the courtroom. The hubub quieted, then -faded to stillness. Jake was glad to have Judge Hayward on this case. -At forty-seven, he was the youngest Superior Court judge and least -wedded to precedent. He was impatient with legal sleight-of-hand, -painstakingly insistent on a structure of evidence. "Any mule can kick -a barn down; it takes a good carpenter to build one," he had once told -Jake. - -Selection of the jury proceeded at a creeping pace, which court -reporters had come to expect with both the D.A. and Jake Emspak in the -same courtroom. In their last clash, they had meticulously examined -one hundred and fifty jurors before accepting twelve. But this time, -the District Attorney was responsible for most of the delay. Not -knowing why Jake had taken the case, the D.A. proceeded nervously -and cautiously in questioning each juror: What is your feeling about -capital punishment? Would you credit the testimony of an eye witness? -Do you believe that a criminal must be punished as decreed by law? - -Jake's questions were fewer, and less orthodox. Sometimes he asked: -"What is your attitude toward science?" Or, again: "Are you a religious -man?" But most frequently he came without preamble to what seemed to be -the key to his case: - -"What is a man?" - -And while this went on in the courtroom, Jake continued his tireless -preparations. Research, subpoenas, talking to witnesses, taking -depositions, then more research and more subpoenas. Bound the case on -the east, the north, the south and the west. Lincoln had said that. -Jake's stomach rebelled, and he took to eating a bowl of baby cereal -before going to bed in an effort to still its growling and grumbling. -Those who knew how hard he worked continued to ask: Where's the money -coming from? Why is this important anyway? - -Whenever speculation started to sag, Jake shrewdly needled it by -leaking a fact here, a rumor there. From Los Angeles, the ebullient old -television commentator, George Putnam, still indefatigable in his late -sixties, reported that a noted brain surgeon had been subpoenaed to -testify at the Corfino trial. In New York, Ed Murrow asked the probing, -provocative question: Why has Jake Emspak personally invited one of our -great religious philosophers to appear as a defense witness? - -"I suggest," hinted Murrow, "that you won't find the gold in this case -by panning the mainstream. Or, as Plato said...." - -The D.A. and his deputies sat up half the night studying an air-check -of the Murrow broadcast. - -By the close of the fourth day, selection of the jury had been -completed and the trial was ready to begin. That evening, Jake worked -on his notes until ten o'clock, and then went out for his customary -walk through the memories and quiet of Central Park. As he paused at a -crosswalk to watch a satellite platform sweep like a new planet across -the sky, a long, black car drifted silently to a stop beside him. - -The door swung open, and the District Attorney's tired voice said, - -"Get in, Jake." - -Jake got in, and neither of them spoke for awhile. - -"Couldn't sleep," the D.A. said finally. "Can't even sleep with them -damn pills anymore." - -Jake didn't say anything. He stared at the back of the chauffeur in -front of them. What could you say when an old friend was wearing out? - -"Look, Jake," the D.A. continued, "do you really mean this is your last -case?" - -"You know I do." - -"Then, how about a deal--You cop a plea, and Tony gets off with -life...." - -"Why, Emmett?" - -"I don't want to see you wind up this way, Jake--losing a penny-ante -case like this!" - -"You know how I feel about this case." - -"No deal, then?" - -"No deal." - -The D.A. wheezed angrily: - -"Then I'm going to whip you, Jake--and that punk's going to burn!" - -Jake didn't answer, and they drove slowly along the endless, winding -roads of Central Park. The tires of the great car murmured over the -pavement like a boat in the ripples of a lake, and the silent motor -gave them a sensation of floating through the night. - - * * * * * - -Anger still fired the D.A.'s voice when he made his opening address to -the jury. His final words were brutally to the point: - -"We've all heard rumors about what the defense may or may not attempt -to prove in this trial, but let us not forget that in the law of our -land there is no place for medical quacks, parole panderers or all the -bleeding hearts who drip sympathy for a killer like Tony Corfino! The -chair is the only thing he and others like him will ever understand!" - -The courtroom stilled to breathlessness as Jake Emspak stepped forward -to deliver his own opening remarks. He moved, then paused, with a great -dramatist's sense of timing. Ghosts of a thousand courtrooms and fifty -years of practice moved and paused with him. Impeccably dressed, his -long silver hair artfully disheveled, he folded his blue-veined hands -over the gold head of his cane and swayed for a moment in silence, -thoughtfully contemplating the jurors. When he spoke, his voice had a -quality of remoteness that was peculiarly compelling: - -"I would like," he began, "to quote from a Supreme Court Justice -who died before some of you were born. It was Benjamin Cardoza who -said--'Law in its deepest aspects is one with the humanities and with -all the things by which humanity is uplifted and inspired. Law is not a -cadaver, but a spirit; not a finality, but a process of becoming; not a -clog in the fullness of life, but an outlet and a means thereto; not a -game but a sacrament'...." - -He waited fully a half-minute before continuing, and not a person in -the courtroom stirred. - -"The defense," Jake went on quietly, "will rest its case on two major -points: - -"First, we will prove that the law has not kept pace with the progress -of science and the forward march of human thought. - -"Second ..." here Jake paused again, while he looked slowly from the -jurors, to the judge and finally to the District Attorney. "Second," -he continued, with a ghost of a smile on his thin lips, "we will prove -that _Tony Corfino is not Tony Corfino_!" - -Jake stood for a moment in silence. Then, with a slight, almost curt -nod of his head, he turned away and walked back to his seat beside Tony -Corfino. Tony stared at him wordlessly, with a look in his eyes that -Jake had not yet fathomed. - -The courtroom exploded into bedlam. Judge Hayward gaveled peremptorily -for silence, and motioned to the District Attorney to begin -presentation of the People's case. - -If the D.A. was puzzled by Jake's opening remarks, he gave no sign of -it. His marshalling of the evidence was grimly efficient. There was -a quality of the inexorable about the way he moved up his witnesses -one by one. It was like the maneuvering of a skilled boxer who seeks -to take his opponent out, not with one punch, but with a carefully -executed combination of punches. - -Tony Corfino was not Tony Corfino? The D.A. smiled sardonically as he -pointed to the pale defendant and asked the witness to identify him. - -"And is this the man who entered the bank on the morning of last -October 17?" - -"Yes, it is," replied the nervous, overly plump young woman. - -"Were you in a position to observe him closely at all times?" - -"Yes." - -"Where were you?" - -"In--in the Note Window ... right next to where he--he came up and -pointed his gun." - -"Thank you." - -With elaborate courtesy, the D.A. turned to Jake: - -"Does the distinguished defense counsel desire to cross-examine this -witness?" - -Jake nodded gravely, and advanced toward the witness stand. The young -woman watched him apprehensively. In the TV booth, the regular court -reporters leaned forward with anticipation. Many a time had they -seen Jake Emspak take the most positive witness and reduce him to a -quivering, stuttering symbol of uncertainty. "Show me an eye witness," -Jake had once observed, "and I'll show you a liar." - -Now, as Jake began, there was a note of friendliness in his voice: - -"You say this is the man who entered the bank on the morning of last -October 17?" - -"Yes--yes, sir.... It is!" - -Jake nodded understandingly. - -"Suppose," he continued, "we look at it another way for a moment: Is -the man who entered the bank on the morning of last October 17 the same -man who now appears as defendant in this trial?" - -The young woman bit her lip, smearing some of the lipstick on her large -front teeth. She hesitated, thinking through the question, then nodded -firmly. - -"Yes--of course!" - -"How do you know?" - -"Why--he--he _looks_ the same!" - -"_Exactly_ the same? I suggest you look him over carefully before you -answer." - -The young woman stared at Tony, then dropped her eyes in confusion. - -"_Exactly_ the same?" Jake pressed. - -"Well ... I'm ... I'm not sure...." - -Jake teetered on the point of his cane, thoughtfully contemplating the -now flustered witness. Then, unexpectedly, he turned to Judge Hayward -and said, - -"No further questions, your Honor." - -The D.A. blinked in surprise. It was not like Jake to stop once he had -a witness in full retreat. The court reporters looked at each other -disappointedly. Maybe the old man should retire! - -Jake continued to treat prosecution witnesses with similar restraint. -He would lead them up to the brink of uncertainty, then leave them -there. As a result, the District Attorney was able to complete -presentation of his case by the middle of the second morning. - -"The People rest," he announced, with grim satisfaction. - - * * * * * - -Jake Emspak's first defense witness was a youthful looking man of about -forty who quickly identified himself as a well-known authority on -fingerprints, an expert who had many times been called to assist the -police in major criminal cases. - -"Is it not true," Jake began, "that in the tradition of modern -law, fingerprints are regarded as the most positive method of -identification?" - -"That is correct." - -From a mass of data on his desk, Jake extracted a single sheet of -photostatic copy and handed it to Judge Hayward. - -"I have here," he said, "a certified copy of one Tony Corfino's -fingerprints--taken at the time of his arrest and conviction five years -ago on a charge of Grand Theft, Auto...." - -The Judge accepted the photostat and handed it to the clerk for entry -into the record. Jake then retrieved it, and gave it to his witness. - -"Now, Sir," he went on, "will you please take the defendant's -fingerprints and compare them to this photostatic copy." - -The jurors craned forward curiously as the fingerprint expert opened -his kit and went methodically about the business of fingerprinting Tony -Corfino. When he had finished, and returned to the witness stand with -the new prints, Jake Emspak demanded: - -"Is there any similarity between those fingerprints and the -fingerprints of one Tony Corfino?" - -The expert looked from one set of prints to the other, and quickly -replied: - -"There can be absolutely no doubt about it--these are _not_ the same -prints." - -Red-faced with anger, the District Attorney heaved himself to his feet -and strode toward the bench. - -"Objection, your Honor!" he stormed. "This is the most outrageous -deception I have ever witnessed in a courtroom. Frankly, I am astounded -that opposing counsel would stoop to such tactics!" - -Judge Hayward's voice had the bite of steel drill as he directed: - -"Will you please explain to the Court exactly what you mean?" - -"It's a matter of record," the D.A. snapped, "that the defendant was -seriously injured in the accident that resulted in his capture. Massive -burns were part of his injuries.... Bone and skin grafts were necessary -to repair the damage to his hands--as well as to other parts of his -body. Naturally, his fingerprints would be different! The Defense -Counsel knows that!" - -Jake smiled, and replied mildly: - -"Of course the Defense Counsel knows that, and will certainly make the -full extent of the defendant's injuries a part of the trial record. -However, I have called this particular witness to show that Tony -Corfino cannot be identified as Tony Corfino by what is still regarded -as the most infallible method of criminal identification." - -"Your Honor," retorted the D.A., "This so-called testimony is totally -irrelevant and immaterial. I request that it be stricken from the -record!" - -"It is most relevant to our case," Jake shot back. "Furthermore, the -Defense will prove that Tony Corfino cannot be identified as Tony -Corfino by any known method of criminal identification!" - -Judge Hayward's eyes narrowed speculatively. He thought the matter over -for a moment before stating, with unconcealed interest: - -"This may well be a legal situation without precedent. The Court will -withhold ruling on the objection for the time being." - -The next defense witness was a specialist on agglutination of the blood. - -"Agglutination," he explained, adjusting his glasses pedantically, -"is a biological reaction consisting of the mutual adhesion of the red -corpuscles. It is also a method of establishing individualization of -blood." - -"I see," said Jake. "Now, tell us--how has this method been used to -establish identification in a criminal case?" - -"It is sometimes used where the victim's blood leaves stains on the -murderer's clothing--as well as the victim's own clothing. If both -blood stains produce the same biological reaction, the murderer is -either guilty--or has a great deal of explaining to do!" - -Jake meticulously selected another exhibit from the material on his -desk. - -"Will you identify this, please?" - -"It is a piece of cotton stained with the blood of this--this -defendant." - -"When was it stained?" - -"In the test I made last week." - -"Did you compare it with the stains on garments worn by a certain Tony -Corfino at the time of his accident?" - -"I did." - -"What did you find?" - -"The two samples were entirely different?" - -"Could we assume, then, that the blood of a man known as Tony Corfino -does not flow through the veins of this defendant, who also bears the -name of Tony Corfino?" - -The witness rubbed his hand thoughtfully over the high, polished dome -of his forehead. - -"You _could_ put it that way," he conceded. - -With the skill of a symphony conductor calling upon the diverse -instruments under his baton, Jake Emspak continued to bring forward -a bewildering variety of witnesses to prove that in the identifiable -details of his physiology, Tony Corfino indeed was not Tony Corfino. -The D.A. watched in furious silence. Once, when Jake passed near him, -he muttered: - -"This is contemptible!" - -Imperturbably, Jake turned back to the witness stand, where a -radiographer from Scripps Institute was taking the oath. Patiently, -he led the witness through a description of how the radiographies -of the nasal accessory sinuses and mastoid processes could be used -to establish the identity of an individual. Jake then produced -medical records from a juvenile correctional institution in eastern -Pennsylvania, where Tony Corfino had sojourned during his seventeenth -year. Comparison with recent hospital records showed a striking -difference between the two radiographies. - -The opthalmologic method of Capdevielle was next explored by Jake to -show that the eyes of Tony Corfino were not the eyes of Tony Corfino. -The technique of Tamassia and Ameuille was employed to prove the same -point about Tony's veins. The umbilicial method of Bert and Vianny -intrigued the courtroom and TV audience with structural dissimilarities -of Tony's navel. By means of projection on a large screen, Jake -demonstrated to the jurors and Judge Hayward that Tony Corfino, -defendant, had an entirely different electrocardiagram from the Tony -Corfino whose crushed body had been pulled, more dead than alive, from -the wreckage of a burning automobile. - -Late that afternoon, Ed Murrow commented to his news audience in the -cadence that had been his trademark for more than forty years: - -"We know not yet where this trial is taking us, though Jake Emspak is -beginning to show the direction. Perhaps, we, too, could ask ourselves -the question: _What is a man?_" - -Less philosophically, a space-weary young captain, sending in his -nightly report from the satellite station, Vanguard VI, queried: - -"If this Tony Corfino isn't Tony Corfino, who or what in the hell is -he?" - - * * * * * - -Part of the answer to this question was on display the next morning -when the jury filed into Judge Hayward's courtroom. Before them, and -angled toward the TV cameras, was a chart nearly eight feet tall. -It showed, in outline, the figure of a man. The figure was covered -with small black dots, each bearing a white number. In all, there was -seventy-two dots. - -As soon as court was in session, Jake called a short, squarely-built -man of about fifty to the stand. There was a bulldog set to his jaw -and mouth. He identified himself as Dr. Theodore Clendenning, Chief of -Staff at City Hospital. - -"Dr. Clendenning," said Jake, "I assume you are familiar with the -medical and surgical care received by the defendant at your hospital?" - -"Quite familiar," the doctor retorted, impatiently. - -"Then, may I direct your attention to this chart. It indicates areas in -which artificial parts were used to replace the damaged or destroyed -natural parts of a certain Tony Corfino's body. Will you name them, -please, as I point them out with my cane." - -Tapping the chart like a school-teacher signalling for the attention of -his pupils, Jake Emspak started at the outline of the head. - -"Vitallium skull plate," snapped Dr. Clendenning. - -Jake's cane touched the nose. - -"Vitallium nose plate." - -Swiftly, the tip of the cane moved around the outline of the body, -pausing only long enough for the doctor to name each part: - -"Plastic tear duct ... vitallium jaw bone and implanted dentures ... -paraffin and plastic sponge to fill chest after removal of lung ... -plastic esophagus ... tantalum breast plate ... tantalum mesh to patch -chest wall ... vitallium shoulder socket rim and shoulder joint -bone ... vitallium elbow joint, radius bone, ulna bone, wrist bone, -finger joint ... spinal fusion plate ... vitallium blood vessel tubes." - -Jake put down his cane, and turned conversationally toward the doctor. - -"Dr. Clendenning, is it true that this Tony Corfino's reproductive -organs were destroyed in the accident?" - -"Virtually so." - -"And is it not also true that the defendant in this case is now -capable of becoming a parent?" - -Dr. Clendenning glanced at his watch and sighed. - -"What you are referring to," he answered, "has been rather elementary -surgery for the past ten years." - -"But the children of Tony Corfino would not then be the children of -Tony Corfino?" - -Dr. Clendenning looked toward Judge Hayward with a pained expression. -Receiving no sign of any kind from the Judge, he turned back to Jake -Emspak. - -"I have given you the medical data," he said angrily. "You can draw -your own conclusions." - -Jake nodded, and replied with emphasis: - -"I am sure this Court and the Jury will do just that." - -He studied the chart for a moment, then tapped the outline figure in -the area of the eyes. - -"Tell us, Dr. Clendenning, what did your staff do about Tony Corfino's -eyes? I understand the flames had reached them." - -"Cornea transplants were necessary." - -"And where did you obtain the corneas?" - -"Mr. Emspak--I'm sure you know that most people nowadays will their -eyes to the Cornea Bank!" - -"Can you tell us anything about the corneas that were transplanted in -Tony Corfino's eyes? From what type a person did they come?" - -"I'd rather not answer that?" - -Jake turned to the Judge. - -"Your Honor, unless there is a legal reason why the good doctor should -not answer, I ask the Court to direct that he do so." - -Judge Hayward hesitated, then directed the witness to answer. - -"They came from the eyes of a priest," growled the doctor. - -Jake Emspak raised his cane to the chart once again, then apparently -changed his mind and lowered it. - -"Dr. Clendenning," he asked quietly, "am I correct in believing that -the construction of parts for the human body is now an important -industry?" - -"That's right," the doctor said grudgingly. "It's grown tremendously in -the past twenty years--from a $160-million-a-year business in 1957 to -nearly a billion today...." - -"One further question, if you please, Doctor," said Jake. "What is -_your_ definition of a man?" - -The doctor thought for a moment, and smiled coldly. - -"I'm afraid it would not assist your case," he replied. - -"We are only looking for some basic truths." - -Dr. Clendenning bunched his square shoulders and leaned forward -aggressively. - -"I can think of no better definition," he snapped, "than one given by -a distinguished physician in the earlier years of this century. He -defined the human body as an animal organism, differing in only a few -respects from other animal organisms, and fitted for the performance -of two main functions: The conversion of food and air into energy and -tissue; and the reproduction of other individuals of its species!" - -So coldly, with such an air of finality did he speak, that his words -brought an audible gasp from two women in the jury box. Jake Emspak -remained impassive. - -"And this is all you see in a man?" he prodded gently. - -The doctor's jaw set stubbornly. - -"As a philosopher," he retorted, "I may engage in some speculation in -the company of Plato, Schopenhauer or the Archbishop of Canterbury, but -my speculations would themselves be based upon speculations and not -upon any scientific data resembling observed facts!" - -"Then, from your point of view, the defendant in this courtroom is not -_the_ Tony Corfino--the same man--whose broken body was brought into -your hospital eight months ago?" - -"Obviously not." - -"Thank you, Doctor." - -Jake walked slowly from the witness stand to the jury box, and then -back to the bench. - -"Perhaps," he said softly, "a ten-minute recess would be in order...." - -Judge Hayward drew a long breath, exhaled and nodded. With the sound of -his gavel, tension ran out of the courtroom like water from a punctured -barrel. - - * * * * * - -When court reconvened, Jake began bringing to the witness stand a -parade of educators, religious leaders and philosophers who kept the -courtroom alternately fascinated and bewildered for the next two -days. They came from London, Rome, Johannesburg, Philadelphia, Tokyo -and Chicago. They came from every oasis of learning where men could -still find profit in thought, without relating the profit to the cash -register or the thought of technology. They spoke in words and symbols -that sometimes soared beyond space itself, and left the world's TV -audience groping for stability in earthbound cliches. The paradox was -incredible: All this thinking, all this culture--all of everything -brought into a courtroom to defend a bush-league hoodlum. Reporters -ceased to ask who was paying for this display; they simply marveled at -the pyrotechnics. Through it all, Jake Emspak moved deftly, surely, -extracting from each witness the pure essence of relevant thought: - -Man is a creature destined to live in two worlds. He is surrounded -first by the realities of this world--and he is called to live with -eternal realities that transcend this world.... - -The human person is a body, and therefore subject to the laws of -matter, to spatiality, temporality and opacity. As such, he is a -meeting place for passing forces, a crossroads of contacts and -reactions. But the human person is also a spirit, that is to say a -reality that transcends apparent reality. There is within him the -wakened or nascent ability to comprehend space and surpass time.... - -The human self is an object, of a sort--and, as such, can be described -as the empiricists have described us. But the human self is also, and -more essentially, a subject, which never appears to the view of others -or even to the most determined introspection. The self as object is -finite, but the self as subject touches the infinite; it is the meeting -place of time and eternity, of man and God.... - -For all its advances, the 20th century is still a child of the 19th, -when the impact of the developing sciences of physics and biology -produced a change in the concept of nature and Man's place in it. From -Malthus and Darwin, Spencer and Feuerbach, Vogt, Buchner, Czolbe and -Haeckel evolved a reductive naturalism in which the spiritual quality -of man is ruled out and he becomes a unique emergent of a blind natural -process--a creature who must make of nature what he can.... - -The next five million years of evolution will be in the human brain, -where Man must ultimately be defined. Until Man appeared, evolution -strove only to produce an organ, the brain, in a body capable of -protecting it, and carrying out its will. The ancestors of Man were -irresponsible actors playing parts in a play they did not understand. -Man continues to play his part but wants to understand the play.... - -Man is a blending of the rational and intuitive processes. Ethical -conclusions reached by logical thinking were attained several thousand -years ago by the religions, which proves that man's rational processes -are strangely slower than his intuitive processes.... - -Jurors shifted impatiently in their seats, yet their attention would -inexorably be drawn back to the witness stand. Courtroom spectators, -who had come to be titillated by the sensational, stayed to grope with -concepts they could not understand. The TV audience, spoon-fed for so -many decades, tried doggedly to chew and digest adult foodstuffs. Sets -were turned off in anger or despair--and then turned back on again. - -"What is a man?" - -The pivotal nature of this question became steadily more evident. - -If Tony Corfino was not Tony Corfino, was he then not more of the real -personality, the human entity, than the original Tony had ever been. - -"In restoring the damaged areas of the brain," a surgeon testified -under Jake's skillful prodding, "we thought it wise to perform a -lobotomy at the same time, thereby relieving anti-social tensions and -pressures." - -(The body is at once a means of expression for the soul, and a veil; it -reveals and it hides....) - -"During the convalescent period," a consulting specialist informed -the courtroom, "we recommended treatment with sodium dilantin and -electroshock therapy, thereby producing a change in this patient's -electroencephalograph." - -(The body presents all the problems of matter: It is a limitation, -a weight, a force. It seems almost a miracle when it is overcome, -penetrated and ordered by thought and spirit....) - -"Subsequently," the psychiatrist stated, "this patient underwent -extensive therapy, aided frequently by hypnosis and sodium pentathol. -His respiratory, vascular and circulatory systems began to show -increasing stability." - -(Released from its warped framework, brought into balance with -instincts inherited from our animal ancestors, the body becomes, in a -way, an image of the soul, a sign conveying something of our personal -mystery....) - -And then Jake called the hospital Administrator to the stand. Speaking -with great deliberation, so that each word registered, Jake asked: - -"Is this type of medical care ordinarily given to a prisoner-patient?" - -"The type of care depends upon the case, Mr. Emspak. In a case such as -this, I would regard the treatment as routine. You see, in the past -decade our approach to any patient has become one of total therapy...." - -"And in the case of a prisoner, what do you do when the therapy is -completed?" - -The Administrator looked surprised. - -"Why, we return him to jail--in accordance with the law." - -Jake Emspak stood in silence, contemplatively staring down at the blue -veins on the back of his hands. At length, he announced: - -"Your Honor, the Defense will conclude tomorrow morning, after one more -witness--a man who goes by the name of Tony Corfino...." - - * * * * * - -The sweat on the pale, polished skin of Tony's forehead stood out like -drops of summer rain; they seemed to have fallen there rather than -seeped out through the pores. - -A polygraph lie detector had been set up under Jake's direction and -wheeled close to the witness stand. A technician opened the front -of Tony's shirt and made fast the pneumograph tube with the aid of -a beaded chain. Next, a blood-pressure cuff, of the type used by -physicians, was fasted around Tony's right arm. A set of electrodes -was attached to the palmar and dorsal surfaces of the hand of the -other arm. The recorder showing the graph lines had been specially -constructed so as to be visible throughout the courtroom, and to the -television cameras. - -The technician had already been on the stand to explain the simplified -and easily read graph lines of the modern polygraph: A shallow -breathing line denoting suppression; a heavy breath line denoting -relief; the respiratory block, fast pulse and slow pulse lines; the -rise in blood pressure tracing.... It was all there on the screen--the -emotional picture of a man testifying at his own trial for murder. - -"Objection, your Honor!" shouted the D.A. for the tenth time that -morning. "This procedure is definitely irregular and immaterial! -Defense Counsel has been making a mockery of the Court for days, but -now he has stepped completely out of line!" - -Jake clucked soothingly. - -"What," he inquired, "is irregular or immaterial about a defendant -voluntarily taking a lie detector test? I believe that I have heard -the District Attorney challenge clients of mine to do so on several -occasions! Now, we are merely permitting the Court and the Jury to -view the test in progress...." - -Once again, the Judge withheld his ruling, and the D.A. sagged -dejectedly in his chair. The strain of the last few days--sitting in -the courtroom and listening to witnesses he knew not how or why to -cross-examine--had taken its toll. His eyes were bloodshot, and fits -of wheezing seized him spasmodically, but the set of his jaw was still -unyielding. Jake grieved for him. - -Tony Corfino's reactions, as he sat in the witness chair watching the -final preparations, would be difficult to catalogue. He looked both -aloof and nervously concerned. His curly black hair was damp from the -way he constantly brushed the sweat back off his forehead; his puffy -lips seemed in constant need of moistening. But his hands were folded -quietly in his lap. He seemed to Jake like a man lost to the past, -adrift in the present and unrelated to the future. - -"Will you give us your name, please?" Jake asked casually. - -"Tony Corfino." - -"Where were you born?" - -"I ain't--I'm not sure.... On the West Side, I suppose...." - -On the recorder over Tony's head, the graph lines rippled in smooth -patterns. - -Suddenly changing his manner, Jake rasped: - -"Have you ever committed a crime?" - -Tony frowned in bewilderment. - -"I _know_ that I have, but sometimes.... Well, I kinda wonder...." - -"Do you remember what happened last October 17?" - -"You mean the bank ... the shootin'?" - -"That's right." - -"I've read so much--heard so much talk--that I ain't sure just what I -remember...." - -Tony's eyes--or the eyes of the dead priest through which Tony had -vision--reflected his torment. Jake moved around so that Tony would be -facing the jury when he answered the next question. - -"Tony," directed Jake, "think about this question before you answer -it: Are _you_ the man who tried to rob that bank--then got excited and -killed two people?" - -Jake knew this question was the one element of gamble in his entire -case. The way it was answered could be a summation or refutation of all -the evidence and testimony he had so painstakingly assembled. - -The jury sensed this, too. So did Judge Hayward. His keen eyes -flickered alertly from the defendant's face to the lines on the -polygraph recorder. - -Now Tony's hands were no longer folded quietly in his lap. They were -locked together, and the new veins in his wrists stood out under the -new skin. His lips worked silently as he groped for words. - -And then the words burst into an anguished outcry: - -"No! I couldn't!..." - -The polygraph lines leaped into jagged peaks. Blood pressure, -respiratory block, pulse and breathing--all climbed and dropped wildly, -recording their damning message for the world to see. - -The D.A.'s lips twisted in a mirthless smile of triumph. Up in the TV -booth, reporters sputtered, split infinitives and shattered syntax in -frantic efforts to describe and interpret what had happened. - -Jake Emspak stood and waited, a sear and wrinkled leaf hanging -motionless in the wind. - -(If the self is merely a node in a complex casual series, if self is -solely energized and motivated by the sovereign need of survival and -security, then the idea of a bridge between Man and the infinite is a -pious illusion....) - -Tony Corfino stared down at his twisted hands, and slowly they -unlocked. He looked up at Jake, and the doubt and fear and bewilderment -were gone at last from his eyes. - -"That ain't so," he said quietly. "I did it ... I know I did it ... an' -I know it was wrong ... I deserve the chair!" - -(Thus Man escapes himself in freedom, and is therefore never a fully -predictable or manipulatable object--only a window through which we -peer with blind eyes into the reaches of the universe....) - - * * * * * - -The District Attorney's summary to the jury was a model of legal -craftsmanship. Boldly disregarding the broader issues raised by Jake, -he hewed firmly to the line of criminal responsibility and punishment. - -Point by point he reviewed the facts of the crime. Witness by witness -he retraced the eye-witness testimony. He produced photographs of -Tony's body being loaded from the wreckage of the car into the -ambulance, and from the ambulance into the prison ward of City -Hospital. He proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Tony had never -been out of custody from the moment of his apprehension. - -"Even the defendant admits to his responsibility for the crime," the -D.A. continued coldly. - -Only in his concluding remarks did the District Attorney make reference -to the defense presented by Jake Emspak. - -"I wonder," he asked, smiling for the first time, "if any of you -tried--as I did--to carry through to its ultimate conclusion the line -of reasoning presented with such detail and admitted virtuosity by the -defendant's counsel? If the fabricating of replacement parts for the -human body has already become a billion dollar industry, if psychiatry -continues to achieve new miracles, how many people in this world could -now--or in the near future--seek to escape their responsibilities by -taking refuge in the argument that they were no longer themselves? At -what point would we draw the line? If fifty-percent of a man's body has -been replaced is he neither himself nor a new person? If fifty-one has -been replaced, is he no longer the husband of his wife or the father of -his children? Can he then walk blithely away from his responsibilities, -proclaiming 'I am a new man'?" - -A titter went through the courtroom. Judge Hayward gavelled immediately -for silence, but the D.A. winked at the TV cameras. His point had been -well made. - -When Jake Emspak stepped up to the jury box to deliver his own final -plea, he promptly picked up the challenge. - -"I have known the District Attorney too well, for too many years," he -said, "to believe that he has considered only the superficial aspects -of this case. If you should find the defendant guilty, I am sure he -would be the last to oppose consideration of all the matters I have -raised in the determination of a just sentence. - -"And I grant you that if a verdict of guilty is reached, the letter of -the law will be fulfilled, and an eye for an eye can be paid. - -"Likewise, if the verdict is not guilty, the letter of the law most -unquestionably will be violated--but its spirit will be vindicated! - -"I am asking you to take a bold step, across a new frontier.... Yes, -down through the ages, law has become a living, meaningful instrument -of human dignity because--at each crossroad of decision--men and women -were not afraid to depart from precedent!" - -Oldtimers in the court had never before heard Jake Emspak summarize a -case in such dispassionate, objective tones. Usually, his voice and -argument ranged the gamut of emotional and semantic appeals, plucking -at each member of the jury like the strings of a harp. Today, he seemed -to be making an effort to hold himself in check. - -"This is the trial of a living man for the crime of a man who no -longer exists," Jake continued quietly. "Science destroyed that -man--completely and with absolute finality! In his place is a man with -a new body, new thoughts, new blood and new reproductive capacity. The -fact that this new man can be brought to trial violates justice in its -deepest and truest meaning! It points inescapably to the fact that the -law must be revised to bring it up to date with present reality...." - -Jake paused and was silent for so long that he appeared to have -forgotten his surroundings. When he finally continued, his voice was so -soft that the jurors unconsciously leaned forward to catch his words: - -"There is still another dimension to this case--one that transcends -science ... and the law. It is one I approached with great uncertainty, -because it leads down a path I am walking for the first time.... - -"Some of the testimony brought out in this trial may not have been new -to all of you, though it was new to me. Perhaps you have all formed -your own conclusions with regard to the relationship between the spirit -or soul of Man, and his outer shell ... the house in which man lives. -But if this house becomes a prison for the real man, and science -releases him to live in a new dwelling, then did the man ever actually -exist until his release? And if the man who lives now did not exist -at the time of the crime for which he is tried, can he then be judged -guilty? - -"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury--we await your answer." - - * * * * * - -Twilight faded, and across Central Park the skyline of the city changed -from steel and concrete to a gossamer web of light and shadow. Jake -Emspak sat in peace by his window, the fingers of his right hand -resting gently on the gold frame of his wife's picture. He touched a -button on the arm of his chair, and in a moment Ed Murrow's features -came into focus on the wall-screen. - -"The jury in the Corfino case is now locked up for the night," Murrow -began, his 80-year-old voice more vibrantly alive than ever. "Tomorrow -we may--and very likely will--have a verdict. - -"But whatever the verdict, this case has served an epochal purpose--to -our time as well as to the law. We have paused for an instant in our -frantic drive for technological advancement to ponder the essential -meaning of man--and the worth of the human entity. - -"It may take years to evaluate and appreciate all of the complex -testimony Jake Emspak put into the trial record, for each of us will -see in it only what we want to see or are capable of seeing.... - -"But we may be assured that in the generations to come this case will -be footnoted throughout the opening worlds of space by serious students -of the law, the sciences and the humanities. - -"For tonight, it should suffice to say: Thank you, Jake Emspak--Well -done!" - -Jake touched the button again, and the screen went dark. Between old -friends, there was much that words left unsaid. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Question of Identity, by Frank Riley - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A QUESTION OF IDENTITY *** - -***** This file should be named 60467.txt or 60467.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/4/6/60467/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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