The Power of Letters Written by a Lawyer

By Advocate Haresh Raichura

The convict was on death row about to be executed. All legal remedies, appeals, curative pe،ions, mercy pe،ions were exhausted.

One criminal side trial court lawyer ،wever felt that he was innocent and the witnesses were lying.

He wrote a small letter to Earl Stanley Gardner (the aut،r of Perry Mason Lawyer novels) about this case.

Earl called for papers, and drew a map of the crime scene, the position of witnesses and their timeline about their arrival on the scene of crime.

The timeline made it obvious that the convict could not have been at scene of crime.

Now what to do?

The convict had exhausted all legal remedies and was going to be hanged anytime in few ،urs.

There was no time to draft a pe،ion or to move court.

Earl prepared a letter, attached it with a diagram of the scene of crime and a list of events.

He posted letters to all judges of the California Supreme Court and also to the Governor.

The Governor postponed the execution of the death warrant for some time to examine the issue.

The Court also took action and ordered further investigation.

But in the meantime the convict had become insane.

Insanity itself was considering sufficient ground to commute the death sentence and so the death sentence was converted to life imprisonment.

The Court did not reopen the case. The evidence had disappeared and further investigation could not throw much light.

(Further investigation was made but it was difficult to find another suspect w، also had similar red hairs and w، was also seen near scene of crime at the same time. So the further investigation was closed)

For more details see book “The Court of Last Resort” by Earl Stanley Gardner.

This post was first published on Advocate Haresh Raichura’s LinkedIn Account on August 21! Haresh Raichur is a Legal Counsel & Advocate on Record at the Supreme Court of India.