The Green Bag
2O
improper means with a jury is presumed to be the responsible source of such scandal, and where such improper con
end that juries may possess the in ness. telligence essential to tme fairminded
duct is shown to have been employed,
The members of the bar who make up the judiciary are respectfully ad monished that it is the consensus of opinion of this Association that the latitude often permitted counsel con
it is essential to the professional stand ing of the lawyer representing the side involved that he exonerate himself before the organized bar from complicity
in it or connivance at it.
ducting
All attempts to curry favor with juries by fawning, flattery, or pretended
criminal cases, tends to confuse the issue, to improperly bias the jury and to defeat the ends of justice; and it is the intent of this code respectfully to remind the bench that it is the duty of
solicitude for their personal comfort are unprofessional. Suggestions of counsel looking to the comfort or con venience of jurors, and propositions to dispense
with
argument,
should
be
made to the court out of the jury’s
hearing. A lawyer must never converse privately with jurors or prospective jurors, and both before and during the trial he should avoid communicating with them even as to matters foreign to the cause.
It is not professional for a lawyer to offer evidence which he knows the court should reject in order, under the
guise of arguing its admissibility, to get the same before the jury, nor should a lawyer address to the judge arguments or statements known to be foreign to
the issue. It is particularly reprehensible to introduce into an argument addressed
to the court remarks or statements intended spective jurors to influence in the cause. the jury or pro~ It is disreputable and unprofessional
jury
trials,
particularly
in
the courts, in their ethical relations to
the bar, to hold all counsel strictly and impartially to the issues involved, in criminal and civil jury trials, and to enforce their orders and admonitions
given to that end with all of the powers at their command. XI. The Conduct of Criminal Cases
This Association takes notice of the opinion expressed by the Chief Execu tive of the nation—himself a dis tinguished lawyer and judge-that the administration of the criminal law is a disgrace to our institutions. It further recognizes that the remedy lies to a large extent in the domain of legal ethics. It therefore lays down the following canons which should be obvi ous but which it believes have been generally disregarded in the trial of criminal causes :—
The lawyer’s right and obligation to
to make, in an opening statement to
defend
the jury, or in an ofier to prove, asser
carries with it no duty and no right to
tions which a lawyer knows he cannot
prostitute either the letter or the spirit of the law. The lawyer's primary obligation, as an officer of the court, to assist in the administration of justice, is neither abrogated nor diminished by his appoint ment or retainer to defend a person charged with crime.
or will not be permitted to prove. A too narrow application of existing rules operates to relieve a large part of the most intelligent portion of the community from jury duty.
The obli
gation rests upon the bar to strive for greater liberality in these rules to the
persons
charged
with
crime
