Aiken

[jonathan]

I don't have a lot of time here, but I've just re-read American Brutus, and a couple of things come to mind.

Concerning Aiken, Kauffman paints him as quite the rookie/green attorney. Sounds like he was kind of learning as he went, though he certainly was hamstrung in what he was and was not allowed to say and do. Also, judging from a comment attributed to Lew Wallace, maybe it wasn't as hopeless as it seems for the defendants and their attorneys. From page 367 of AB…


"After hearing the defense arguments, Lew Wallace wrote his wife, 'I have passed a few words with my associate members, and think we can agree in a couple of hours at farthest. Three, if not four, of the eight will be acquitted--that is, if we voted today.' But they did not vote that day, and the prosecution still had a few more cards to play."

There are a few paragraphs of explanation following this, but I found it interesting that the defendants, or at least some of them, did have a chance at least to avoid prison.

Also, I get the feeling that the defendants for the most part had to take what they could get in terms of attorneys. It's not as if they were given a lot of time to make arrangements and prepare their defense.