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 The Green Bag

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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