“I did not.”
Mason said grimly, “Now, Your Honor, I am faced with a situation where a witness is apparently committing deliberate perjury. I will state to the Court on my honor as an attorney that this witness did make such a statement to me.”
“That is not true,” Newburn said calmly. “I made no such statement.”
Hamilton Burger smiled. “Well, now, just a moment,” he said. “We have a very peculiar situation. Counsel, having been accused of having prepared a bottle of sugar pills, filling it with shot, and throwing it out in the lake, now seeks to disclaim responsibility by claiming that Jackson Newburn threw that bottle out in the lake. Newburn says he didn’t. Counsel says that Newburn told him he did. Here we have a direct conflict between Counsel and Newburn. One of them certainly is lying. I leave it to the Court to determine as to which is the most interested and which would be most apt to tell a falsehood for the purpose of protecting his reputation.”
“Now just a moment,” Judge Ashurst said, his face stern. “Apparently one of these persons is making a false statement, a statement which is unequivocally false. Mr. Newburn, I am going to ask you, did you make any such statement to Mr. Mason?”
“I did not.”
“I propose to show that he did,” Mason said.
“By your own testimony?” Judge Ashurst asked.
“Yes.”
“Any corroboration?”
Mason hesitated a moment, then shook his head and said, “No corroboration which is of evidentiary value. My secretary was sitting in a car parked at the curb and I told her as soon as I returned from the interview what Mr. Newburn had said.”
“That, of course, is no corroboration. That is simply a self-serving declaration,” Hamilton Burger said.
“I think the Court knows me well enough to know that while I will use certain methods which some persons may consider unorthodox for the purpose of bringing out the true facts in a case, I certainly will not jeopardize myself by making a false statement,” Mason said. “Nor would I go to the extent of planting evidence for the purpose of confusing the officers or protecting a person accused of murder.”
“That, of course, is a matter of debate,” Hamilton Burger said. “You have your own peculiar standard of ethics in such matters and I don’t profess to know what they are.
“However, I will state to the Court that we now have a situation where this witness, Newburn, states definitely he did not have any such conversation with Mason. Mason proposes to swear that he did. For what purpose? All that Mason could do would be to impeach the witness. A person cannot impeach his own witness and, even if he did, that statement would be only for purposes of impeachment. It wouldn’t go to establish the fact.”
“That, of course, is true,” Judge Ashurst said. “If Mr. Mason took the stand all he could do would be to impeach the veracity of this witness, and this is his own witness, but even if he did impeach him it wouldn’t establish the fact that the witness had actually thrown this bottle out in the lake. That, of course, is a technical legal rule, but, after all, as Counsel has pointed out, this is a case in which he intends to rely on technicalities and the prosecution is entitled to protection under the law just as the defendant is.”
Mason, his face flushed with anger, said, “Your Honor, I’d like to have an adjournment of this case until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. I’ll certainly go into this matter. I intend to take some steps to ascertain the truth. I am certain of my facts, and I know that this witness made a definite statement to me, a statement such as I reported to the Court.”
Judge Ashurst deliberated for a few moments, then said, “Of course, while it is beside the point, the Court has always found Perry Mason strictly scrupulous and strictly accurate in any statements made to the Court.”
Hamilton Burger said, with what amounted to a sneer, “Counsel has continually resorted to all sorts of ingenious trickery in connection with his cases. This is one time he went too far and now that he is trapped he realizes that his entire professional reputation is at stake. It is distasteful to me to have to make these comments but I suggest that the Court consider the motivation.”
Mason, who had been studying the exhibits, turned to Burger. “Wait a minute. You want to introduce this confession of the defendant on the theory among others that it is corroborated by the discovery of the shotgun shells in the very place where she said she had left them and that those shotgun shells constitute a sufficient corroboration so that the evidence can be received?”
“Exactly,” Hamilton Burger said.
Mason smiled. “Very well,” he said, “I’ll meet you on that legal contention. If that will be your contention I’ll withdraw all objection to the tape-recorded confession.”
“Here, here, wait a minute,” Judge Ashurst said. “You can’t do that, Mr. Mason. You have to protect the rights of the defendant. There is a very serious question here as to whether a confession under the influence of drugs can be used and there is also a very serious question as to whether this constitutes a confidential communication. The Court isn’t prepared to announce its ruling as yet on those objections but they certainly are material objections affecting the substantial rights of the defendant and—”
“And I’ll withdraw the objection,” Mason said, “provided the district attorney goes ahead as he has indicated. I’ll accept his challenge and meet him on those grounds.”
“I am trying to point out that you can’t do that,” Judge Ashurst said. “You can’t waive the rights of the defendant. You may have some theory here, but the Court is free to admit it can’t realize what it is. However, the Court does understand that you have a very potent technical objection, one which may result in a dismissal of the entire case if the Court rules in your favor.”
“And which would leave the defendant forever tarred with the stigma of having been a murderess who escaped through a technicality,” Mason said. “No, Your Honor, I’m representing the defendant. The defendant is in my hands. I’ll withdraw the objection. Go ahead. Call the jury back into court. Let the prosecutor put on his corroboration, then play that tape recording to the jury.”
Hamilton Burger said triumphantly, “That suits me.”
“I don’t think you have the right to do this,” Judge Ashurst said.
“As the lawyer representing the defendant I have a right to conduct the case the way I see fit,” Mason told him.
“But you yourself have a direct interest in this case, Mr. Mason. I regret to have to point it out but you are involved in this thing yourself. There is, of course, naturally a temptation to... to— The Court was about to say, save your own skin, but that is too drastic an expression.”
“Let it go at that,” Mason said. “Let’s suppose I am trying to save my own skin. Nevertheless, I’m going to meet this issue head on and right here and now. The defendant doesn’t want to go through life forever branded as having murdered her benefactor and having taken advantage of a technicality to escape justice. Let’s meet this thing.”
Hamilton Burger said eagerly, “The prosecution accepts that situation. Your Honor, the objection has been withdrawn and in the absence of any objection I feel that the Court has nothing to rule on.”
“The objection is withdrawn only to this extent,” Mason said, “that you are going to introduce those shotgun shells and the bottle containing the poison.”
“That’s right,” Hamilton Burger said triumphantly.
Mason turned and walked back to the counsel table, thereby terminating the discussion.
Judge Ashurst stroked his chin thoughtfully, looked at Mason speculatively.
“The objection is withdrawn. There’s nothing before the Court,” Hamilton Burger insisted.