The Verdict: Spilling Secrets

The part of tonight's episode of The Verdict that was devoted to the Conrad Black trial focused on private E-mails being introduced into a court of law, and to the public eye. In addition to a jury consultant, Dr. Paul Lisnek, two journalists were on for this segment, Christie Blatchford and Joe Warmington. At issue was those private letters between Conrad Black and his wife, Barbara.

Mr. Warmington started the discussion off with a brief recounting of the Toronto book-launch party that the Blacks had attended; he said that he had gotten in thanks to him tracking down a rumour, which speculated that there was an important party going on. While there, he saw that the Blacks' mood was surprisingly good.

Ms. Blatchford commented that the Blacks attending was similar to a person with a life-threatening illness living life as best he or she can. Doing so shows character.

Dr. Lisnek then discussed the introduction of the Blacks' E-mails to each other; as asked to by Ms. Todd, he assumed the prosecution's perspective. In order to introduce any of those letters, the prosecution team has to show relevance. The judge could, in theory, redact the “lovey-dovey” parts of any of those E-mails introduced into the evidence, but the scurrility factor would probably be there anyway. He also speculated that the prosecution is inclined to introduce as many of those E-mails as they can due to the “humiliation factor” Mr. Black would face. When asked by Ms. Todd if such a strategy could backfire, he replied that it would only if the jury cares about Mr. Black. Ms. Blatchford added that personal E-mails relating to Mrs. Black's expenditures have already been introduced, because they show "motive."

[There was also a brief discussion of the relevance of personal E-mails to the Lisa Nowak case in the rest of this segment.]

Despite much more coverage being given to the RCMP scandal in this episode of The Verdict, Ms. Todd's "closing argument" dealt exclusively with the Blacks' E-mails. She said that Mr. Black’s "narrow" conservatism may be helpful to him personally: he and Mrs. Black are legally married, and thus are entitled to spouses’ privilege, which will limit any attempt by the prosecution to put any of those interspousal communications into the record.