Believe it or not, half of the overnight webbed media reports that relate to the Conrad Black trial have been put on the Internet by the Globe and Mail:
GM1. Paul Waldie's report on yet another legal action Conrad Black is involved in: Sotheby's International Realty is suing him for the commission on the sale of that New York apartment he had bought from Hollinger International in December 2000 for $3 million plus sunk-cost improvements. Mr. Black's defense claims that Sotheby's should be suing the government instead, because the government impouded the proceeds; Sotheby's representative, naturally, scoffs at the idea. A not-that-flattering picture of Lord Black emerges from Mr. Waldie'a latest article.
GM2. Paula Todd, host of The Verdict, has reviewed two books for the Globe. The first recounts the rise of white-collar crime, and the prosecutions of it; the second recounts a year's worth of trials in a Chicago courtroom, in which Edward Genson appears. Her discussion of the former evinces a bit of background research into the phenomenon.
GM3. Amy Verner dicusses what could be called David Radler's fashion horse-sense in "The sartorial jury is out on Radler's pink tie."
GM4. Both Conrad Black and David Radler are mentioned in passing during a review of the 2007 production of Saint Joan at, appropriately enough, the Shaw Festival.
Other reports:
1. The Calgary Sun has webbed an abbreviated version of Romina Maurino's latest report, "Black may be forced to take the stand." [An even more truncated version has been webbed by the Orillia Packet and Times.]
2. Theresa Tedesco's latest, webbed by the National Post, attributes the objections from other defense counsels, one of which is cited in her report, to Eddie Greenspan's ignorance of Illinois cross-examination procedure, particularly the right of a witness to ask for documents to refresh his/her memory.
3. Mary Vallis', also webbed by the National Post, carries the portentous headline "Black's fate may already be set." Contrary to the consensus interpretation of recent events, its theme is that reasonable doubt in the jury may very well be evidenced by the boredom of at least one of the jurors. Like the previous article, this one cites Hugh Totten as an expert, but the prime expert cited is Dr. James Ogloff, the Canadian director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Melbourne's Monash University. "The jurors' behaviour may be exactly what the defence needs to be successful: Their confusion may lead to reasonable doubt, he said."
4. Richard Siklos has written a feature article for the New York Times, in which the destroyed relationship between Conrad Black and David Radler is used as a springboard for discussing the tensions and difficulties that exist nowadays between the number-1 in a corporation and the number-2 - particularly when the number-1 is also the founder, the revitalizer, and/or the controlling shareholder. He draws a parallel between business relationship and relationships period, and pegs the association between Mr. Black and Mr. Radler as going from the business analog of a 'marriage' to the business analog of a 'co-dependency relationship', before the fallout.
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The National Post's blog "Posted" has called attention to Ms. Vallis's story, linked to above. Douglas Bell, over at Toronto Life's Conrad Black trial blog, has a more detailed entry, posted late yesterday, featuring an overflow-room vignette from the "Courtstalker" which ends with the relaying of a wisecrack by a reporter at Conrad Black's expense.
And, significantly, Andrew Sullivan's blog "The Daily Dish" has a three-paragraph excerpt from Geoffrey Wheatcroft's burial piece on the neo-conservative movement. Conrad Black is mentioned in the second paragraph.
Finally, Mark Steyn has gone analytical over the weekend - largely about how the jury is taking it all in, now that a prosecution witness is holding his own during the cross-examination. (Mr. Steyn seems to be the only journalist on the trial beat who has an inner sympathy for the blond juror with the feathered pen and the perhaps-new habit of popping her gum.) He concludes that the simpler defense would be better - that legitimate business activity has been retroactively criminalized - provided that the case is made clearly and repeatedly. He also mentions the same wisecrack that Mr. Bell did.
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2 comments:
Steyn writes:
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In the line to get into court the following morning, one perfectly pleasant gal reporter asked: “What is a hair shirt?”
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Did that anecdote actually happen? We wouldn't bet on it - it sounds like Steyn just doing his Steyn thing.
I honestly don't know. The term "hair shirt" comes from Christian lore; it served the same purpose as those hooked metal leg-plates that Opus Dei members sometimes wear under their pants. These day, though, so much religious lore is forgotten, that his anecdote may be true.
If I went around saying that Dan Brown became rich by peddling the Socinian heresy, I'm sure most Roman Catholics in North America would look at me as if I was a pretentious oddball.
Ironically, that disconnect indicates that there is a competitive advantage to be gained from going through the dust-covered books in the large libraries - even if, at times, it can be a saddening chore. Such a practice may turn out to be the intellectual's equivalent to skulking around the bankruptcy courts and plowing through bankruptcy filings.
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