The Verdict: Motions and Auguries

Tonight's episode of The Verdict had a short segment on the Conrad Black trial, with a single guest: Hugh Totten, a regular trial watcher. According to Csr. Totten, the rejection of the Radler-recall motion was not that significant. It does create grounds for an appeal from Conrad Black, but an appeal on that basis would not go that far, because Mr. Radler can claim that the conversation was a privileged communication. It would only be a peripheral part of an appeal, anyway, as it is not part of Mr. Black’s defense theory.

The way that the Kipnis mistrial motion was treated, though, was “very extraordinary.” There have been rumours that Mr. Kipnis was charged because he didn’t roll for the prosecution. The case against him, according to Csr. Totten, has been quite weak. His counsel has filed two motions; both of them have been taken seriously; normally, they're not. Judge St. Eve had said that the prosecution didn’t act in bad faith: what’s significant in that statement is that she made it at all. This bodes well for Mr. Kipnis' motion to acquit. Csr. Totten thinks it likely that there'll be "an empty chair" by the time the jury retires to deliberate.

Ms. Todd then asked if granting that motion would taint the prosecution’s entire case. Csr. Totten replied that the jury will be told to disregard the acquittal if Mr. Kipnis goes free, but they will notice his absence. Ms. Todd brought up the possibility that it would help the prosecution by focusing attention on the three remaining defendants. Csr. Totten responded that such a consequence isn't likely.


[This episode of The Verdict will be broadbanded as of 10:30 pm tonight, and will stay up until about 10:30 PM or so tomorrow.]