The Second Jury

Almost every American courthouse has its group of hangers-on--unofficial legal scholars who keep a critical eye on judges, lawyers, jurors and witnesses. To discover who those people are, TIME Correspondent Leonard Levitt recently prowled the corridors of the New York State Supreme Court building in Brooklyn. He found amateur philosophers, sensation seekers--and a surprising amount of legal expertise. His report:

Most buffs arrive at the courthouse at 10:30 a.m.--the subway charges half fare for the elderly after 10. Before the cases get going, 30 or 40 of them--all retired men--gather in the hallways pondering the day's entertainment schedule with a precision achieved through years of experience. They study the court calendar. They bring in clippings of trials from the Daily News. "Well, there's a good murder on the ninth floor," announces one. "Student killed his mother-in-law." "There's a good hijacking," says another. "The lawyer's good. Handles a lot of Mafia cases. They get a lot of money, these Mafia lawyers."

The mention of lawyers provokes a heated discussion about prosecutors. "There's a guy named Davenport." "Yeah, he's good but Schmier sums up better." "This Brownstein is not bad." "Then there's this kid Belson. He's just 27, but we think he'll go a long way." As for defense lawyers, the buffs' favorite by far is F. Lee Bailey. "When he sums up, he doesn't even have notes," says Louis Richter, 67, a retired clerk for American Express. "He does it all from his head. Oh, he's good. He's the best there is."

95% Right. Coming to court daily has become a way of life for most of the courtroom buffs. "Many of the men are widowers," says Richter. "They seek companionship here." "The main thing," adds Morris Asher, 73, a former machine operator, "is that you get up in the morning and have a place to go. If a fellow we know doesn't show up, then we get worried." Some buffs achieve the ultimate: defense attorneys and prosecutors actually seek their opinion, not on legal strategy, but on the reactions to be expected from judges and juries. According to Salvadore Pampinella, 78, who boasts that he has not missed a day in court in 25 years: "We call nine out of ten decisions right."

Others give the buffs an even higher rating. "I'd say they are 95% accurate," says Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Schmier. "You go out into the hallways during a courtroom recess and hear them discussing cases. You'd think you were listening to a Harvard professor. A couple of months ago, I had a prosecution witness from the underworld who I thought had been terrific. I asked the buffs, and they said they didn't believe him. Sure enough, the defendant was acquitted."

Legal Aid Society Attorney Ruth Moskowitz likes them for another reason. "Let's face it, all lawyers are hams. We do better when there are spectators." Adds Prosecutor Schmier: "I value them as much as I do my own witnesses. I circulate among them during recesses and use them as a sounding board. I call them my second jury. If I can't sell a witness to them, then how can I sell him to my first jury?"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.