Trial Lawyer Tells Audience to 'Let The Jury Decide'

Let the Jury discover the important point of the case, and you're sure they'll remember it, advised Jerry Geisler, call foreign criminal lawyer to the crowd is Langdell courtroom last night. "Juries hate to be told everything," the lawyer who has defended Errol Flynn and Charlie Chaplin said.

Assisted by a lapel mike, waving arms, and much desk pounding, Geisler kept his audience amused for two hours while telling of his experience and the lessons he has learned during his long practices.

He illustrated his points by recalling all the mistakes he had made when serving his apprenticeship under the noted west coast attorney, Earl Rogers. "Luckily," he added, "all my judges were sweethearts."

Sense of Humor

"If I hadn't kept a sense of humor, as you all should when it's your turn to face those twelve people in the little box, I would have been a clerk to this day."

In fifteen "rules of conduct" he warned against scoffing at a woman's intuition. "I use my wife as a guinea pig on all my cases," he added, "and would take as all woman jury anytime--except when I'm defending a woman."

Preparation was the point most strongly stressed. He cited the time he was caught short and had to spend an hour and a half reading the penal code an Homicide to the jury. "It was the most fluent, deliberate rendition that thing had ever received," commented Geisler.

The talk came under the Law School Forum program.