Word: cop
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...presents John Wayne in civvies, which seems a little like dressing Gary Grant in bib overalls. The Duke messes around casually with playing the title character, a Seattle cop who quits the force to press a vigorous one-man investigation of his partner's death. His searches lead to discoveries of gangsterism in the import business, corruption in high places, lax moral standards in corporations and other illuminations that come as more of a surprise to Wayne than anyone else...
Despite their differences, both cases illustrate a persistent legal trend. Until a few years ago, a cop who testified with assurance was a prosecutor's best asset. Today, the badge is sometimes a downright liability...
Slow Erosion. The change in courtroom attitude is most evident in urban areas, where cop-wary blacks and Spanish-speaking people now have larger representation on juries than they had in the past. That is only one part of what H. Clay Jacke, a Los Angeles attorney (and former policeman) calls the "slow erosion" of cops' courtroom status. Detective Tom Moran, 23-year veteran on the Boston force, observes: "Our credibility bottomed-out during the late '60s. We had all the civil rights cases, the riots, the antiwar marches, and we were ordered to control them. Corruption...
Policemen, of course, often shade their testimony out of a sense of duty. Frustration builds when a defendant "walks" (goes free), even though a cop is certain of his guilt. Says Detective Moran: "Where the defendant gets a bunch of friends and they lie his way home, some cops think, 'Well, they're lying like that, so I'm going to do it too.' " Columbia Law Professor Richard Uviller, a former prosecutor, observes that false testimony by cops can be divided into two categories. The all too familiar "white lie" does not directly bear...
...Balliro points out that "anything that jurors really can't relate to will make them harden up. Motorcycle gangs, homosexuals, radicals, any defendants who threaten the juries emotionally, economically or politically" seem to lend credibility to the policeman as witness. "Suburban, small-town juries," says Balliro, "view a cop as the boy next door because, in a small town, he is." And they believe...