The Case For The Defence

Graham Greene

The Author

Graham Greene was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, UK, on October 2, 1904. The son of a
school teacher, he went on to graduate from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in History.

He began his professional career as a journalist but he was not very successful at it. During his
early days he also wrote reviews for several English dailies in order to supplement his income. He tasted
first success as an author with The Man Within (1929) which emboldened him to take to writing books
seriously. Greene went on to become one of the most versatile writers in the English language in the
20th century. His works can broadly be divided into two segments -thrillers and literary works. Among
his successful thrillers were The Human Factor, The Comedians, Our Man in Havana and The Quiet
American. His famous literary works include Brighton Rock and the ever so powerfully written The Power
and the Glory A thinking man's writer, Greene was as much critically acclaimed as he was commercially
successful.

His last years were spent in Vevey, on Lake Geneva, Switzerland where he died in 1991.

A Note on the Story

The Case For The Defence is a very well-written thriller with an interesting plot which keeps the
reader interested till the very last line. What appears to be an open and shut case of murder takes a
most unusual turn and the fearsome and most unusual climax is bound to bring a wry smile to the
reader's lips.

IT WAS the strangest murder trial I ever attended. They named it the Peckham Murder in the
newspapers, though Northwood Street, where the old woman was found battered to death, was not
strictly speaking in Peckham.

This was not one of those cases of circumstantial evidence, in which you feel the jurymen's
anxiety because mistakes have been made like domes of silence muting the court. No, this murderer was
all but found with the body. When the Crown Counsel outlined his case everybody believed that the man
in the dock stood no chance at all.

He was a heavy, stout man with bulging, bloodshot eyes. All his muscles seemed to be in his
thighs. Yes, an ugly customer, one you wouldn't forget in a hurry and that was an important point. The
Crown proposed to call four witnesses who hadn't forgotten him. They had seen him hurrying away from
the little, red villa in Northwood Street. The clock had just struck two in the morning.

Mrs Salmon in 15 Northwood Street had been unable to sleep. She heard a door click shut and
thought it was her own gate. So she went to the window and saw Adams that was his name on the steps
of Mrs Parker's house.
 He had just come out and he was wearing gloves. He had a hammer in his hand and she saw him
drop it into the laurel bushes by the front gate. He had looked up at her window before she moved away.
The fatal instinct that tells a man when he is watched exposed him, in the light of the street lamp, to her
gaze. His eyes were filled with a horrifying and brutal fear like an animal's is, when you raise a whip.

I talked afterwards to Mrs Salmon. After the astonishing Verdict she went in fear herself, as, I
imagine, did all the witnesses.

Henry Macdougall, who had been driving home from Bendfleet had nearly run Adams down at
the corner of Northwood Street. Adams was walking in the middle of the road, looking dazed, Old Mr
Wheeler, who lived next door to Mrs Parker, at No. 12, was wakened by a noise, like a chair falling,
through the thin-as-paper villa wall. He had got up and looked out of the window, just as Mrs Salmon
had done. He had seen Adam's back and, as he turned, those bulging eyes.. In Laurel Avenue he had
been seen by yet another witness his luck was badly out. He might as well have committed the crime in
broad daylight.

"I understand," the counsel said, "that the defence proposes to plead mistaken identity. Adam's
wife will tell you that he was with her at two in the morning on February 14, but after you have heard
the witnesses for the Crown and carefully examined the features of the prisoner, I do not think you will
be prepared to admit the possibility of a mistake."

It was all over, you would have said, but the hanging.

After the formal evidence had been given by the policeman who had found the body and the
surgeon who examined it, Mrs Salmon was called. She was an ideal witness, with her slight Scotch accent
and her expression of honesty, care and kindness.

The Counsel for the Crown brought the story gently out. She spoke very firmly. There was no
malice in her, and no sense of importance at standing there in the Central Criminal Court with a judge in
scarlet hanging on her words and the reporters writing them down. Yes, she said, she had seen him and
then she had gone downstairs and rung up the police station. "And do you see the man here in court?"

She looked straight across at the big man in the dock, who stared hard at her with his Pekinese
eyes. They were without sign of any emotion.

"Yes," she said, "there he is."

"You are quite certain?"

She said simply, "I couldn't be mistaken, sir."

It was easy as that.

"Thank you, Mrs Salmon."

Counsel for the defence rose to cross-examine. If you had reported as many murder trials as I
have, you would have known, beforehand, what line he would take. And I was right up to a point.

"Now, Mrs Salmon, you must remember that a man's life may depend on your evidence."

"I do remember it, sir."

"I have never had to wear spectacles, sir."

"You are a woman of fifty-five?"

"Fifty-six, sir."

"And the man you saw was on the other side of the road?"

"Yes, sir."

"And it was two o'clock in the morning? You must have remarkable eyes, Mrs Salmon!"

"No, sir. There was moonlight, and when the man looked up, he had the lamplight on his face."

"And you have no doubt whatsoever, that the man you saw is the prisoner?"

I couldn't make out what he was at. He couldn't have expected any other answer than the one
he got.

"None whatever, sir. It isn't a face one forgets."

Counsel took a look round the court for a moment. Then he said, "Do you mind, Mrs Salmon, re-
examining the people in court? No, not the prisoner Stand up, please, Mr Adams." There at the back of
the court, with a thick, stout body and muscular legs and a pair of bulging eyes, was the exact image of
the man in the dock. He was even dressed the same tight, blue suit and striped tie.

"Now think very carefully, Mrs Salmon. Can you still swear that the man you saw drop the
hammer in Mrs Parker's garden was the prisoner and not this man, who is his twin brother?"

Of course she couldn't. She looked from one to the other and didn't say a word.

There the big brute sat in the dock with his legs crossed, and there he stood, too, at the back of
the court and they both stared at Mrs Salmon. She shook her head.

That, we saw, was the end of the case. There wasn't a witness prepared to swear that it was the
prisoner he'd seen. And the brother? He had his alibi, too. He was with his wife.

So the man was acquitted for lack of evidence. But whether if he did the murder and not his
brother he was punished or not, I don't know. That extraordinary day had an extraordinary end.

I followed Mrs Salmon out of court. We got stuck in the crowd which was waiting, of course, for
the twins. The police tried to drive the crowd away, but all they could do was keep the roadway clear for
traffic. I learned later that they tried to get the twins to leave by a back way, but they wouldn't.

One of them no one knew which said, "I've been acquitted, haven't I?" and they walked bang out
of the front entrance.

Then it happened. I don't know how, though I was only six feet away. The crowd moved and
somehow one of the twins got pushed on to the road, right in front of a bus. He gave a squeal like a
rabbit and that was all. He was dead, his skull smashed just as Mrs Parker's had been. Divine vengeance?
I wish I knew.
 There was the other Adams getting on his feet beside the body, and looking straight over at Mrs
Salmon. He was crying, but whether he was the murderer or the innocent man, nobody will ever be able
to tell. But if you were Mrs Salmon, could you sleep at night?

Glossary

circumstantial evidence - (without proof evidence; but inferred from evidence the circumstances)

fatal - something that brings about death

instinct - strong natural impulse

malice - with harmful intent

Pekinese - small flat-nosed Chinese dog

alibi - an excuse that proves a person was somewhere else at the time when a crime was committed

vengeance - revenge; punishment for a wrong

Exercises

Question 1

This was not one of those cases of circumstantial evidence, in which you feel the jurymen's anxiety -
because mistakes have been made like domes of silence muting the court. No, this murderer was all but
found with the body. When the Crown counsel outlined his case everybody believed that the man in the
dock stood no chance at all.

1. What do you understand by 'circumstantial evidence"? Why was the Peckham Murder regarded as an
'open and shut' case?

2. Describe the accused man who stood in the dock?

3. How many witnesses had seen the accused on the night of the murder? Whose evidence did you think
was most convincing and why?

4. Why was Mrs Salmon regarded as the ideal witness?

5. How old was Mrs Salmon? How was she so confident that she had seen the accused and had not
actually made a mistake?

Question 2

There at the back of the court, with a thick, stout body and muscular legs and a pair of bulging eyes, was
the exact image of the man in the dock. He was even dressed the same suit and striped tie. -tight, blue
1. Who was this man referred to in the passage above? Where had he been on the night of the murder?

2. Why did the accused insist on going out through the front door? Was he right to demand this?

3. Describe in detail what happened next.

4. Do you think this was a case of "divine vengeance"? Justify your answer.

5. Had you been in Mrs Salmon's place how would you have felt at the end?