The Law: Not by the Clock

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At the U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan's Foley Square, the defense wound up the second week of presenting its case in what has already become the longest criminal trial before a jury in any federal court. The previous record was set in 1949, when Judge Harold B. Medina, since elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, presided over the celebrated seven-month trial of eleven leaders of the U.S. Communist Party. The current trial was already eight months old when the Government rested its case.

The defendants—three stockbrokers, a defunct brokerage firm, and a onetime head of United Dye & Chemical Corp.—are accused of defrauding the public of $5,000,000 in a conspiracy to sell 500,000 shares of United Dye stock through the use of false information and illegal high-pressure tactics. To date there have been more than 20,800 pages of testimony, 1,330 exhibits and 90 witnesses. Two jurors have been excused—one for illness, the other for financial hardship. Says Judge William B. Herlands patiently: "The symbol of justice is not the clock but the scales."