As a rule, however, criminal lawyers are not in a position to
"hammer" the prosecuting officer, but endeavor instead to
suggest by innuendo or even open declaration his bias and
unfairness.

"Be fair, Mr.--!" is the continual cry. "Try to be fair!"

The defendant, whether he be an ex-convict or thirty-year-old
professional thief, is always "this poor boy," and, as he is
not compelled by law to testify, and as his failure to do so
must not be weighed against him by the jury, he frequently
walks out of court a free man, because the jury believe from
the lawyer's remarks that he is in fact a mere youthful
offender of hitherto good reputation and deserves another
chance.

By all odds the greatest abuse in criminal trials lies in the
open disregard of professional ethics on the part of lawyers
who deliberately supply of themselves, in their opening and
closing addresses to the jury, what incompetent bits of
evidence, true or false, they have not been able to establish
by their witnesses. There is no complete cure for this, for
even if the judge rebukes the lawyer and directs the jury to
disregard what he has said as "not being in the evidence," the
damage has been done, the statement still lingering in the
jury's mind without any opportunity on the part of the
prosecutor to disprove it. There is no antidote for such
jury-poison. A shyster lawyer need but to keep his client off
the stand and he can saturate the jury's mind with any facts