4.2.12 WC: 191694
not to kill. Because the bomb was inherently dangerous and caused death, the perpetrators were indicted for capital murder.
In the end, I was able to capitalize on Siegel’s status as an informer, the fact that he was first discovered by the use of an unlawful wiretap, and the promises that were made to him in order to secure his cooperation. We obtained a legal ruling from the United States Court of Appeals that ordered the trial judge to set all the defendants free.
As the trial judge implemented that decision, my client and his co-defendants started to leave the courtroom, congratulating each other and laughing. The judge turned to them in anger and said, “Do you know who isn’t in court today? Iris Kones.” As my thoughts turned to the innocent victim of the Hurok bombing, I heard the judge’s voice grow louder and angrier: “Someone has committed a dastardly, vicious, unforgettable crime; someone is frustrating the administration of justice in a case that, in my mind, involves murder. People who deliberately do so will learn the power of the law even if there are those who have literally gotten away with murder.” While enunciating these final words, the judge averted his eyes from the young defendants and focused them directly at me, almost as if to say, “And you are responsible.”
His words went through me like a knife. Never had I been so uncomfortable as I was then, with the case over and my client entirely victorious. He was right. In one sense I was responsible: I had devised the novel legal strategy that resulted in the release of guilty defendants whose crime had caused the death of an innocent young woman.
I sat in court for a full hour after everyone else had left. I wanted no part of the victory celebration. I could not forget Iris Kones. I’ve thought of her often and of other victims of my clients who have gone free because of my legal arguments and my investigative work. I think especially of Iris Kones because she is the only homicide victim who I know was killed by defendants who I know were guilty and went free. I suspect there were others as well, but I can’t be absolutely sure of any but Iris Kones, because my client in that case told me, and the world, that he was guilty.
I also think of Iris Kones because her family—who are active in both Jewish causes and Harvard University—constantly remind me, and all of our mutual friends and associates, of my role in freeing the murderers of their relative.
Although I don’t believe in divine justice, it is true that Sheldon Seigel died at a very young age
after an unsuccessful heart transplant. His premature death didn’t make me feel any less responsible for the unjust, but legally proper, result I helped produce on his case.
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