The Irish standard., 1912-09-28
JUSTICE JOHN w. GoFF
OF THE N. Y. SUPREME COURT

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! common parlAnce, he gets his Irish
UP" on, what seems like very slight
provocation. and then cuts. loose with
a tongue that needs but few words
to do great execution.
When he takes a hand in the ques-
tioning Of a witness the spectator is
quick to understand why he is feared
and dreaded as a cross examiner. Fits
| mind does not have to climb the
stairs Of a carefully arranged series
of questions before it arrives at the
floor above. Instead, it Jumps taking
witness. prisoner, and counsel a long
leap that leaves them rather breath
! less, and Withssan inner impulse to
exclaim, Good Lord! How did we
get here so soon!" His questions are
like flashes Of lightning - not that
they are so swift in time interval, but
because they bare for an instant the
heart of things, and then leave be:
hind bewildering darkness If you
nave ever tried to walk over rough
ground by the light of intermittent
lightning flashes, you can imagine the
sensations of an unwilling witness.
You don't know what minute g'wine
ter be de mex" and you'd lot rather
have blank darkness than his merci-
less, intermittent illumination
1t is said that many of the witnesses
before the Lexow Committee squirmed
under the penetrating rapid-flre cross
examination of Golf. In trials over
which he is presiding Justice Goff
frequently wearies Of the slowness and
verbosity of the lawyers and cannot
resist the impulse to clear away the
rubbish with a few pointed strokes of
his own. We read on:
Justice COTS occasional disposition
to berate witness or a defendant
was never more strikingly displayed
than in the trial, some seven years
ago. of one Lanzerman, charged with
criminal assault upon one Barbara
Aub. 1t was shown that the defend
ant was man aof bad character gen.
orally, and Goff acted at times as tho
he were oths5udge and prosecutor.
He commented on the calmness and
steadiness of the accuser during her
long examination, and his charge TO
the jury was taken by spectators as
practically a direction to convict. This
the jury did, at, all events, and speed
lily. 1t is said Golf himself later de-
clared that he felt greatly disturbed,
after this conviction; by an instructive
feeling that he was responsible for an
unjust verdict. Then, at midnight Of
the day before the convicted man was
to be sentenced-the maximum pen
| atty was twenty years in prison
Barbara Aub came to Goff's house and
declared that her charges were false.
Dramatic in the extreme was the
Recorders handling of the matter next
day: He kept the secret of the con-
fession. The prisoner was kept in ig-
norance of the changed state of the
case until he was arraigned, haggard
and shaking, before the court for SEN
tence to what he expected would be
a long term in prison. Golf allowed
the prisoners counsel to make a mo-
fo }o1 3,,o =,
preparing to pronounce sentence in
! the usual manner. He denied the
motion, and then began pitiless YER
bal castigation Of the prisoner. lie
pictured the shameful life that the
| prisoner had led, and practically ac-.
cused him of being a disgrace to So
ciety-which he undoubtedly was.
Then, pausing abruptly, Golf said:
But, Notwithstanding that, LANCER
man, no matter what You have been
and no matter what you may be, you
| are entitled to strict Justice and i'm
partial Justice, and Justice demands
that you shall not be punished under
this verdict. The girl has confessed
to me that her charge is false" Golf
| then granted the motion for a new
trial; but neither Langerman, nor the
Aub woman, who was later indicted
for perjury, was ever tried again.
Here, truly, is matter for specula-
ton and discussion-and perhaps Cor
more Of imaginative insight than
seems to have been devoted to Justice
Goff's "harshness." If the Recorder
really did feel disturbed after the ver-
dict was in, was his distress over u
due to feeling that though the man
was bad, the badness of the woman
made severe punishment of the man
unjust, even If legal, or because he,
Goff, had been deceived by perjurer ?
Did the woman make her confession
because her charge, was really false