Original subtitles

No school today, Sammy

go on down to a Fallon creek and do yourself some fishing

with the rest of the kids.

I'm sorry.

Cut out this nonsense.

Jethro, move all that stuff back, there isn't gonna be any trial.

You don't have much of a library for a growing community like this.

All I could find was

Dalrymple's Diseases of Livestock,

of all the crazy notions. This one takes the prize.

I'm telling you there's not going to be any trial.

Says here you can treat a sick calf with fatback and gunpowder. You

ever hear that?

Don't joke with me. Judge

Charlie.

One thing I'm not gonna be doing with you today is joking,

Judge Harper. You can't do it.

It's crazy.

You can't try a man that's already dead.

Hey Garth.

Stage's pulling out in a half hour,

you get on it,

get back to Medicine Bow.

You hear me, Garth?

What happened?

Uh

cowpoke out there thinks he can fix things with a rock.

It's a put up or shut up proposition, the way I look at it. I don't care how you look at it.

I got no intention of you having my...

You can't back down.

Who says I can't? I do.

Look, he roped us into this thing, pure and simple.

Got us backed up against the wall. Now, we quit now,

the whole territory of Wyoming is gonna call us Yella. Don't use that word on me.

You back down now, I'll use it on you.

You've got to go along with the rest of us, Charlie.

There's nothing we can...

Beware a silent lawyer.

What do you mean by that?

Old Judge McCracken gave me that piece of advice, over 40 years ago.

Beware of silent lawyers and ...

Ever here of treating cattle with lard and gunpowder?

I wish I could cure what I've got

with lard and gunpowder.

You may as well know, Henry,

if I'd heard all the particulars when you sent me that wire in Sheridan,

I'd have stayed home.

That's why I didn't tell you all the particulars.

Actually what I wanted was a principled man, but

none being available. I took the next best thing.

Oh, now, Henry, you, you

don't want to marry up with principle,

won't bend.

Sometimes human affairs get wound up in such a tangle that

something's got to bend

or everybody gets cut up.

It sounds crazy, doesn't it?

Fatback and gunpowder!

Henry, Henry Garth, by golly. It's good to see you!

Arthur, you remember Henry Garth,

best friend I've got in all the world, we practiced law together back east.

Well, you old Rascal? You're a sight for sore eyes. You too! Looking prosperous.

Well, I'm putting up a front anyway. Really went broke last winter after the freeze.

You're still running cows? Yeah. Yeah. Hanging on. How are they?

Fine, fine. And the boy? Just great. And they're both hungry to see you. Good Lord.

How long has it been?

Arthur? When was that cattle auction? That was the last time, wasn't it Henry?

Oh, yeah. Four or five years? Seven.

Oh, it can't be that long.

Should be ashamed of yourself. Well, come on, let's go surprise Amy and Ben.

No, Frank, I'll be staying here. Now don't be silly. No, it'll be handier.

I've got some business in town. Well, is it that important?

Can't say yet.

You're being mighty mysterious. Don't even write me you're coming.

You breeze in on the stage without a word.

I just happened to see you climb down. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known you were here.

That's a back-handed way to treat an old friend.

Oh, no, I didn't mean that.

Look, I can't accept the room,

But I might have some dinner with you if Amy has something on back of the stove.

How about it? Well, fine, let's go.

Good! I'll take care of those. Thank you!

Well, I'm gonna get him a law degree at Harvard

and marry him to one of those rich Eastern girls

and have him a palace at Newport.

Lawyer eh?

Yes, sir.

You've got a pretty good model.

I've always thought so.

Well, I keep telling him that the world lost a great lawyer when I went to ranching.

Got him believing it too.

Well,

I feel a little guilty about that.

Why?

Well, if it hadn't been for me,

in those tales about the fortunes to be made cattle ranching, he might have,

well, he might have ended up on the Supreme Court.

Ah, now you are laying it on.

No, no, I believe it.

That was the trouble when we were partners.

I was always out beating the bushes for, oh, any kind of case. Contracts, leases,

felonies,

spending money faster than I could make it.

But this fella here.

What about him?

It had to be

right

before he'd take a case.

Had a

fiery glow in his eye.

The law.

A great

sacred temple

in those days.

Wasn't it Frank?

Hm.

Still is

for those near enough to attend the services.

Henry. How about a drink? I got some first grade brandy in the study.

Good

Amy

pie was better than ever. Bless you. Henry.

That freeze last winter will go down in history.

Losses up to 80, 90%.

Herds knocked down to a nub,

army of cowpokes out of work.

Nothing around for them except stealing.

Thank you.

Frank.

We've been

walking around the subject

like a couple of wolves at a bait.

If you want to talk about it, you let me know when you're ready.

Well, I've been ready for some time.

I, um,

received a letter from Rosanna Doby.

You want me to read it to you?

I can probably quote it.

If I forget something, you can fill me in.

She says that her son was lynched by a committee of 13 men for a crime

he had nothing to do with

that. They're all steeped in blood up to their elbow.

There's nobody around she can appeal to because she was an outcast,

an ex-saloon woman

and worse.

And that her boy, John, was an outcast too.

Justice has fled.

The rogues and the knaves are in power,

and she, poor, innocent little lamb,

is crying in the wilderness for a white knight in the form of Henry Garth

to come save her.

Well, she didn't put it quite that well, but that's

the general idea.

What about the sheriff?

Been here and gone.

County seat's two mountain ranges away.

What did he call it?

Accident.

According to the record, John Doby rode home

drunk from the Fourth of July dance, pitched off his horse, broke his neck.

There are 13 signatures on that report, and I expect it will stay that way.

Henry,

we're not talking about the death of John Doby at all.

We're talking about the murder of Sally Anne Tressitor,

age 18,

the daughter of Charlie and Leora Tressitor.

Neighbors of mine.

Have another brandy.

No thanks.

How did Rosanna happen to write to you?

I knew John.

Oh, where?

Medicine Bow. Found him swamping in a saloon, sleeping in the back room.

14 years old, alone in the world.

Raggle, taggle kid without a spare pair of socks to his name.

You could see he was going places.

He was?

So I

put him to work

at Shiloh for a couple of years so he could

make himself a stake.

And I gave him $100, a train ticket, shipped him off to school.

Six years later,

$100 and the price of the ticket

came back in the mail.

Insisted on paying me back.

You know, him pretty well.

I'd have been proud to have him for a son.

I can't believe he did a thing like this.

You just can't tell about a man.

You were in law long enough to know that.

No, I guess you can't.

Are you asking me to defend myself?

No, I'm still trying to pick myself up off the floor. Frank, of all

the men in the world to dirty his hands? You don't understand. What?

You do what you've got to do.

That's all.

You've got no choice. If you're telling me you've got to choose between

due process on one side and a committee of vigilantes on the other,

you're right. You've got no choice. You take the law. And you die.

You get stolen blind by mavericking sod busters. You get fenced off from your water

and in this case, your daughter gets bludgeoned to death and left in the dust.

Now you file a complaint in county seat and you scream

and you rant and your beat on the table and due process?

Huffs and puffs into the same station every time. The accused is

turned loose by 12 other cow thieves and criminals sitting in judgment.

Now,

that old friend is what we've had up here in

the way of due process and what we still have.

That's why we organized our committee.

Henry,

it wasn't a mob.

It wasn't blood lust,

It wasn't lynch fever.

Now, you got to understand that.

You live in a society like this, you take sustenance from it,

you owe it something back.

There's no school. So you build one. And a church

and a hospital and if there's no justice,

you build that too.

13 men did it,

because it was an obligation. Henry.

That is all.

What kind of evidence did you have?

The strongest in the world. An eyewitness.

Who? The girl's little sister, she saw him do it.

She's still under the doctor's care almost out of her head from the sight of it.

Henry,

we've known each other a long time and I have never asked anything from you.

I'm going to now.

I want you to trust me.

There was only one thing to do

and we did it.

We thought it through.

He made our decision

and

we're standing by it.

He sent that to me when he graduated from college

five years ago in June.

Third in his whole class.

He was smart.

Not bad considering his upbringing.

Third in his whole class.

Magnum come something or other

Cum laude.

Yeah.

Magnum come louder.

That's a crazy thing to call a kid who gets good marks.

You want a drink or something?

No thanks. Mind if I do?

Not at all.

Drinking too much lately,

quit for a long time

when this happened.

Gotta cut down.

John was all I had. You know,

the works.

I've been in this miserable world a long, long time, and he was the only good thing.

That's what they'll write on my tombstone someday.

Rosanna Doby, worthless for the most part.

But she gave the world a first-rate man.

Took him away too.

Why do you say that?

If I hadn't been what I am, they wouldn't have done it.

Magnum cum louder.

That's what they killed him for.

It stuck in their craw

that the illegitimate son of a saloon woman could walk tall down the main street.

Out-figure the banker, out-swap the horse trader.

and buy a scraggly rundown ranch from Joe York and make it pay so big

within two years that Joe nearly got his knee out of joint from kicking himself.

That was a lynching offense in itself.

What do you think the little girl saw?

I don't know but it wasn't John.

Dark night.

Out there alone by that bridge. Scared out of her wits. Could have been anybody.

I wish I could help you.

You can and you've got to.

How? Get him a trial, get him cleared.

Without a trial, without a chance to defend himself,

he'll be marked down as a murderer.

I can't get his life back for him

but get him cleared.

$2700. It's everything I've got and it's all yours. If you'll get that done for me.

Judge,

you know him,

you loved him too.

The law says every man gets a day in court.

Get it for him. You can't try a dead man. Who says you can't?

Is there a law that says my boy can't have a trial?

When they found that girl by the bridge,

They wanted it to be John.

That's why they killed him.

They wanted it to be him.

And that's wrong.

The law says it's wrong.

It's all yours.

What are you gonna do?

I don't know.

It's just a piece of paper,

but it says I did what you told me I could do,

way back in those awful days when I was swamping in that Medicine Bow saloon.

I am third in my class,

magna cum laude.

And I want you to know that when they handed me that piece of paper,

I was thinking of you.

A triumph?

Yeah.

Kind of a wild notion. Isn't it?

Not wild, crazy.

Maybe. But you owe it to him.

He got his trial.

Did he?

-

I want to know what he's jabbing at. Never mind that.

Why, I didn't mean to upset you.

Didn't know I'd hit such a sore spot. Who says it's a sore spot?

Henry,

I think you'd better go.

All right.

Happy days.

Leave the red ink. Live with the unpaid bills.

We've got no unpaid bills. Henry,

You've got the longest tab of all.

You had some principles once.

You all did.

Now you've tucked John Doby away in his grave.

Put a sign of Cain on his forehead.

He didn't have a word to say about it, one way or the other.

Pitched off his horse, broke his neck.

That's that.

That's what you all swore to, isn't it?

Red ink on the ledger.

He never had a chance to tell his story to 12 men in a court of law.

Well, it seems to me it'd be

kind of sporting

for you to give him that.

You can't put a dead man on trial.

heard.

How about it, Frank?

Suppose we did try him.

Frank, you... What?

Now just, just wait a minute.

Suppose we did.

Suppose we drew a jury from the valley right here. Now, I guarantee you

there'll be a couple of sour apples on it

out of the same barrel they draw from over at county seat.

You could try Captain Kidd

and get a hung jury.

How many sour

apples you got here?

Hm?

Right here in this room. 13 of you all together. How many sour apples?

What do you mean?

Well, if you could

hear the evidence too, couldn't you?

12 of you

on a jury.

Frank could prosecute.

Is that fair?

You're out of your head. Why, who wastes time on a crazy thing like that.

All right. Forget it.

You never had a case anyway.

Henry, he would have been hanged by any court in the country. That's right.

Then why didn't he get into a court?

Why?

For the same reason that you're all backing off right now.

Nobody is backing off.

That man was guilty. He got what was coming to him.

Prove it.

I'll give you a chance. If your case won't stand up, admit it.

All right.

Stick together.

You need each other

for comfort and reassurance

and righteousness

in this puddle of guilt.

Henry.

You got a deal.

Quiet please. Come to order.

Now, there may be

a few of you in this room who aren't quite sure what's about to go on here.

So maybe I better explain.

This is not a trial.

It has no legal standing anywhere.

There will be no transcript made of the proceeding.

Now, on the record,

John Doby, aged 25, citizen of this town,

was bucked off his horse and killed while

riding home from the dance in this schoolhouse

on the night of the fourth of July.

From the facts developed so far,

it appears that John before he died

committed about as mean a crime as there is.

He bludgeoned to death in a fit of anger

a girl who wouldn't have him.

The citizens of this community,

most of them,

hold John guilty.

He is convicted in their minds of murder.

And we are here to find out if the man deserved that verdict.

We can either clear him or

put the mark on him for all time.

That is the purpose of this proceeding.

Now,

although this is not a legal trial,

I'm going to hold both counsels

to the rules of evidence,

the discipline of the courtroom.

I am putting the Holy Bible on the desk here

and I expect anyone who testifies to consider himself sworn.

So with the

issues understood, I think we can dispense with opening statements.

Get right down to business.

Mr. Stages, you can call your first witness.

I call Dr.

David Harvey.

We'll dispense with your name and qualifications, doctor.

Everybody here knows you,

but I would like you to recall

the events which took place just prior to midnight on the fourth of July.

Where were you at the time?

On the north road at O'Fallon Creek Bridge.

For what purpose? To examine the body of Sally Anne Tressitor.

She was dead when I got there, lying on her back at the side of the road near the bridge.

How long had she been dead, would you say?

Half hour or so.

And what in your opinion was the cause of death? Multiple skull fractures,

a hard blow on the head with a, with a rock or some such.

She had been dead about half an hour or so. She was probably killed around 11.

I'd say so.

Could she have sustained that kind of injury had she tripped or fallen on the road?

Impossible. Much too hard a blow for that.

Thank you.

Your witness

Doctor,

we're starting out with the body of a young lady at the side of a road by a bridge

around midnight.

We start out with that

and we end up with an assumption,

almost unanimous by the town of Arapaho,

that John Doby

bludgeoned her to death and left her there.

But I'm gonna be interested in finding out

is how

everybody arrived at that assumption.

What was the evidence? What were the facts?

How much emotion,

prejudice,

was mixed up in it?

Now you say you were

at the O'Fallon Creek Bridge around midnight.

That's right. Why?

Well, as you probably know there was a big celebration in town that night.

Almost everybody had showed up there for the dance,

including Sally Anne Tressitor and John Doby.

(scream)

Thank you, thank you very much. That concludes the performance, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, let's get on with the dance!

Ma! Ma!

Papa? Hello honey

Ma? Mom listen! Not now, Julie, go sit down.

What is it, honey? Julie what's wrong?

What's the matter? Tell me.

Let Sally talk to her.

Where is she?

Sally?

Sally Ann?

Where is Sally?

She went out?

Sally

Sally Ann

Sally,

Sally, where are you?

Sally Ann?

Sally

Julie,

where's your sister?

Where's Sally Anne?

She was outside talking to John Doby. Where is he?

I saw him about an hour or so ago down at the stable,

been drinking.

Julie,

where did your sister go?

Answer me? Where is she?

Yeah,

we better go take a look.

Somebody fetch a wagon.

There's nothing we can do here.

-

Gone.

-

Torn in two.

Why'd a man do a thing like that?

They were

quarreling.

Doby?

Yeah.

You sure about that?

I saw him when I was setting up for the fireworks.

She was upset with him for some reason or other. He was drunk.

Might have been.

Did you hear what they were quarreling about?

I didn't have to,

I could tell from the sound of his voice that he was ready to... Sure he was.

I warned her 1000 times. He was going to... All right now, don't guess.

That's one thing you don't want to do at a time like this,

is guess.

I don't have to guess.

Neither do I.

He was drunker than seven mules skins on a Saturday night.

Come down to my place about an hour ago to get his cinch

fixed. He was so drunk, he couldn't even see straight!

Julie. Honey.

Julie,

you've got to talk,

you've got to tell us now.

Julie, you saw what happened,

you saw who it was?

Was it John?

Answer me Julie.

Was it John Doby?

Was it? Charlie! Let me be.

Tell me Julie, was it John Doby?

Was it?! Julie.

Julie, we got to know.

Charlie! I said

that's enough!

Come on, let's take her home.

I'll go with 'em.

-

It was him. Sure as thunder, it was him. They were fighting like cats and dogs.

I say we saddle up right now and ride out there.

No we don't, not til we know what we're doing. I know what I'm doing. Me too.

What are we waiting for? The facts! What do you mean the facts?

That's all the facts I need

That no accounts, son of a saloon woman killed my daughter and he's gonna pay for it.

If he killed her, he will. But we're not... Don't preach to me.

Don't none of you preach to me.

I'm in no mind for it. I didn't feel like preaching to him either.

I knew how he felt,

may be better than anyone except our mother.

18 years ago, I had brought Sally Anne into the world.

Now, I was putting her away.

I drove her back to my office and made a detailed examination.

And where did you find?

Several injuries beside the one on the head.

There were blows on the neck and shoulders, broken scapula, a couple of ribs,

but the one that killed her was the blow on the head.

Now,

doc I'm going to ask what might seem a foolish question.

Do you think the girl was murdered?

Oh. What kind of question is that?

An important one, seems to me. Has anyone asked it so far, Doc? Why, no.

You think she hit herself on the head? Is that what you're trying to say?

I never heard anything so ridiculous. Order!

It's a perfectly legitimate question, doc. Answer it

Yes. I think she was murdered.

That's your own personal opinion. Not medical.

Well, it's personal, I suppose, but...

Would the blow on the head, have killed her instantly? Possibly not.

She could for instance, have fallen off the bridge into a dry rocky creek bed.

Climb back up on the road and passed out and died.

Well, that's possible, however... Thank you.

Uh, wait a minute doc.

Let's just make sure one thing is clear.

You don't seriously think that Sally Anne fell off

a bridge that she had crossed 1000 times,

hit herself on the head,

crawled back up the bank and died. Now, you don't really think it was an accident?

Well, no, I don't.

I said it's possible and it is

not more than faintly possible though.

Thank you.

Of course, I'll recognize it.

It's a piece of the scarf Sally Anne wore to the dance that night.

And how did she wear it

On her head.

But it wasn't on her head when you found her in the road.

It was on the ground lying

near her body.

You know, of any reason why she would tear it in half.

Of course not. It was a favorite of hers.

John Doby tore it when he killed her.

Just a minute.

Never mind about John Doby, Mrs Tressitor. Stick to what you know about.

I know about that.

Well, if you know about it, then there's no point to these proceedings,

is there? we're all wasting our time. That's just what we are doing.

I've been telling them that for a week.

Nonetheless.

I rode a long piece of rough road to get here and I intend to see this thing ended.

Any more disorder and I'll clear the room. Go on Frank.

When did you last see Sally Anne alive?

-

At the dance.

She'd been outside with John,

come back and sat down by herself. I went over to see what the matter was.

She wouldn't tell me.

Of course, I

didn't have to ask.

I knew.

What was the trouble?

John Doby, naturally.

What do you mean? Naturally?

I knew she hated him.

Did she say that? Did she use the word hate?

Henry, you're out of order, you'll get your chance when the time comes.

Go on Frank.

She had a quarrel with John Doby.

She came inside alone.

Where had John gone?

I don't know.

How long did she stay at the dance?

Half an hour, as far as I know.

We didn't miss her til after the fireworks.

Nora,

let's not use the word hate.

But how did Sally Anne feel about John Doby?

She tried,

she tried every way she knew to get rid of him.

He was forcing himself on her.

She didn't know what to do.

She even left town for a couple of weeks,

went down to Saunders to visit with her cousin Millie,

hoping he'd get over it.

She came back just before the dance

and there he was

waiting for her.

He couldn't take no for an answer.

That's what they were arguing about that night at the dance.

Thank you,

your witness.

And you know, positively what they were arguing about.

I heard them when I

went out to watch Art Wyman setting up for the fireworks.

What were they saying?

I can't tell you, exactly. Not exactly - approximately. Give us a rough idea.

I can't tell you, I said.

I was across the yard with Art.

I could tell from their voice that she was angry.

So you guessed he was annoying her.

I know he was.

But you don't know, Mrs Tressitor,

because you were across the yard with Art Wyman.

And you couldn't tell what she was saying. You just testified to that.

I know how my daughter felt about him.

I lived with her for 18 years. I know her.

You felt close to your daughter.

Of course I did.

She was a few feet away. A man was annoying her. Why didn't she come to you?

She, she didn't do things like that. What do you mean?

She didn't come to us with the trouble. She,

she had a mind of her own.

She wouldn't let us in on things like that.

She was at an age where

they don't tell you everything.

But you said you knew all about her trouble with John.

You don't have to be told about a thing like that.

Who left the dance? Sally or John? After the quarrel who left first? John did.

Does that make sense?

What would you have done Mrs Tressitor? Suppose you were 18 years old,

you had an argument with your escort and you didn't want to go to your parents.

Wouldn't you leave?

Sally Anne wouldn't leave a dance because of John Doby for any reason.

Other girls would

if he was annoying them,

but Sally didn't.

So to sum it up,

you really don't know what they were quarreling about. You just heard angry voices.

And Sally

never told you directly

how she felt about John,

and she didn't do what most girls would have done.

Under the circumstances you suspect

on the night of the dance. Isn't that right?

No, that's not right.

That's not right at all. You're just twisting everything to suit yourself.

You may be able to browbeat a woman but you can't do it with me.

I could tell she was trying to get rid of him and I know he was drunk. Wait a minute.

You know, he was drunk. How?

How do you know he was drunk? Because I saw him.

That's how.

You left the dance about 10 o'clock?

Yeah, I had to go back down to my stable to get the wire for the fireworks,

to make the thingamajig that holds the skyrocket, you know.

Well, anyway, John was there

and I could tell the minute I looked at him and

he was drunker and a catfish in a whiskey still.

There was no question about it.

Well,

he'd come down there to get his cinch

fixed before riding home.

Well,

you got that done and

climbed on his horse and left.

A little after 10?

Uh, yeah.

I was watching the time because the fireworks had to be ready around 11.

He left the stable in a drunken state about an hour before the girl died.

That's right.

Mm.

Assuming that she was killed around 11.

Would that leave him enough time to get to the bridge?

Oh, more than enough, more than enough.

Thank you.

Your witness.

Mr York.

Your judgment is

crucial

here. I guess you understand that.

Yes sir.

And when judgment is involved,

prejudice, emotion, resentment and such become important because all of them

color judgment.

So how you felt about John Doby before all this happened

is material to this case.

I got no particular feeling about John Doby one way or the other, Mr Garth.

He was a good man, good citizen.

Honest enough.

I dare say there's not a man in that jury box

had any particular feeling about him one way or the other.

Why, the night Sally Anne was killed, in spite of everything, nobody was saying it was him.

Nobody was rushing off half cocked.

We was all out there at the Tressitor place just

waiting till little Julie could tell what she saw.

Give him much more time, he didn't have to hang around.

17 miles to the Montana line.

He won't take off.

How do you know?

He isn't the kind to run. He's more apt to stand up and spit in your face.

What are we waiting for?

Right.

I told you once we'll wait until Charlie gets Julie calmed down enough to make sense.

You didn't drag your feet much last spring when we run onto those cattle

thieves out in Saunders Valley. Had 'em swinging before the running iron was cold.

What's the difference between that and this?

A big one. We got them red handed,

but nobody saw John except for that little girl inside. If that's what she saw.

Frank

come in here.

Yeah.

Sometimes you get a feeling

like I had tonight the minute Doby walked into my stable. What kind of a feeling?

Something about him.

I don't know.

He had a cold look in his eyes

Could be he was fixing to do it even then.

That girl was the first thing he ever wanted that he couldn't get.

Liked to drove him crazy.

Well, did she tell you?

Yeah.

Well,

I suppose what we do now is we haul him off to the county seat

where he buys himself a fancy lawyer. Then we all sit down and watch the show.

He'd like that a lot.

Well, how about it Frank? Huh?

Now remember one thing. We're not a mob,

we're a committee.

Our job isn't vengeance, it's justice.

Now, ride over there as a committee,

listen to his side of it.

Give him his chance.

But we're the law.

Now, does everybody understand that?

What is this? What are you up to?

Hasn't word reached your side of town?

Did you see John tonight? I saw him before the dance.

Drunk? No, of course not.

Where is he now?

Home, I expect.

What is this about Sally Anne?

You know, then.

If you know, why'd you ask us?

I couldn't believe it.

I saw Doc Harvey in town and he told me.

He said you're,

you're blaming John for it.

Is that what you're up to?

We just want to talk to him. That's all

My little girl saw him do it.

That's a lie. If she says she saw him, she saw him. Why would he kill her?

She wouldn't have him. He's trash and she told him so right to his face, Charlie.

It's the truth. Why not face up to it?

What are you gonna do

Justice? No more? No less.

Now listen, all of you.

You lay a hand on John tonight and so help me! Shut up.

Now, now,

just put your mind at rest, Mrs. Doby.

Why, your boy will have his say.

We got no feeling about him one way or the other.

He's got his rights!

Why he's a citizen of this town, just like all the rest of us.

Why, all we want is to see that he gets a fair hearing.

I can't say I like John Doby, but

well, I didn't dislike him either.

The whole town felt pretty much the same way.

In a

fair election I don't suppose we'd have chosen him mayor, but

he didn't have no real enemies.

Come now, Mr York, you can do better than that.

You're in business with

Jeff Manion,

your friend on the committee here. Is that right?

Irrelevant, your honor.

Your honor, I'm trying to establish the feelings of the witness for the defendant.

All right, Henry, make sure it's relevant.

Now, you and Manion owned a ranch together, sold it to John Doby. Is that right?

That's right. For how much?

$2500

About a year after you sold it to him, after Doby had developed water on it.

You're aware that it was made an offer by an English firm,

Ellerbee and King.

-

I don't know anything about his business.

Well, you must be deaf, Mr York.

Or a hermit.

It was all over town.

Ah,

how much did they offer John for the ranch that you sold them for 2500?

I don't know.

$15,000.

And you never heard about it? Well, that's too bad.

You might have wanted to rejoice with him over his good fortune

or you might have hated him for it.

The whole point of this Mr York is that you are anxious to believe that

he was drunk and ready to kill the moment he came into the stable.

He was drunk, rolling drunk.

Come here. Look at this.

Now, recognize this saddle?

It's Doby's.

You say he mended the cinch.

This is the mend, isn't it?

Well, I

expect so.

You're an expert on drunks, Mr York.

Do you think a man who was rolling drunk

could have sewn a row of stitches like this?

Maybe?

Could you have sewn these stitches if you were rolling drunk?

Don't see why not.

If you're willing to pay for the whiskey, I'd be willing to find out!

Miss DeWitt.

You understand what the word motive means.

You understand why that's important to all of us here.

I think so.

If we are to listen to the defense, there was no quarrel.

Sally and John were the best of friends and he hadn't been drinking at all.

As a matter of fact, I think before this is over,

they'll contend that Sally wasn't found dead out there by the bridge.

It's all our imagination.

Now, Miss DeWitt, you and Sally

are good friends. Yes. And

she came down to Saunders to stay with you for

two weeks just prior to the Fourth of July dance.

Did she say why?

She said John Doby was in love with her and wanted to marry her.

She wasn't in love with him and she wondered what I'd do in her shoes.

She said she couldn't tell her parents

about it because they wouldn't understand her.

She wondered if it was wrong to marry a man you weren't in love with,

especially a man like John Doby.

And what did you tell her?

Well, I told her it was wrong.

She ought to tell him the truth,

come right out with it the minute she got home.

And did she agree to do it?

She seemed to,

but I can't be sure.

Why can't you be sure?

Well, she wasn't herself.

She was upset and worried.

I think she was afraid of John

and that was the mood she was in when she went home.

Afraid.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Your witness.

She was upset and worried.

Yes, sir.

And you think

it was because she was afraid of John? Did she say that?

No sir. You didn't ask her?

No, sir.

She spent about two weeks with you. Were you with her all that time

Almost.

But didn't she ever go off by herself?

Well, she went to town a few times. Where in town?

She didn't say.

And you didn't ask her that either.

Well, why should I? She had a few errands, I guess. None of my business.

Did she ever suggest you go to town with her?

Well, she...

What I'm trying to find out, Miss DeWitt, is whether or not she really wanted to be alone,

whether or not her errands in town were strictly personal.

Did you get that impression?

Well, yes, I guess I did at least one of those times anyway.

She didn't say where she was going but she wanted to be alone.

Thank you. That's all.

So she told you that John Doby wanted to marry her.

What did you tell her?

I said if she married John Doby, she could forget her name was ever Tressitor.

That's what the fight was about. And that's why he killed her.

We haven't decided that yet.

Well, I have!

He killed her!

This whole thing is crazy. What are we here for? My little girl saw him kill her.

All of you know that.

What are we trying to do here?

Twist the knife?

Make fools out of Amelia and her mother?

You all heard the evidence!

He had that piece of bloody scarf.

His face was a mess of fingernail scratches. Charlie. Why hide it?

I'm tired of playing games.

I'm not ashamed of what I did. None of us are. Charlie, I told you that's out.

We got to him and his face was a mess of fingernail scratches.

Guilt, murder, written all over it in blood, right there for anybody to see.

That piece of handkerchief, we found in his cabin behind the stove.

Bloody!

Her blood on it.

She fought him.

She fought for her life.

And he killed her, right in front of her little sister. Charlie.

Charlie, that's enough now.

I'm not gonna apologize for what I said. Everybody in this room knows what happened.

I got no excuses.

Easy enough for the rest of you to play this crazy game.

It wasn't your daughter out there in the dust.

All right, Charlie,

we all understand that.

Come on now.

I'm sorry, your honor.

Your witness.

Julie told you it was John Doby?

She did.

Just like that?

Like what? In those words, it was John Doby.

Near as I can remember. That's not near enough, Charles. This is very important.

Where is Julie now?

Home.

She hasn't been the same since it happened.

Wonder it didn't drive her out of her mind. The sight of it.

She hasn't spoken since this happened. Is that right?

Yes.

She

uh uh,

not since she told us what she saw anyway.

She told her what she saw and she latched into silence. Hasn't said a word since?

Right.

Now, Charlie, this is very important.

Did you ask her what she saw or did you say? Was it

John Doby?

What's the difference?

A lot.

To a little panicky girl!

She could hardly have invented John Doby out of her head.

But you could have invented him.

And she might have said yes, just to keep from answering any questions.

Nobody invented him. She said his name right out.

I asked her, and she said it was John Doby.

And those are the last words she said.

All right, Charlie, that's all.

Charlie,

has Julie ever lied to you. No.

Any reason why she would lie about this?

She saw it happen and she told the truth.

Thank you.

The prosecution rests.

He stopped by my house, just after he left the dance.

But before he went to the stable to fix the cinch? Yes.

He said he wanted some linen thread

and I told him to go to York Stable.

That isn't why he came by though.

He said he felt poorly,

that he had quarreled with Sally Anne,

and that he felt sick inside.

What was the quarrel about?

She pleaded with him all evening to marry her. That's a lie. You're darn right.

I won't sit here and listen to lies.

Who are you gonna talk about lies.

She,

she pleaded with him to marry her and he wouldn't.

You miserable, cheap, no-good...

Now you keep quiet or

get out of there. All right. I will get out.

Charlie, don't make a fool of yourself.

Well, nothing in the book says we got to have a 12 man jury in this kind of a trial.

Go ahead. Henry.

Mrs Doby. You heard the testimony about John wanting to marry Sally Anne.

He did, but he changed his mind.

He said she was

anybody's girl.

Your witness.

You heard what your attorney had to say a while back about

emotion,

prejudice and bias, Mrs. Doby?

I did.

Isn't it true that your opinion about everything in this case

about the committee,

the town, about me,

about Sally Anne Tressitor

is colored,

distorted and twisted by hatred? No!

You want to destroy us, don't you?

You want to just destroy this town. Leave it a shambles.

You want to make its leading citizens look ridiculous and contemptible.

I want justice for my boy.

No more, no less.

And I want it so bad, I'm putting it in your hypocrite hands.

Maybe I do hate you.

Maybe it does eat into me the way you can come to call, big as life,

pat me on the back and call me Rosanna.

Then cut me cold on the street the next day. Maybe that does hurt.

-

I can shake that off.

I'm used to it.

But I'm not used to seeing my son

strung up on the king beam of his own barn

with no chance to defend himself.

I'm not used to that.

All I want

is for all of you to face the truth about my boy.

He did not kill that girl.

Of course, Sally Anne was my patient.

I brought her into the world,

taken care of her family as far back as I can remember.

Did she confide in you?

In what way?

Well, she didn't take up her problems with her parents to

any great extent so far as we can learn here.

Did she discuss them with you?

I couldn't say.

Anything between a doctor and a patient is privileged and confidential.

Now, doc about a week ago, I had to make a decision

whether or not this fracas would be worth the pain

that it would cause.

And I decided

for several reasons that it would be. Now you have to make the same decision.

The whole question of motive in this case hangs on what we're talking about right now.

And nobody can force you to break what you feel to be a professional ethic.

I can only ask you to

because it's that important.

And I would have to say no.

All right,

Dr.

Lamson

of Saunders Crossing, doesn't agree with you.

I have a copy of a letter he wrote you while she was down there.

It's dated June 30th. Would you like me to read it?

No, I would not.

Doc,

you know why Sally went down to Saunders, don't you?

It wasn't to get away from John Doby. It wasn't to see her cousin Millie.

It was to see the doctor down there.

For the same reason. She came to you.

Now, what did she ask you to do?

She was in trouble. She needed help.

That's not true.

What are you talking about? That's a lie.

I'm sorry, Mrs Tressitor.

Perhaps you'd rather leave before I continue.

No,

no, I won't leave. No.

Now Doc,

she asked you to help her out of a serious fix, didn't she?

Yes. Why did you tell her?

Just what Doc Lamson did.

If the man responsible wouldn't marry her, she better find someone who would.

Who was the man?

There was more than one possibility.

When did she come to you?

When she came back from Saunders, the day before the dance.

You're witness.

No questions.

I was walking along here

on this path from my house to the north road, long about 11 o'clock,

fixing to get to the schoolhouse before midnight

in time to clean up after the dance.

I got about here

when I saw him.

Who?

Mr Doby and Miss Tressitor.

That's this side of the bridge.

Yes, sir. By a quarter mile or so.

Put an X there, please.

All right now,

sit down.

What were they doing?

She was bandaging up Mr Doby.

Why, what had happened?

Well,

there was a lot of fireworks and things going off, and his

horse had spooked and bucked him off in a barbed wire fence.

He was cut up pretty bad.

When I got there, she was tearing her scarf in half to make a bandage for him.

You saw the scratches?

You saw her use a piece of a scarf as a bandage?

Yes, sir.

Well,

why didn't you speak up during all the excitement

when they were running out to the bridge?

I didn't know why they was all rushing out.

I didn't know anything had happened to Miss Tressitor.

When I

heard about Mr Doby,

it was too late to say anything,

anything

anybody'd want to hear.

Your witness.

You wouldn't lie about this, now, would you Jethro? No. But you are lying, aren't you?

No, sir. Then, you're not telling the truth.

No, sir. You mean no, you're not telling the truth or yes, you are lying.

Come now, Jethro, which one is it?

I only know what I saw Mr Sturgess. Henry Garth.

He put you up to this. He cooked up the whole story.

No, sir. He's lying and you put him up to it. Frank! You paid him, you did something.

She'll tell us what happened,

Julie.

It was John Doby.

I saw John Doby and my sister.

It was John Doby.

That's who I saw.

It was John.

Doby.

At the bridge.

John Doby hitting my sister.

Hurting Sally.

Let me talk to her.

Leora. Now, honey...

Leora! Charlie.

Just be quiet.

Now,

Julie,

I want you to tell the truth.

For me.

Never mind what Papa says.

Just tell the truth.

It was my fault, mom. It was my fault.

Julie tell us what happened.

She took my pony when she left the party.

I ran after her.

She wasn't supposed to ride Spud.

You told her not to.

I yelled at her when she was on the bridge.

And then when she turned around and looked back,

all the rockets went off

and sputtered up

and she fell off.

If I hadn't yelled

at her,

I'm sorry! I'm sorry!

Oh...

I won't have very much to say.

The testimony. the evidence has

pretty much said it for me.

The issue is whether the law

badly executed, miserably administered,

by ignorant self seeking judges,

corrupt

attorneys and sheriffs, bigoted jurymen.

Whether

this kind of law, bad as it is,

is better than a law

made and executed by

13 men

who conceive themselves to be the fountainhead of justice.

That's what this farce, this circus, this ridiculous proceeding

that has no legal basis and of which no record was made,

meant.

Anything I say beyond this is

worthless.

I hurt my friend.

I hurt this town.

I only ask that you

please remember

my reasons for doing it.

I don't care now

what you decide, if you find John Doby guilty.

So be it.

It's on your conscience

and it'll stay there.

It's off mine.

You're a spellbinder, Garth.

I'll give you that, greatest confidence man in the world. Sit down.

You got everybody so upset. Even little Julie didn't know what she was saying.

What call you got to.. Shut up!

No point in not going out.

We've got a verdict already.

No objection, I'll spell it out.

All right,

how say you?

Not guilty.

I'm

sorry.

I can't ask you to forgive us.

Henry,

you mind if I walk back to the hotel with you?