Here is a photo feature from the April 1947 issue of Coronet magazine. It's uncredited, but I'm quite sure that some of these photos are by
Arthur "Weegee" Fellig.
Every day, against the dramatic background of courtrooms and police stations, men and women come face to face with the cold, immovable figure of law and order. Their reactions, prompted by innocence or guilt, have created some of photography's most compelling and meaningful portraits. From the grim files of courtroom scenes as recorded by top news photographers, K.S. Safranski submitted hundreds of pictures to Coronet. Now, after careful selection, the editors bring you the best of those courtroom pictures woven into an exciting pattern you will not easily forget.
For men who break or ignore the law, there is no hiding place, no turning back. His hands eloquently expressing self-pity, this man confessed to killing two people. "I wish I'd kept still." he said.
But while one regrets his confession, another bewildered soul is truly penitent. Sobbing, "He done me wrong," this woman admitted killing her husband in a fit of temporary insanity. She was acquitted.
Held in the tortured grasp of their turbulent emotions, criminals often resort to vain excuses, flimsy attempts to lessen their punishment. Here, the accused murderer on the left points a symbolic finger at her innocent neighbor, who was implicated in a similar case. In a graphic demonstration, innocence sits calm and unmoved as proved guilt talks and points and squirms its way into prison for life.
In courtrooms everywhere, there are moments like this which tug at your heart. Though he was freed for feeding pigeons illegally, this kindly old man could hardly be blamed for his tears of indignation.
There are ugly moments too- and ugly tales, like the one in which this unshaven, unkempt man was involved. For attempting to kill a seven year old girl, he was sent to prison for forty years of his life.
No matter what the charge against him, you can often tell the worth of a man by watching him in court. Errol Flynn, on the right, was the picture of dignity as he listened while his innocence was proved...
...but this killer, dead today, succumbed completely to uncontrollable emotion during his trial. Like symbols of the law itself, strong arms held him. He was sentenced to the electric chair.
In the courtroom, lawyers themselves cannot always resist their clients' outbreaks of feeling. Here a baliff intervenes in the struggle for a card- exhibit A- in a hectic courtroom drama.
A verdict of freedom for an innocent man evokes the happiest of courtroom scenes. At the news of his acquittal, this defendant patted his lawyer's cheek in an outburst of well-earned joy.
Outside of the courtroom too, emotions may explode into violence. Here, an impatient father ripped his daughter from his wife's arms, in a court fight for his right to custody of the child.
And even when there is humor in the courtroom, it is a pathetic, grim sort of humor- as in this case of a drunk who was given the choice of jail or a glass of castor oil. He took the castor oil.
In the courtroom's supreme moment of tragedy, it is often possible to watch a man go from life to death in a few seconds. Here, smiling and self-assured, a killer faces the court. The judge's voice begins...
It rolls out over the silent room. The criminal listens. He bites his lip. His eyes are far away. The judge's voice drones on...
You are hereby sentenced... The condemned man catches his breath sharply, trying to grasp the cold fact of the situation...
...to die in the electric chair. This killer is crushed. This is his reward for murder.
And may God have mercy... He hears no more. The people are avenged.
But in or out of the courtroom, no criminal hurts himself alone. He cuts a wide, heartbreaking path. Here, an hysterical mother, restrained by her attorney on the left, reaches in anguish towards her two sons, but they are destined to be executed for murder. And this woman, who committed no crime, who is free and innocent herself, must face life anew, haunted by a painful memory through the endless years.
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