Rape of the Lock

The U.S. Constitution outlaws coerced confessions. And an accused person has a right to refuse to answer self-incriminating questions. But what if the "question" consists of a forced haircut?

Gaylord Neal, 25, facing trial for a grocery stickup in Philadelphia, was out on bail there last January when a hooded holdup man collected $181 at the Topside Tavern, fired a shot in the ceiling. In March, a hooded gunman got $109 at Hagerty's Tavern; minutes later police collared Neal near by. At his feet were a bag containing $109 and a loaded pistol that police say fired the shot at the Topside Tavern.

To build an airtight case, the cops aimed to show that Neal had worn the hoods that were discarded near both holdups. Their method was to match hairs on the hoods with hairs on Neal's head. Armed with a court order from Common Pleas Judge Edward Griffith, the police were about to clip Neal's tresses when his lawyer, Milton S. Leidner, foiled them with a restraining order obtained in another court. The Constitution "intends that no man be forced to incriminate himself," says Leidner. When Judge Griffith overruled him, Leidner made a deal. Borrowing the judge's scissors, he snipped seven chunks off Neal's head, locked them in the judge's safe pending an appeal.

Leidner faces obstacles. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in 1944 that the privilege against self-incrimination applies only to verbal questions, not to compulsory physical or mental examinations. But things are changing fast. In Rochin v. California (1952), for example, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the conviction of an alleged drug addict because the evidence against him was obtained by forced stomach pumping. It is anomalous, wrote Justice Felix Frankfurter, "to hold that to convict a man the police cannot extract by force what is in his mind, but can extract what is in his stomach."

Whether or not this holds for a forced haircut is questionable. But as Frankfurter wrote in another opinion: "Due process cannot be imprisoned within the treacherous limits of any formula."

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