Little Charade?

It took a Raleigh, N.C., jury 78 minutes last summer to agree that the state had not proved that convicted Burglar Joan Little had murdered her guard with an ice pick during a jailbreak. Was the case as weak as that swift verdict implied? Not at all, claims, of all people, Little's attorney, Jerry Paul. Paul told the New York Times last week that though he thinks Little is innocent, the acquittal proved less about justice than about the ineptness of the prosecution and the power of $325,000, which the defense spent on the case. The judge contends the money made no difference.

The prosecutors, Paul claims, ignored evidence that might have swayed the jury: a clipping of a comic-strip version of an Old Testament episode that Little had used as a bookmark in her Bible, which was found after the killing. The clipping, which prosecutors insist they have never seen, showed an Israelite woman, Jael, luring an enemy into her tent, then driving a nail into his head while he slept. The fact that the prosecution did not use the strip, contended Paul, a persistent court critic, only bolstered his cynicism. Given an undistinguished prosecutor and a clever defense attorney with money, a trial, Paul says, can become a "charade."

Such talk may go over well on the lecture circuit, where Paul has become something of a celebrity. But some lawyers believe that Paul's remarks may hurt Joan Little. An appeals court is expected to rule next month on the conviction that originally put her in jail. This time around the judges will doubtless examine the case very closely to make sure that no one will be able to complain about their justice. If the conviction is ultimately upheld, Joan Little will face up to ten years in jail.

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