Lenny Bruce Trial(英)

his briefcase and preparing to leave the courtroom before Bruce finally gave up on his request.

　　Verdict and Sentencing

　　The court did not announce its verdict in the Bruce trial for another 99

days. Bruce spent some of the intervening period firing his lawyer and writing a bizarre letter to Judge Murtagh. The letter included Bruce's analysis of the of the "literal" and "contemporary" usage of his "purple vocabulary" condemned by the state. Bruce told the judge that "Ninety-eight percent of the words I used are correct words in Webster's Third New International Dictionary." Bruce ended his missive by claiming that his desire was not "contempt"——"communication is my desire."

　　November 4, 1964 was decision day. With his dismissed lawyers absent, Bruce stood to ask the court to reopen his case. He told the judges that he wanted the chance to explain that the alleged "masturbatory gestures" were really "the gestures of benediction——I did a bit on Catholicism." He begged the court, "Please let me testify……Let me tell you what the show is about." He seemed increasingly desperate:

　　Don't finish me off in show business. Don't lock up these six thousand words. That's what you're doing, ……taking away my words, locking them up. These plays can never be said again. You are finishing me up in show business.

　　Judge Murtagh had had enough. "We must conclude now these proceedings," he said sternly. He announced the court's judgment, finding both Lenny Bruce and club owner Howard Solomon "guilty as charged." The court's per curium opinion concluded that Bruce's act "appealed to prurient interest," was "patently offensive to the average person in the community," and lacked "redeeming social importance." One of the three judges, Judge Creel, dissented.

　　On December 16, Bruce, wearing a blue-striped T-shirt over worn blue dungarees, entered Courtroom 535 for the last time. Judge Murtagh asked the standard question, "Is there any reason why sentence should not now be imposed?" Bruce started to give his reasons——and the reasons continued for an hour and two minutes. He told Judge Murtagh he "might be a bit biased." He accused Richard Kuh of perjury for his distortion of his performance. He claimed to have new evidence that required his acquittal. He rambled on about Supreme Court obscenity decisions, even quoting Justice Holmes. Finally, he asked the judges to "just hear my act once."

　　Murtagh sentenced Bruce to "four months in the workhouse." Bruce remained free on bond during the appeal of his conviction. But Bruce would never see his final vindication from the appellate courts. As he obsessed over his legal problems and devoted most of his time to the filing of civil suits against his tormentors, prosecutors and judges, Bruce got heavier and sicker and more pathetic. On August 3, 1966, Bruce died of a morphine overdose in his home in Hollywood Hills, California. In 1970, New York's highest court affirmed a lower appellate court's reversal of Howard Solomon's conviction.

　　After Bruce's death, one of his New York prosecutors, Assistant District Attorney Vincent Cuccia, expressed regret over his role:

　　I feel terrible about Bruce. We drove him into poverty and bankruptcy an then murdered him. I watched him gradually fall apart. It's the only thing I did in Hogan's office that I'm really ashamed of. We all knew what we were doing. We used the law to kill him.

　　POSTSCRIPT:

　　In May 2003, a group of persons concerned about the fact that Bruce's 1964 conviction in the Cafe Au Go Go trial remains on the books launched a campaign to convince New York Governor George Pataki to issue Bruce a posthumous pardon. The group includes scholars, lawyers, and entertainers such as Robin Williams, Dick Smothers, and Margaret Cho. In a letter to Pataki, the group argued that a pardon of Bruce would show the state's "commitment to freedom——free speech, free press, and free thinking." On December 23, 2003, Governor Pataki pardoned Bruce. It was the first posthumous pardon granted in

the state's history. Governor Pataki described the pardon as "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."

　　The pardon effort is being spearheaded by two authors of the recent and comprehensive book on the Bruce trials (The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon), Ronald Collins and David Skover. For more information on the pardon effort, see: Pardon Lenny Bruce.

　　The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon by Ronald Collins and David Skover was the most important source for information contained in this account. Other books on which this account is based include Ready for the Defense by Martin Garbus, Foolish Figleaves? Pornography in——and out of——Court by Richard Kuh, Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet by William Thomas, and Lenny Bruce's autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People

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