Word: mosleyism
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...morning in 1964 in New York City's Queens County. Rupolo's murder clearly looked like the gangland variety, which usually defies solution. This time, though, the killers had not displayed their customary efficiency in disposing of the corpse. Moreover, Queens County Assistant District Attorney James C. Mosley was convinced that they had made other errors too. In 1967, he brought a Long Island Mafia lieutenant, John ("Sonny") Franzese, and three members of his "family" to trial for Rupolo's murder...
...prosecutor is a lonely man fighting impossible odds. His key witnesses are afraid to testify. The opposition's maneuvers force him to present his case to the jury like "a movie run too fast, with a lamp too dim and half the frames chopped out." According to Mosley, the case marked the first time in 20 years that Mafia defendants had been brought to trial for murder in New York City. The book, most of which first appeared in LIFE, shows just how difficult it is to obtain a conviction in such cases. It also reminds the reader...
Friends of the Family. Mosley, now 40, is a man whom Mills describes as having "a great, almost warlike hostility for criminals-a hatred that is an outgrowth of, and never overshadows, his love for the law." It is almost as if he knows, as the trial begins, that the process of law to which he has devoted his life will probably set the defendant free. First comes the jury selection. "I need twelve men who can agree unanimously that the defendants are guilty," says Mosley. But if the defense gets one man who refuses to cast a guilty vote...
...trial, Mosley competes with a team of four lawyers for the defense. The courtroom is packed with "family," friends who laugh and whisper insults when Mosley raises objections. To further isolate the prosecutor, defense lawyers win a motion to have his principal investigator, Detective Joseph Price, removed from the courtroom on the pretext that they might call him as a witness. The book also strongly implies that judges are often favorably disposed toward sustaining defense objections, perhaps partly to avoid the embarrassment of having the verdict set aside later because of an error in procedure...
...Mosley is careful not to say that World War II could have been avoided. He is also cautious about suggesting alternative lines of action. His scenario is not what should have been done but what was done. His interest is to show that generally it was deplorable...